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| Dan Savage |
Recently, Savage said the following:
"every dead gay kid is a victory for the Family Research Council" and that "Tony Perkins sits on a pile of dead gay kids every day when he goes to work"
While I wouldn't have made the point so gruesomely, Savage is somewhat right.
FRC and Perkins have contributed - whether intentional or not - to the problem of depression and other negative behaviors amongst gay youth (lgbts in general) with their pointed attempts to undermine pro-gay information and visibility. Then they exploit these problems of negative behaviors by claiming that they are indicative of being gay rather than the results of homophobia. Homophobia, by the way, which is shielded by their efforts under the guise of religion.
Needless to say, Perkins was not happy. On the Mike Huckabee show, he said the following:
As my teenagers would say, he has some issues. He is a man with some real deep-seated issues ... and Dan Savage is nowhere near, he's a hundred and eighty degrees from the positions that we have taken. It's wrong and I will tell you this, we are pursuing everything possible to deal with him because he is out of control.... This is the bottom line, Mike: is that if you don't embrace and celebrate homosexuality and everything associated with it, then you are intolerant. And the truth of the matter is, let's just be very, very truthful, and that's what we deal in is the truth, that even is society embraced homosexuality, there would never be that sense of self-fulfillment because it's outside the way God created man and woman. And that's the bottom line. They cannot erase that, even if they get every law on the books changed, it will never change that.
And there lies Perkins' dodge. It's not about "celebrating homosexuality," it's about not lying and spreading propaganda.
The fact of the matter is that if you do lie on gays (which FRC has done on many occasions) and you do spread hateful propaganda about gays (which FRC has also done), you are in fact intolerant.
No matter how many times you cling to God's name, you can't get away from that simple fact.
Savage was quick to address that point (using one of my posts, by the way):
I have issues with people who would deny me and other LGBT people our full civil equality for no legitimate reason. I have particular issues with high-profile haters who encourage parents to reject their LGBT kids, doubling their already quadrupled risk for suicide. I have issues with people who say that LGBT people are "pawns of the devil." I have issues with people who compare LGBT people to terrorists. I have issues with people who falsely link homosexuality and pedophilia. I have issues with people who suggest that a law calling for the execution of gay people merely "upholds moral conduct."
Sue me, Tony. I'd love to see you talk about my "issues" on a witness stand.
I realize that this isn't how you think the world is supposed to work, Tony. You believe—and you're old enough to remember a time when—people like you were free to say vile and disgusting things about people like me without anyone objecting. Certainly people like me weren't allowed to call people like you out. You still believe you should be free to lie about me and other LGBT people with absolutely impunity—we're all pedophiles and terrorists and Satanists—and that we should have to shut up and take it because... well, I'm not sure why you think we're not allowed to respond when you lie about us. Maybe that's something we could get to the bottom of during the depositions.
Personally, I think Perkins is just bluster. He wouldn't dare take on Savage in a court of law.
But still, I can always hope.
9 comments:
Good article and I love this paragraph: "I realize that this isn't how you think the world is supposed to work, Tony. You believe—and you're old enough to remember a time when—people like you were free to say vile and disgusting things about people like me without anyone objecting. Certainly people like me weren't allowed to call people like you out. You still believe you should be free to lie about me and other LGBT people with absolutely impunity—we're all pedophiles and terrorists and Satanists—and that we should have to shut up and take it because... well, I'm not sure why you think we're not allowed to respond when you lie about us. Maybe that's something we could get to the bottom of during the depositions."
~StraightGrandmother
Alvin, your article brings up a point that I keep making and other gay liberals keep ignoring.
liberals and gays both will eat their own the minute one doesn't play exactly up to some "group think" standard they create.
You use a polite phrase "While I wouldn't have made the point so gruesomely, Savage is somewhat right." Other liberals are tearing him apart for using such "mean" and "graphic" language towards the homophobic bigot.
Last nights debates are another immediate case in point. MSNBC basically said Obama was useless as a presidential debator, and the gay blogs like JMG were calling him everything but manly. saying they gave up etc. The right wing blogs have been chortling over this behavior by the dems.
Here is the reality, Managing Democrats and Liberal types in general is like herding cats. They will each do what they want and demand that YOU do what they want or they will "go home".
Republicans generally move in lockstep behind their candidate, believing and repeating everything the candidate says.
we really do have to stop eating our own and shooting the messengers; Dan Savage is right and has every legal right to speak his opinion using rhetoric which amplifies our disgust with our enemies.
Perkins etal has used more than rhetoric and metaphor in their speeches and actions against us. Its time we do more of the same to them.
I look forward to the day Tony or one of his pals has to take the witness stand and explain to a judge just how Satan is involved in all of this.
I always use this argument whenever the religious right try to malign the LGBT lifestyle. If Jesus said that marriage was between a man and a woman, why was Jesus never married? No girlfriend, fiance, or wife. And he hung out with 12 guys. That is usually enough to make their heads explode
As a straight woman, I think Dan Savage was dead on the money. I feel like people involved with the FRC have gone out of their way to bully and mentally brutalize LGBT people, youths, etc. I think they need a good slap in the face or kick in the proverbial nuts. I think they need to just open their mouths and admit it really has nothing to do with God at all. God, incarnate (Jesus), NEVER said one thing against LGBT people. Never. Not once. So I would LOVE to know where this man finds all this useful information on how Jesus feels about LBGT people. Show me ONE verse. I am pretty sure there isn't one. I've looked. Another wonderful theory is they are afraid of their own sexuality and take it out on people who aren't. Let's face it, how many of my gay family and friends feel confused about it? Not one. They know who they are. I host a radio show called the Fruit Flies on www.gshradio.com. We have a ton of shows and they all speak to issues that are going on right now in the world. My show is obviously the "straight" angle. People need to open their eyes and see these issues. As far as I am concerned we need to all take a stand and educate people out there.Anyone is welcome to tune in to my show and talk about the issues. Every Wednesday at 1 P.M. we want to know how people feel out there. It lasts an hour. be heard! LGBT or Ally. Stop the hate and bigotry! We need to hold these people accountable.
I respect anyone who has the moral courage to openly oppose ANY of the intolerant lunacy that the right-wing extremists spew every chance they get these days. I especially applaud opposition to the right-wing Christian extremists who wouldn't know Jesus Christ if he came up to one of them and introduced himself. Folks who call themselves "Christian" should at the very least know what the term means. When you profess to be a follower of Christ, and yet you preach hatred and bigotry and intolerance and condemnation every chance you get, you are in fact, a wolf in sheep's clothing, one of those "false prophets" the Bible talks about coming around these days.... The Book of Matthew, 12:34 says, "O generation of VIPERS, how can ye, being EVIL, speak good things ? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh..." These particular varieties of born-againers, who criticize and condemn every chance they get are the vipers referred to in this scripture, and they don't even know it. There's another verse in the Bible that talks about such self-proclaimed "experts." "Calling themselves wise, they became as fools." Romans 1:22. But the real kick in the shorts, as far as I'm concerned, is found in the Book of Mark, Chapter 12, verses 29 thru 31....here Christ speaks of Commandments # 1 and # 2....LOVE your God, LOVE your neighbor. Religious fanatics who hide their TRUE nature of mean-spiritedness and hateful bigotry behind a moth-eaten cloak of moral supremacy, and self-proclaimed purity, are HYPOCRITES in the TRUEST sense of the word...
Genuine love is first revealed by acceptance, genuine hatefulness and bigotry is first revealed by intolerance.
Stay TRUE to your SPIRIT Dan Savage. I suspect you have more of the TRUE nature of The Son Of God in you, than all these zealots combined.
J
14People who identify themselves as Christians should at least have a basic understanding of what the term means....
Christ himself said that the two GREATEST commandments were to love God, and to love your neighbor. There is no love to be found in the prejudices of misguided intolerance and pure mean-spiritedness. The extreme right-wing of Christianity has found a welcome and a home with the extreme right-wing of the Republican Party, and the two find themselves joined at the heart by their shared hypocritical values of bigotry, arrogance and self-proclaimed moral authority.
I applaud Dan Savage on having the courage and integrity to stand firm on his beliefs and guiding principles. He exhibits more genuine strength and character than all of these ignorant bigots masquerading around as followers of Jesus Christ combined.
As an American citizen who loves this land and the concepts upon which it was founded, it fills me with hope and pride each and every time I come across accounts of people standing up for their beliefs and values wherever and whenever they are threatened by the arrogant, self-righteous voices of those who would seek to silence them forever.
As a wise man once said..."The only thing necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing." I don't believe that's a problem Dan Savage will ever have.
But anyone who spreads hatred and tells parents they should reject their children during an already emotional and hard time such as puberty has indeed had a hand in their suicide. Parents who tell their children they are not normal and put them in gay therapy, have indeed had a hand in their suicide. I agree one hundred percent. If I hadn't had someone there to tell me it was going to be ok I would have killed myself. Guess what that person wasn't my parents.
“He exhibits more genuine strength and character than all of these ignorant bigots masquerading around as followers of Jesus Christ combined”
I think more importantly, they don’t even want to follow Jesus' teaching any more than they want to follow the teachings of a liberal -- whose only “agenda” is to cement world conditions that maximize peace on Earth for ALL.
I think of Perkins and his ilk as being Christians for the sole purpose of getting a get-into-heaven-free card. Once you “accept” Jesus in your heart, not even God could prevent you from getting into heaven. Nor would a God who is Love want to. After that, anything goes, and their deeply ingrained survivalist tendencies hastily rise to the surface and they mistake the love of self -- Pride -- with the love of God.
So they feed their egos by persecuting what they consider to be the most sinful members of society under the delusion that they’re doing “God’s” will by convincing themselves that the success of our equality movement really would destroy the world.
For them, any sin against us, is in reality, a sin against Satan, and the stamping out of we “evil” gays increases their sense of superiority.
So to be treated as equals, and “God’s Judgment” does not occur, they would feel that they were no longer special -- destroying their world -- of superiority. Shattering their pride and every ideological belief associated with it. Causing them to question everything they thought they knew.
The ironic part is that they are infinitely more special than what they’re pride deludes them into thinking. God is not complete without every single one of us, as each of us is a unique expression of God.
So it would seem that for some, they really do believe they are “called” to do God’s work by helping to eradicate our "sinful" agenda.
So they’re getting God’s message of Love alright, it’s just grossly, GROSSLY misinterpreted, at least for those who love hating us more than they love those of whom they are trying to protect from us.
What they don’t realize, though, is that God can’t make you forgive yourself. When they die and realize the extent of hell they’ve wrought on this earth, and that it will be a LONG time before they are able to atone for it all, they will surely be in a guilt-ridden state of hell.
That’s my theory, anyway.
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