My
top 10 anti-gay statements posted last Sunday got such a reaction that I would like to post a sequel. Not necessarily a top 10 list but a view on other anti-gay statements out there from the past and present and the personalities determined to make like hell for lgbts. This is to remind people that the narrative of lgbts being pushy, angry, hypocritical, intolerant folks is a myth. We weren't exactly the ones who started this mess. And though Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown, the folks at the National Organization for Marriage, Peter LaBarbera, and other various groups and entities like to portray us as the aggressors, as the following will demonstrate, they aren't exactly innocent or blameless.
Pat Buchanan - Buchanan, the "respected" journalist and former White House employee who probably single-handedly gave the 1992 Presidential election to Bill Clinton after his "culture war" speech at the Republican National Convention held that same year hasn't exactly been a friend to the lgbt community
In all honesty, Buchanan, as the link
shows, doesn't seem to care for anyone not fiting his "specifications" of a true American, but his verbal attacks on the lgbt community gone beyond the pale of ugly. They are best typified by this missive thrown at those suffering from HIV/AIDS in 1983:
The poor homosexuals -- they have declared war upon nature, and now nature is extracting an awful retribution (AIDS)."
or 1990:
"With 80,000 dead of AIDS, our promiscuous homosexuals appear literally hell-bent on Satanism and suicide,"
or 1993:
"AIDS is nature's retribution for violating the laws of nature."
Donnie McClurkin - Don't act shocked. You know I was going to include him. After his recent uncalled for
attack against the lgbt community last week, McClurkin definitely makes this list. His comments against young gay men of color were as follows:
“I see feminine men, feminine boys, everywhere I go … No, don’t applaud ‘cuz it ain’t funny. It’s because we failed. I see them everywhere.”
I'm having flashbacks of that little boy in the
Sixth Sense.
Of course in his screed, McClurkin didn't want to leave the sistas out. He had this to say about young lesbians:
"These young girls are just as bad as the boys in homosexuality, you don't see it. They can hide . . . but there are some evil young hard butch girls."
McClurkin has in the past claimed that he was molested and that led to him being gay. He has also said that through the "power of Jesus," he is no longer gay.
I say two things.
1. When someone like McClurkin says that they have been "delivered from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ," that usually means they are going to go through life more celibate than a monk in coma.
2. If by chance McClurkin ever announces that he is dating a woman or about to marry a woman, I suggest that we all stop what we are doing and start looking for Rod Serling. Because we will definitely be in the
Twilight Zone.
Matt Barber - And then there is the Liberty Counsel's Matt Barber, the author of the following statement on why anti-discrimination protection for lgbts would be a
bad idea:
“Imagine, if you will, a 280 lb linebacker who likes to wear a dress and high heels and lipstick, you know comes to church wanting a job at the front desk as a receptionist and they turn him away because they don’t feel that that represents their values or the image that they’re trying to hold at that church, under ENDA they could be held accountable for discrimination against that individual.”
In 2005, he lost his job at AllState Insurance in part for penning an anti-gay column. Since that time, the story was spun that he was fired due to his beliefs and he has parlayed that narrative into cinchy gigs with Concerned Women for America, the Liberty Counsel, and a book deal. However, like all religious right stories of gay persecution, there are details omitted (such as Barber using AllState Insurance equipment to write his column or him identifying himself as an employee of AllState in the same column). To paraphrase critic Mary McCarthy's famous statement on playwright Lillian Hellman, just about all of Barber's tale of being a victim of the "gay agenda" is a lie including the words "and" and "the."
But seeing that he predates Carrie Prejean as a religious right figure of alleged gay persecution, let's all pray that no freaky videos or pictures of Barber pop up.
Despite what they say, gay men are not
that desperate to see naked flesh.
By now we have all heard about the Manhattan Declaration put out by various religious right figures and groups urging, among other things, non-cooperation with laws that in any way recognize same sex couples.
