The LGBTQ community doesn't need Dean Cain's weak tea support

The LGBTQ community don't need Dean Cain's weak tea support.

As with every year, the LGBTQ community has to deal with the anti-gay hate group Family Research Council's 'Values Voter Summit.' The event never ceases to shine a huge spotlight on the hypocrisy of FRC and other conservative groups who claim to be fighting for morality, while having no problems using underhanded tactics to do so.

This year involved a controversy of a different sort. Dean Cain, who portrayed Superman on the series Lois and Clark (1993-1997)  made an appearance to promote his film, Gosnell.

According to The Advocate:

 Prior to Cain’s appearance at the event, where he was promoting his film Gosnell, in which he plays the detective who put abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell behind bars, GLAAD and other LGBTQ activists and allies called him out for appearing at the event along with the likes of anti-LGBTQ people including Mike Pence, Michele Bachmann, Tony Perkins, Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips, and so many more.

Since Cain has in the past been vocal about his support of LGBTQ rights, he was called to the carpet for appearing at a conference sponsored by the Family Research Council, whose has worked steadily to undermine LGBTQ rights since its founding. In fact the Southern Poverty Law Center designated FRC to be a hate group due to the inaccurate claims it has made about gays, including how we supposedly recruit children.

However, nothing said to Cain could convince him that his appearance at this summit was wrong. Not even when GLAAD  and LGBTQ activists engaged him in Twitter. And to top it off, while he was at the summit, he labeled those calling him out as intolerant.

When the moderator of his Cain’s panel asked him if he’d “taken pressure” on social media for appearing with the hate group, Cain replied: “Yes. Certainly. I take that sort of heat and abuse every single day but it doesn’t bother me in the least…it doesn’t make me mad, it just shows people’s intolerance towards listening to another opinion. Just the fact that I’m here, just the fact that I’m here people were blowing me up all day long with the most ridiculous things that you could ever here. Talk about intolerance. It’s ridiculous. I take heat. It doesn’t bother me, I welcome it because I sleep well at night. I know I’m doing something that matches my convictions and my heart and I’ll happily defend the things I say and I stand for.”

To put it nicely, that pissed me off to the "highest levels of pissivity" and led me to challenge Cain on Twitter. What you are about to read is our exchange (errors included). To be fair, I started the engage by referencing FRC's past citation of the junk science of discredited researcher Paul Cameron.

When he tweeted me back, it was on:

And that was it. He didn't talk to me anymore.

Is it too much to ask why a celebrity who publicly claims to support LGBTQ rights and equality is appearing at a conference sponsored by a group whose goal is the undermining and wrecking of LGBTQ rights and equality? Seriously? Why is the LGBTQ community being branded as intolerant because we demand integrity from those who claim to have our back.

There is an unfortunate mindset out there that the LGBTQ community should be happy with a symbolic pat on the head from folks who seem to think that they are doing us a favor.  What I mean is this:

In exchange for being "allowed" to live our lives, we should say nothing when religious adoption agencies want our tax dollars while still being able to discriminate against us. We should be silent when pundits interview folks who have made all sorts of nasty claims  about our community (gays are a public health hazard, gays want to destroy Christianity) knowing fully well that they wouldn't get such a welcomed response if their claims were about other groups such as African-Americans or people of the Jewish faith.

We should say nothing when our lives are reduced to fevered sexual imaginations of bigots or our families are erased and our children are omitted because of the prejudices of self-designated adjudicators. And we shouldn't demand accountability from those who invoke our name or struggle for a nice soundbite or good publicity.

To do anything else than what has been designated for us, without our say-so, means we are "intolerant," as if the price to pay for our allowed survival is the surrender of our dignity and self-respect.

Well forget that. That's not how we are going to do this. And that spirit, Mr. Cain, you don't get to treat us like we are your "side chick." You don't get to jump on our side and then to the side of those who stand in the way of our rights.

In other words, we don't need you and we certainly don't need your sorry-ass support. We have gotten this far without you, so we certainly aren't going to miss you.