Bradley Manning situation exposes wanton homophobia of those on the right

At the center of last year's Wikileaks controversy (which is still ongoing) was a solider by the name of Bradley Manning.

It was speculated that Manning provided Wikileaks the classified information it put out.

There was one more about Manning which you should know. He is gay.

This little fact got many members of the right extremely giddy as they attempted to make Manning the poster child of why Don't Ask, Don't Tell shouldn't be repealed. Many of them, especially the religious right, presented Manning  as a "radical angry homosexual"  who, when he was not considering sexual reassignment surgery (an untrue claim), was striking at the military for its anti-gay policy:

It turns out that Manning is an extreme homosexual activist, whose fury over the services' homosexual policy may have led him to publicize highly classified documents about the wars. According to the U.K.'s Telegraph, Manning has an extensive history of campaigning for gay, lesbian, and transgendered causes and sources say he may have even been considering a sex change when he leaked military secrets on the Internet. - Family Research Council

"The key point -- which is starting to get some more attention now -- is that not only was he openly homosexual, but he bore a grudge against the Army for apparently not letting him be completely open about his perverted sexuality." - Cliff Kincaid, Accuracy in Media

Even if DADT was Manning’s excuse: This isn’t about DADT – this is about an individual who was unfit for military service. Gays served before Clinton introduced DADT (is that what makes liberals so mad? That they have to address that their own party created this legislation therefor compromising their narrative about being so pro-gay rights?) and gays will still serve, regardless the outcome of the ruling. The emotion in the real world doesn’t match the perspective self-importance and no one cares about your sexual orientation. . . The only thing that matters is whether or not you can be stripped down by your commanders, rebuilt, and operate as part of one cohesive unit is strictly prohibited. The military does one thing and they do it well: fight. - Dana Loesch, Big Journalism.

The out-of-the-mainstream media has collaboratively kept the focus on the sex criminal, Julian Assange, and off the guy who has committed actual treason, the homosexual soldier Bradley Manning, who sold out his country in what may turn out to be fit of gay pique. - American Family Association's Bryan Fischer

As much as I hate to rain on the parade of homophobic nonsense (oh who am I kidding), news has just come down from MSNBC that the U.S. military has not been able to link Manning with Wikileaks:

U.S. military officials tell NBC News that investigators have been unable to make any direct connection between a jailed army private suspected with leaking secret documents and Julian Assange, founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. 

The officials say that while investigators have determined that Manning had allegedly unlawfully downloaded tens of thousands of documents onto his own computer and passed them to an unauthorized person, there is apparently no evidence he passed the files directly to Assange, or had any direct contact with the controversial WikiLeaks figure.

Granted, I am not defending Manning because speculation is still out there in regards to just what happened.

But that is the point. Everything is pure speculation to this point. No one knows what exactly Manning did or why he did it. The only thing that we knew was that he was a possible suspect.

To spin a theory that simply because Manning was gay  he leaked secrets in order to attack the military's DADT policy is an irresponsible stretch. And to demonize the lgbts, who have served and continue to serve bravely, for Manning's alleged actions - without even waiting to confirm his guilt -  is beyond irresponsible. It's disgusting.

But it's business as usual with these folks. And that's even sadder. Those who bear the standard of  decent journalism (Loesch) or the standard of "true Christian values" (Family Research Council, Kincaid, Fischer) should aspire to higher ground rather than to the level of pigs in the mud.

Related posts:

One News Now and Cliff Kincaid demonstrate homophobia, ability to lie

Family Research Council distorts British article in attack on gay soldier