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Republicans Painted Themselves Into Gay Corner

Trish

When the Karl Roves and Andrea Laffertys of the world decided that the best way to get out the vote was to fire up the masses about gay rights, they never considered that some of their own were gay too. It’s kind of like forgetting that some Republicans are black, and one or two are poor. Easy to do, but a mistake nonetheless.

Houston Chronicle: “A party that harps on sexual orientation, as the Republicans now do, forces many of its own into furtive, destructive behaviors”

When reality intrudes into their rhetoric, the dissonance stings — hard. The Houston Chronicle notes the consquences for a party, “which since the 1980s has, culturally and legislatively, demonized gay men and women.”

By preoccupying the party with homosexuality…Republican strategists have helped force out or into hiding numerous lawmakers who served the party well. Instead of disclosing their orientation and getting on with their work, gay or bisexual Republicans typically have felt compelled to choose between personal integrity and political survival.

Yet heterosexuality is hardly a bedrock Lincolnesque value. [Sen. Larry] Craig’s own constituents happily re-elected him for years — despite rumors about his orientation — before he began opining on others’ sexuality.

An even better example of this dynamic is the successful career of former U.S. Rep. Steve Gunderson, a Wisconsin Republican who told voters he was gay while still in office. Then he continued working diligently for the causes they cared about most.

…Gunderson backed the balanced budget amendment. He supported President Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts, approved the first Gulf War and promoted the dairy industry. Rural, conservative voters re-elected him eight times in a row for his conservative values before he chose not to run again in 1996…Gunderson never betrayed voters or himself.

In contrast, since 1980 the Republican Party has lost at least three once-closeted House members to scandals…But the scandals were at least partly fueled by each congressman’s need to deny his sexuality. Craig, now frantically trying to deny his guilty plea, may be the latest on the list.

…a party that harps on sexual orientation, as the Republicans now do, forces many of its own into furtive, destructive behaviors.

So while those caught are passing around blame — in Craig’s case to newspapers, lying cops, and wide stances — they should examine their own willingness to jump on the hate train, and partake of the payoff at the end of the line.

GOP Moral Relativism: Sen. Craig Must Resign But Sen. Vitter Can Stay

Jon Ponder

The clamor for Sen. Larry “Wide Stance” Craig to resign is growing by the minute among Republicans in Washington. The senator’s inadvertent self-outing in an airport men’s room in June has rendered him too morally impure to remain in the GOP.

So what are the moral dictates behind the decision that Craig should go but Vitter can stay? There aren’t any. It’s all politics.

But when it was revealed in July that Sen. David Vitter’s number appeared in the D.C. Madam’s call list, these same Washington Republican elites readily accepted his apology for his “sins.” No one among the capitol’s conservative elite called for Vitter to step down.

Whatever happened to the Republicans’ vaunted “moral absolutism” on matters like these?

We have two Republican senators, both vocal supporters of “family values” — both have admitted to engaging in illegal activities. One pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from an undercover cop, the other got nabbed paying for sex, allegedly had a child with a prostitute and reportedly has a fetish for diapers.

So what are the moral dictates behind the decision that Craig should go but Vitter can stay?

There aren’t any. It’s all politics. The governor of Vitter’s state is a Democrat, and she would be eager to replace him with a Democrat. The governor of Idaho is a Republican, so his seat is safe. It’s that simple.

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Journalistic Ethics: When to Out a Guy

Buck Banks

In his “Everyday Ethics” column, Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute mulls over the question of when it is appropriate or germane to a story to identify a public figure or politician as gay. He notes that there were intimations that the latest scandalized pol was gay almost a year ago:

Last fall when a gay activist and radio show host claimed that Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, was secretly gay, newsrooms around the country agonized over how and what to cover. Since Roll Call ‘s revelation Monday evening that Craig was arrested in a sting operation in a men’s restroom at the Minneapolis airport, I have been fielding calls from reporters asking if and when journalists are justified in covering the sexual orientation of a politician.

Because Craig pleaded guilty, McBride argues, his alleged gayness is certainly part of the story. But on the axis of reasons to cover a person’s assumed sexual orientation, Craig also qualifies on several other measures:

  • Hypocrisy: It is fair game if a certain politician has consistently voted on public policy issues that appear to undermine the rights or the political agenda of gay and lesbian citizens and if there is evidence that he is gay himself. I actually support a higher threshold. Merely voting a certain way on issues doesn’t quite cut it. The only time the hypocrisy argument really works is when an individual has railed against gays and lesbians as a campaign platform. We don’t call women who vote against public policy that would be beneficial to other women hypocrites.
  • Honesty: If a guy says he’s not gay and it turns out that he is, he’s a liar and voters deserve to know. Here again, I believe a higher threshold is in order. Has he deceived a spouse? Has he actively created a false impression?
  • Infidelity: We don’t care if he’s gay. We care if he is having affairs and breaking his marriage vows. Then focus on the infidelity, not the sexual orientation. We’ve cared about philandering ever since the days of Gary Hart.
  • Criminal behavior: This is the clearest justification. If a politician is engaged in or charged with behavior that is deemed to be against the law, then we usually care. But go one step further and explain why such behavior is criminal, especially when it involves tapping ones foot in a men’s room.
  • The impact the rumors/story have on the voters and politics: We don’t care whether he’s gay. We report on the effect the story has on the political scene. This is a cop-out, a great way to back into a salacious story without taking responsibility for the information at the heart of the story. News editors, executive producers and political hacks, take your pick. If you’re going to cover the Senator Larry Craig story, find a journalistic purpose for the space and time and energy it consumes.

LBJ Visited New Orleans Within 24 Hours After Hurricane Betsy

Jon Ponder

“This is your President!” Johnson announced. “I’m here to help you!”

Hurricane Betsy came ashore at Grand Isle, Louisiana, on the evening of Sept. 9, 1965. Like Hurricane Katrina would do 40 years later, the surge devastated New Orleans, flooding parts of the city, including the Lower Ninth Ward, for days.

One striking difference between Betsy and Katrina was the response of the president and the federal government. Less than 24 hours after Betsy hit and New Orleans was flooded, Pres. Lyndon Johnson was in the city, making surprise visits to shelters, offering encouragements to the city’s newly homeless residents.

Here is a transcript of LBJ’s remarks upon landing at the New Orleans airport at 3 p.m. that day, via John Edwards ’08 Blog:

Today at 3 o’clock when Senator Long and Congressman Boggs and Congressman Willis called me on behalf of the entire Louisiana delegation, I put aside all the problems on my desk to come to Louisiana as soon as I could. I have observed from flying over your city how great the catastrophe is that you have experienced. Human suffering and physical damage are measureless. I’m here this evening to pledge to you the full resources of the federal government to Louisiana to help repair as best we can the injury that has been done by nature.

And then there is this:

In the Ninth Ward, Johnson visited the George Washington Elementary School, on St. Claude Avenue, which was being used as a shelter. “Most of the people inside and outside of the building were Negro,” the diary reads. “At first, they did not believe that it was actually the President.” Johnson entered the crowded shelter in near-total darkness; there were only a couple of flashlights to lead the way.

“This is your President!” Johnson announced. “I’m here to help you!”

The diary describes the shelter as a “mass of human suffering,” with people calling out for help “in terribly emotional wails from voices of all ages. . . . It was a most pitiful sight of human and material destruction.” According to an article by the historian Edward F. Haas, published fifteen years ago in the Gulf Coast Historical Review, Johnson was deeply moved as people approached and asked him for food and water; one woman asked Johnson for a boat so that she could look for her two sons, who had been lost in the flood….

It’s hard to imagine George W. Bush visiting a shelter so soon after a disaster — or rather it is impossible to imagine because it would never happen.

Homophobia Inc.: Message of Hate Raises Hundreds of Millions of Dollars – Tax-Free

Jon Ponder

Homophobia has flourished in the Bush era, both as a potent political tool — many people believe George Bush would have lost Ohio in 2004, and thus a second term, if Karl Rove hadn’t made sure there was an anti-gay initiative on the state ballot — and as an industry unto itself. In just one year, the top 10 Christianist groups that promote homophobia raised over $400 million in tax-free dollars:

  • Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN)
    Founder, CEO and Director: Pat Robertson
    2004 Revenue: $186,482,060
  • Focus on the Family
    Founder and chairman: Dr. James C. Dobson
    2005 Revenue: $137,848,520
  • Coral Ridge Ministries
    Founder and President: Rev. D. James Kennedy
    2005 Revenue: $39,253,882
  • Alliance Defense Fund (ADF)
    President, CEO and General Counsel: Alan Sears
    2004 Revenue: $17,921,146
  • American Family Association (AFA)
    Founder and Chairman: The Rev. Donald Wildmon
    2005 Revenue: $17,595,352
  • American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ)
    Founder and President: Pat Robertson, Chief Counsel: Jay Sekulow
    2005 Revenue: $14,485,514
  • Family Research Council (FRC)
    Founder: James C. Dobson, President and CEO: Tony Perkins
    2005 Revenue: $9,958,115
  • Jerry Falwell Ministries
    Founder and Director: Jerry Falwell (deceased)
    2005 Revenue: $8,950,480
  • Concerned Women for America (CWA)
    Founders: Tim and Beverly LaHaye
    2005 Revenue: $8,484,108
  • Traditional Values Coalition (TVC)
    Founder and Chairman: The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon
    2005 Revenue: $6,389,448

All of these groups use homophobia as a fundraising tool, but while some address a wide range of social issues, four of them — Focus on the Family, AFA, FRC, TVC — are one-trick ponies that focus all or most of their activities on promoting homophobia. (The late Falwell and CWA arguably could belong to this group too.) These four groups raised $169 million of the revenue in 2005.

If fundraising for these four hate groups remains flat each year from 2005 through the end of 2007, they will have raised about $500 million among them in three years.

Tax free.

A 1996 Study Suggested That Many Homophobes Are Frustrated Gays

Jon Ponder

News of rabidly anti-gay Republican Sen. Larry Craig’s arrest for lewd behavior in an airport men’s room has highlighted, once again, a signature phenomenon of our era: highly placed, secretly queer rightwingers living on the down low.

“Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies.”
– Study

Bisexual men like Sen. Craig and Rev. Ted Haggard would not feel compelled to create public personas that are homophobic if homophobia were not such a powerful dynamic in the country and in our politics these days.

But why are so many people drawn to bigotry against gays? One theory suggests that homophobes have unresolved issues about their own sexuality and transfer their internalized anger, frustration and shame about their own attractions onto people who are gay. In 1996, this theory was tested at the University of Georgia:

The authors investigated the role of homosexual arousal in exclusively heterosexual men who admitted negative affect toward homosexual individuals. Participants consisted of a group of homophobic men (n = 35) and a group of nonhomophobic men (n = 29); they were assigned to groups on the basis of their scores on the Index of Homophobia …. The men were exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual, and lesbian videotapes, and changes in penile circumference were monitored.

They also completed an Aggression Questionnaire… Both groups exhibited increases in penile circumference to the heterosexual and female homosexual videos. Only the homophobic men showed an increase in penile erection to male homosexual stimuli. The groups did not differ in aggression. Homophobia is apparently associated with homosexual arousal that the homophobic individual is either unaware of or denies.

A single study is hardly conclusive but the idea that homophobes are deeply frustrated bisexuals contains a germ of common sense. Why would a secure and happy straight person be obsessed with gay people and what they do in bed, and why would that obsession be exhibited as hate and even rage?

H/t: Mr_Smartypants

Another Man Killed for Being Gay; Murderer Says He Was Serving God

Trish

We wish Ryan Skipper’s death were the last one we ever had to hear happened because someone was so threatened by the idea of homosexuality that they killed. But it wasn’t.

Mangum, who described himself as “definitely not a homosexual,” said God called on him to “carry out a code of retribution” by killing a gay man because “sexual perversion” is the “worst sin.”

A Texas man said he was doing God’s work when he randomly targeted and brutally murdered a 46-year-old Southwest Airlines flight attendant named Kenneth Cummings Jr. earlier this summer.

Terry Mark Mangum, 26, told [Brazoria County newspaper] The Facts in a jailhouse interview Friday that he had targeted and killed Cummings because he was homosexual and that he stabbed him in the head. He called his actions “God’s justice.”

…Mangum told The Facts he went to a known gay bar in Houston that night to specifically target a homosexual and said that Cummings, “just happened to be the one that I bumped into.”

…After 600 volunteers spent several days searching through high weeds, dense brush, dump sites and even an abandoned golf course, a bone was found in a dried-up pond. Searchers originally thought the bone belonged to a cow, but after looking at it again, searchers dug around it and found charcoal, Miller said. As they dug deeper, they found a burned body that later was confirmed to be Cummings, Miller said.

The murderer in this case was obviously not only hate-filled but deranged.

“I believe I’m Elijah, called by God to be a prophet,” said 26-year-old Terry Mark Mangum, charged with murder June 11. “…I believe with all my heart that I was doing the right thing.”

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Why You Should Care About New Orleans

Trish

On the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall near New Orleans, all the ink was about the progress, and lack thereof, in restoring the city and the rest of the Gulf coast.

We live in an era of failed leadership. Corrupt and incompetent politicians. Thieving CEOs. Priests as pedophiles. Media monopolies. A president’s unpopular, intractable war. Steroid-enhanced sluggers.

Two years later, Ron Fournier says it’s time to start learning the real lessons of Katrina, and they’re not about wind or water.

We need to wake up to the fact that we are all just one big storm or disaster away from being one of those people whose calls for help were answered by voice mail.

Katrina is old news, right? New Orleans — who cares? It’s just another big city with big problems, bad luck and bad weather. Get over it.

Actually, please don’t.

Don’t ever get over the tragedy of New Orleans. It’s your tragedy, too.

What happened to this historic city two years ago is more than the obvious cautionary tale of what might befall your community after a natural disaster or a terrorist strike. It’s also a sad reflection of what’s happening now — today, in your hometown and across an anxious and ailing nation…

If this country can’t help New Orleans rebound — if we and our leaders break the promises made to its citizens — what are the odds your health care will ever get cheaper? Your bridges safer? Your schools better?

“New Orleans is an incubator for all our nation’s ills,” said historian Douglas Brinkley, author of “The Great Deluge,” a book about Katrina.

“If you study what’s going on in New Orleans, it’s just an exaggerated version of what’s hitting us in many areas of the country,” he said. “Just pick your topic.”

OK, let’s start from the top.

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