Friday, January 08, 2010

From 'Fistgate' to 'NAMBLA-gate' - The attacks on Kevin Jennings get stranger and stranger

No matter how much they are being ignored, the attacks on Obama appointee Kevin Jennings are definitely red meat for the fringes on the right.

That's the only way to explain the absolute ludicrousness of Cliff Kincaid's latest attacks on Jennings.

Earlier this week, I wrote how Cliff Kincaid of AIM (Accuracy in Media) claimed that the outcry over the Ugandan anti-gay bill is really a dodge to cover up the supposed "building attention" over Jennings.

Kincaid has published a series of reports called NAMBLA-gate: The Strange Case of Kevin Jennings.

I hear he was going to call the report "Fistgate," but apparently Big Government had allegedly copywrote the name.

Now in part one of his "report," Kincaid said the following:

It would appear that the purpose of the orchestrated controversy over the proposed law in Uganda is to divert attention from the real scandal involving Obama Education Department official Kevin Jennings and his praise for the founder of the modern gay rights movement, Harry Hay, a supporter of adult-child sex.

Kincaid was referring to an old fake controversy where some members of the right were claiming that Jennings advocated pedophilia since he praised Harry Hay, a founding father of the gay rights movement who later voiced support for NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association).

But Jennings only praised Hay for his early work in gay rights. He never gave one word of support about Hay supporting NAMBLA.

Kincaid's bad claim is important to mention because part two of his special report pretty much crucifies Hay, analyzing his supposed connections with NAMBLA and also claiming that he was a communist.

Part three of Kincaid's report makes the claim that Hay dabbled into the occult.

It's pretty wacky stuff made more bizarre by the fact that nothing in it has a thing to do with Kevin Jennings.

Kincaid is picking up a distortion about Kevin Jennings (that he supports all of the actions of Harry Hay) and running with it,  but he's like a football player who has picked up a fumble and is now journeying with rapid speed to the wrong goal post.

It's already been established by various sources (including myself) that Jennings was praising Hay's early work for lgbt rights. He didn't even mention Hay's alleged later support of NAMBLA or any of the other thing that Kincaid alluded.

So whatever Hay did or didn't do, whatever political affiliation he swore to, or whatever he dabbled in is irrelevant. It has nothing to do with Kevin Jennings.

And let's not forget the fact that in the past, AIM had to retract an ugly smear falsely accusing Jennings of being a pedophile.

But to some of the so-and-so's on the right blogsphere, none of these explanations mean anything.  If one would google the name "Kevin Jennings," he/she would find all sorts of interesting stories, connections, and claims probably wilder than that of Kincaid.

I guess when some people are so determined to be blinded by lies, all you can do is pray for them.

Editor's note - I have created a post giving a full list of all of the posts I wrote detailing the smears against Jennings. Check out The War on Kevin Jennings - Chronology of a Failed Smear Campaign if you have a free afternoon and a strong stomach.






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1 comment:

CPT_Doom said...

To be honest, Harry Hay was a Communist in the 30s, and that was one reason that he was forced out of the leadership of the early gay civil rights movement in the 50s. IIRC Hay and Will Greer (Grandpa on the Waltons) were a couple and both active in the Party when they were told to quit being gay or quit being Communist. Greer left the Party (although was still blackballed for his participation later) while Hay briefly married a lesbian Party member to conform. Hay later left the Party and his wife to reclaim his gay identity.

None of that, of course, has anything to do with Jennings.