From The National Post, 5/14/05:
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/issuesideas/story.html?id=7fe2e2d4-d9f0-4029-b51a-fd2f9f7420f4
Gay and not so proud
Bradley Miller
National Post
Canadians may be split on the issue of gay marriage.
But in other respects, this is a tolerant country.
The era when gay men and women felt ashamed about their sexual
orientation is fading quickly.
The same, sadly, is not true in the United States.
As a trio of cases in that country shows, being gay is still seen as a
mark of shame.
And for those gays who happen to also be conservative, it is a source
of hypocrisy as well.
Let's start in Spokane, Wash., where the city's 54-year-old Republican
Mayor was recently caught in a gay online chat room trying to pick up
a 17-year-old boy with promises of sports memorabilia and a city hall
internship.
Making matters more inconvenient for Mayor James E. West is his
legislative record:
During his tenure as Republican majority leader in the Washington
senate, he attacked every gay-rights measure he could.
In the 1980s, he even attempted to bar gays from working in schools.
True to form, when the Spokane city council recently tried to extend
some basic benefits to domestic partners, he threatened a mayoral
veto.
Likewise, consider the recent "Gannongate" affair in Washington, D.C.
Until last winter, Jeff Gannon was a reporter [a fake one] for the
far-right Talonnews.com, notorious for lobbing embarrassingly soft
questions at hard-line Republicans, and denouncing Democrats in all
the usual ways.
He's also written about homosexual issues, leavening his pieces with
sneering references to the "gay agenda" and "practising homosexuals."
But not long ago, Gannon was outed as a gay escort and the owner of
the Web site hotmilitarystuds.com.
His online profile described him as a "hardcore top"; pictures
accompanied.
Overnight, his conservative benefactors disappeared and Talonnews, now
defunct, took his stories off-line.
Until their closeted personal lives became public, these two men posed
as loyal right-wing soldiers in America's culture war.
But even when they had nothing to hide, a culturally learned tinge of
self-loathing shone through.
West, for one, told his chat-mate that he doesn't like "the massive
political agenda" of most gays.
Likewise, in this month's Vanity Fair, Jeff Gannon tries to explain
why the gay rights movement has attacked him so energetically:
"People like me are a threat to them because there are things that are
more important to me than sexual issues ... That's their whole world.
It isn't my whole world."
Fine.
The dens of drugs and sex that pepper most urban gay villages are
off-putting for many people, gay and straight alike.
But it's a spurious cop-out to pretend that this is all there is to
the "gay agenda."
Indeed, the most important "sexual issues" for most gays right now are
questions of basic family values: marriage, benefits, adoption rights,
hate crimes, anti-discrimination laws.
In most of the United States, the battles in these areas are still
pending.
In some areas, what progress has been made is now being reversed in
state legislatures, town councils and school boards -- thanks in no
small part to the political agitation of the likes of these two
hypocrites.
Even worse is Arthur J. Finkelstein.
He's one of America's best political tacticians and the brains behind
many of the most outspoken opponents of gay rights.
Finkelstein has worked for a parade of fire-breathing social
conservatives, including former senator Jesse Helms.
In these circles, Helms' assertions that gays are "disgusting people"
who lead "immoral lives" are commonplace.
For the Helms crowd, naturally, same-sex marriage is anathema.
But not, apparently, for Finkelstein.
A few weeks ago, he married his male partner of 40 years in a civil
ceremony in Massachusetts, where the couple lives with their two
adopted children.
Safe in a blue state, Finkelstein has been able to buy his family some
security from the hateful ripples of the politicians he helps elect.
Last month, when Finkelstein launched a massive "Stop Her Now"
campaign against gay-rights supporter Senator Hillary Clinton, former
president Bill Clinton suggested the Republican Finkelstein might be
the victim of "some sort of self-loathing."
That's likely.
At almost 60, Finkelstein -- like West -- is old enough to have
internalized the bald-faced bigotry of pre-Stonewall America.
Canadians tend to go on a bit much about their tolerant ways.
But better to bore people with your piety than assault them with
intolerance.
How fortunate we are to live in a country where gay men do not make
careers out of defaming their own kind.
---
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Scientology crooks: http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html
http://PerkinsTragedy.org http://www.rightard.org/
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