Tuesday, June 01, 2021

Black conservative whines about being 'canceled.' Wants us to forget how she used her gay son to hide her group's homophobia

Editor's note - in celebration of LGBTQ Pride Month 2021, I pledge to be as mean-spirited and as vicious to the religious right and the anti-LGBTQ industry as possible while tight-roping expertly on the thin line of good taste. And hopefully tonight's post is the beginning.


Kay Coles James

Thanks to my good friend Zack Ford (whose very engrossing substack, Fording The River Styx, you should be signed up for right now), I was made aware of the following tweet:


From 2017 to earlier this year, James was the head of the far-right group The Heritage Foundation. And it's perfectly alright if some of you haven't heard of her. Right-wing groups generally like to keep black conservatives either hidden or under wraps unless they find some use for them, such as speaking ill about African-Americans in general (why hello there, Candace Owens) or leveraging their ethnicity to speak against a Democratic position on black issues.

But in 2019, James did something extra special which no doubt made her a star in the eyes of the conservative industry. Or as I put it in my response to her "I am a black person with her own mind and that's why the left tried to cancel me" tweet:



And yes, I got the "receipts." Hell, I wrote about it in 2019:

James was recently embroiled in a controversy involving Google. The company invited her to be a member of its Artificial Intelligence ethics board. However, her inclusion was protested so venomously by Google employees and other people that the company ended up disbanding the board. James was interviewed earlier this month by Shannon Bream of Fox News because of the Google controversy. She claimed that she wasn't homophobic because she has a gay son.

Homophobe? I don't think so. You know, I, I, I've never talked about it publicly, but I have a gay son whom I love beyond all measure. And he and his community have welcomed me, have helped me grow, have helped me to understand. There’s no hatred there. That’s my child you are talking about.

Oh really? I then asked how much growth does she show by sending out the following false tweet against the Equality Act, a bill which would help her gay son:


I then said the following:

The page James links to spins all sorts of lies and horror stories about what could happen (but of course won't) if the Equality Act becomes law. The prediction of mayhem if a pro-LGBTQ law is passed is an old, but effective talking point of the anti-LGBTQ industry. But as it pertains to James, for someone who claims to have been welcomed and embraced by the LGBTQ community, she seems to be tone deaf as to the problems we face when it comes to discrimination. It's even worse when one sees how she is passing along information designed to undermine efforts to combat this discrimination.

Speaking of the Heritage Foundation, according to Media Matters:

The group has railed against LGBTQ equality for decades, including by supporting discrimination against LGBTQ people under religious exemptions, supporting the Boy Scouts of America’s ban on LGBTQ scoutmasters, and opposing marriage equality. Just this year, the group has hosted five anti-trans panels that pushed misinformation about trans people in an attempt to sway public discourse about trans-inclusive policies like the Equality Act. Furthermore, Heritage employs several extreme anti-LGBTQ figures, including Ryan T. Anderson.

And like just about every anti-LGBTQ group, the Heritage Foundation likes to falsely imply that gays are a danger to children

None of these assertions changed during James's short tenure, by the way.

So with all due respect, if anyone truly tried to "cancel" James, I doubt it has anything to do with her being a black conservative. Maybe some of us found it distasteful how she tried to psychologically pimp out her gay son.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

SMH. I'm so tired of the "I have a blank someone in my life so I can't be this or that". It's insulting and unoriginal and not an absolute. People need new material. And as contrary as it is to existing as a public figure in 2021, own your stuff. If those views really matter,own em. Stop issuing weak rebuttals and straight up lies as a defense. No one buys it anymore