Two weeks ago, the weekly warned readers about the encroaching powers of the “secretive” and “stealth” “Gay Mafia,” and now it's trumpeting the gays' “Enemies List.”

Hmm, the Mafia and Nixon, that's quite a portrait Time is painting.

To review, it tuns out the Gay Mafia is basically a group of wealthy and influential gay men, dubbed the Cabinet, who have teamed up to raise millions of dollars to give candidates running against anti-gay opponents, and to give to organizations and PAC's that are politically aligned with the men's agenda. So readers can rest easy about that.

But what about this new “Enemies List”? That sounds just as threatening as the Mafia.

The full headline to the Time piece by Alison Stateman reads, “What Happens If You're on the Gay ”Enemies List."" The article is about the on-going protests in the wake of California's Prop 8 passage which outlaws gay marriage. Specifically, gay rights activists are targeting donors who gave money to the pro-Prop 8 initiative. The key quote:

“My goal was to make it socially unacceptable to give huge amounts of money to take away the rights of one particular group, a minority group,” says Fred Karger, a retired political consultant and founder of Californians Against Hate. “I wanted to make the public aware of who these people are and how much they're giving and then they could make a decision as to whether or not they want to patronize their businesses.”

That's pretty much it. Opponents of Prop 8 are upset it passed and are increasing their activism. So what's up with the foreboding “Enemies List” talk, which conjures a particularly dark period from the American past?

Please note that Time put “Enemies List” in its headline and put it in quotes. Also note that the phrase “Enemies List” does not appear anywhere in the article. Meaning, Time editors simply pulled that catch phrase out of the air and assigned to the gay community.

Suggestion to Time: Change the misleading headline.