Monday, December 31, 2012

Dan Savage vs. 'Porno Pete' LaBarbera - it wasn't even close



In a video - which I am totally angry that I am only finding out about now, seeing that was made in November - Dan Savage calls out anti-gay bigot Peter LaBarbera and proceeds to pimp-slap him all over youtube.

And the most significant thing to me about this video? Savage didn't wait until LaBarbera attacked the gay community on a specific issue. With a little old fashioned truth telling, Savage called out LaBarbera and knocked down his lies without even waiting. He took the initiative to call out LaBarbera.

That's something we need to do.

The gay community shouldn't wait until LaBarbera (or the Family Research Council or Linda Harvey or Matt Barber or the National Organization for Marriage) pollute the airwaves with their latest attack on the gay community. That these folks are going to attack us is a given.

Just like Savage did, we shouldn't wait for the mainstream media to get the message right that these so-called Christian groups spread lies about us.  And most of all, we should stop complaining that they don't.

Rather, why don't we take it upon ourselves to do what Savage did - call them out with clarity, making sure to spotlight and highlight their hypocritical cries of "morality" by exposing their tactics, nasty semantics, and especially the way they rely on junk science and discredited studies to smear us.

Editor's note - Just in case you are wondering, that last part was a plug for my upcoming booklet How They See Us: Unmasking the Religious Right War on Gay America which will be available for free download on this blog on January 8.

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