I’ve always liked Kathy Griffin, but I’m actually a bit impressed by the serious tone she takes in discussing the Prop 8 case, and moreover, her willingness to call President Obama’s unwillingness to stop DADT discharges by executive order a “cop-out.”
I know sometimes people are reluctant to put celebrity activists on a pedestal, but after watching this interview, my feeling is more that Kathy Griffin actually Gets It, and not just because she has a lot of gay friends.
It’s so hard to tell. On the subject of DADT repeal (if it ever happens):
WASHINGTON—As Congress prepares to allow gay individuals to serve openly in the military, those against the proposed change voiced their concerns Monday, warning the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” could soon lead to strong, strapping American soldiers engaging in mind-blowing homosexual intercourse right on the battlefield.
“We’re sending our soldiers out there with a mission, and that mission is to protect this country,” said Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), one of many conservative politicians who staunchly oppose the change. “If this is repealed, what’s to stop all-night sex romps from breaking out while U.S. servicemen are hiding in a bunker, or crawling around an irrigation ditch bathed only by the light of the moon, or, say, the dozens of other situations I’ve already thought through in elaborate detail?”
“We can’t allow this to happen,” Gohmert added as beads of sweat collected on his brow. “It’s wrong. Sweaty male sex—no matter how erotic and uninhibited—is so wrong and so, so naughty.”
Yeah, it’s The Onion, but how is this different, exactly, from the bullshit anti-gay morons like Gohmert have been spewing on the subject? The piece is funny, but it pretty much reads like straight news.
(And yes, you should read it all, as you do not want to miss the John McCain quote at the bottom.)
If you’re a garden variety homophobe, you might think the prospect of DADT repeal only involves gays and super-sexy shower scenes. Oh, how wrong you are! Robert Knight is here from Coral Ridge Ministries to explain how DADT Repeal is like Vietnam times forced abortions times Roman lions times infinity:
On the gays in the military issue, the left is deploying its favorite weapon – implying inevitability. That’s the tactic that scares wobbly Republicans who fear they’ll be “on the wrong side of history.” They won’t, if they stick to respecting the military and upholding our God-given, transcendent moral order. They need to see through the liberals’ theft of the moral capital of the black civil rights movement. Is being black really the same as Fred sizing up Larry for “the crime against nature”?
What are Fred and Larry going to do to nature?! Are they going to drill miles down into Nature and cause her to erupt in some sort of spill that will kill off millions of other parts of Nature? That would be awful! Oh, wait, Robert Knight is worried that Fred and Larry are going to have consensual sex. Earth to Robert: Those two have been going at it for years.
Besides, whatever your position is on homosexual activism, this is first and foremost about ensuring maximum efficiency and combat readiness of our armed forces. It’s about giving our servicemen and women the best chance at victory and coming home alive. Injecting homosexuality into the barracks, showers, submarines and “diversity” training cannot possibly improve combat readiness or morale.
Maybe that would be true if our armed forces were made up of crusty old bigots like Robert Knight, but in the real world it’s not, and the troops don’t really care. They just want people who will do their jobs well and have their backs. Only sad, weak little homophobes like Robert Knight are worried about these things, and those aren’t the brave men and women we want in the best military in the world.
Anyway, ready for Knight to sound a bunch of wingnut alarms?
Forcing open homosexuality on the armed forces would destroy the volunteer military and bring back the compulsory draft. Since women are now deployed close to combat, and the only legal reason they are not eligible is their combat exemption, a new draft could include our daughters. And some would face pressure to have on-base abortions in order to complete their tours of duty.
The draft! Ladies fighting! Abortions! This is all so delusional, it’s mindblowing.
Chaplains would be the first victims of Mr. Obama’s homosexualization of the military, followed by anyone who violated “zero tolerance” policies for homosexual acceptance. Bible-believing Christians would quickly find themselves unwelcome in Barney Frank’s new pansexual, cross-dressing military.
Perhaps Knight doesn’t really understand what the hell military chaplains do. They’re not there to teach the troops about how fags are going to hell and how “aborshun are killin’ babies.” They’re there for spiritual guidance for the troops, in the situations the troops actually face. And newsflash, Bob: Not all the chaplains are bigots like you, because they’re forced to join the real world in ministering to people of many different religious backgrounds in the military. I’m aware that Bob Knight’s version of the Christian faith thinks that it has a personal ownership stake in the United States military, but sadly, that is not the case in this secular nation.
Note how truly stupid Bob Knight is here, also, in that he can’t make a coherent argument and instead starts making gay jokes about Barney Frank. Most teenagers I know have more moral authority when they speak, but if you’re a Fundamentalist, Knight’s probably the smartest one you’ve got, so whatever.
The military is a bastion of traditional values
Oh, like hell it is. Have you ever seen the Navy when they come in for Fleet week?
and symbolizes America’s strength and independence.
One of the things they fight for is our freedom from Robert Knight’s pig ignorance, actually. So yes. There are already many, many openly gay and lesbian servicemembers, and they fight for Robert Knight’s right to believe whatever intellectually malnourished bollocks he wants, every single day. What of equal honor has Robert Knight ever done?
One more wingnut alarm to sound, that of the Crying Masturbatory Fantasy About The Left That Actually Only Exists In Wingnut Minds:
Opening the ranks to open homosexuality will accomplish the left’s dream – undermining the military and transforming it into a wrecking ball against Judeo-Christian morality.
Robert: The fact that you can’t pronounce the words that great liberal thinkers use does not automatically mean they’re plotting against you, so get a bunch of paper towels, wipe up the puddle you’ve just left on the internet, and PLEASE, change your underwear. And no, you cannot sleep with the light on.
I love watching Rachel do this. In this clip, she and Joe Sestak discuss the weird, disturbed comments from Congressman Ike Skelton (Conservadem-MO), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, on DADT repeal. In case you missed it, Skelton doesn’t want to repeal DADT because he doesn’t want people in the United States to be talking about “gay” things, essentially, because it makes him feel icky or something.
This is Al Krieger, mayor of Yuma, Arizona. His masculinity is threatened by gay men:
Anyway, Al Krieger doesn’t really need to worry about “lacy-drawered, limp-wristed” gays in the military, because the kinds of gays who already serve in the United States military are the kind with the sort of training that would enable them to beat the hell out of sad sack men like Al Krieger with one hand tied behind their backs.
If you have a problem with Krieger’s comments, you ought to e-mail him at alan.krieger@yumaaz.gov.
P.Z. Myers, reacting to Tony Perkins’ latest caterwauling about DADT repeal (something about how the military will be “forced” to abandon religious myths about people changing their sexual orientation or something):
Oh, I believe you can change how people behave sexually, and this policy change won’t change that at all. Of course, forcing people to act sexually in ways which bring them no joy is also a great way to cause deep misery. I just look at all the tightly puckered smarmy jiveweasels inhabiting right wing Christian think-tanks, for instance, and see a horde of frustrated, tightly-wound self-flagellators ‚Äî it’s no wonder they so look forward to an afterlife in their death-cult, because this one is giving them nothing but priggishness.
Grin. I think “tightly puckered smarmy jiveweasels” may have to be a new catch-all tag for anti-gay fundamentalist leaders.
Bonus longer quote, from the same piece:
[W]hat about [Perkins'] claim that this change in policy will drive out good god-fearin’ gay-hatin’ soldiers and chaplains?
Screw them. Let ‘em go. We’re better off without those fundagelical frauds in the military anyway. And just think how much this will hurt their efforts to infiltrate and take over our military forces!
And in case you’re feeling some pity for good ol’ boys with a hatred for gays who’ll be forced to change their professions and leave a military career because they feel so deeply that the faggots need to be caged, don’t. Martyrdom is a very Christian ideal.
Of course, they only like the pseudo-martyrdom of being compelled to tolerate others. Voluntarily quitting a career isn’t quite a sacrifice on the scale that Matthew Shepard made, or comparable to the kind of persecution they’ve been perpetrating on gay citizens for a long, long time.
Nancy Pelosi and Patrick Murphy totally shoved it down everybody’s throats, and they didn’t even let the GOP establish a safeword first!
The amendment in the House passed 234-194, with five Republicans voting yea and at least 25 Democrats voting nay. Among the Republicans reportedly voting yea were Paul, Ros-Lehtinen, and Djou. Presumably the other two were Michele Bachmann and Steve King, as a joke. The other two were Cao and Biggert.
The repeal compromise, of course, passed out of the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier today by a vote of 16-12. Jim Webb, the only Democrat to vote against it, is apparently quite a moron. Susan Collins, however, crossed the aisle to vote with the Democrats, proving that she has a shred of a soul left. It will now go to the full Senate.
To celebrate this next step in the repeal of the bigoted Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, a repeal supported by almost eight out of every ten Americans, I’ve posted this video of Louie Gohmert and other poorly educated bigots in the Republican party weeping and wailing on the House floor about how scared they are of gay dudes, so that you may fix a drink and sip it while you laugh.
Politico ran a piece yesterday penned by leaders from three of our allies’ militaries, all of which allow gays and lesbians to serve openly. Maj. Peter Kees Hamstra of the Royal Dutch Army, Leif Ohlson of the Swedish Armed Forces, and Lt. Com. Craig Jones, retired from the Royal Navy of Britain, all have a similar message for the US, which is essentially, “Get over it.” What really impresses me about their piece is that, coming from nations in which the sky has not fallen in the wake of openly gay soldiers, is their perspective and their framing, as it truly shows how stupid the opposition to DADT repeal really is. For instance:
We are aware of colleagues in our own militaries who don’t like it that gays and lesbians serve openly. However, despite considerable fears before we enacted these policies, such attitudes are rare.
In no cases, in fact, have negative private opinions about gay people undermined our ability to work with one another. Our service members are professionals who care, first and foremost, about the ability to do the job.
Moral opposition to homosexuality, while real, is just not allowed to undercut our militaries’ missions.
Nor do we think it will have any impact on yours after you repeal “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Got that? They don’t let the bigotry of a few of their members affect their missions or unit cohesion. Because, let’s get clear: since we all know that “gay” is just something you are, and decidedly and laughably not, as the Religious Right likes to say, a “behavior,” it is not incumbent on gays and lesbians to baby the bigots, any more than it’s incumbent upon Jewish servicemembers to baby the fundamentalist Christians they serve with*, or for black soldiers and airmen to baby any racists around them.
Also, there’s this:
We are confident that, despite the unique nature of each culture and military, you will have a similar experience to ours — which is that ending discrimination against gay troops was a giant nothing.
As per usual when gay people get closer to having equal rights.
The policy puts you in the company of Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China and Yemen. Is that the kind of company you want to keep?
No, we do not! The Religious Right is more comfortable supporting policies that are the ideological equivalent of theocratical Islam, but the other 75% of Americans would like “Land of the free, home of the brave” to mean something, please.
The compromise isn’t great, but it’s a step in the right direction, and I feel more comfortable with it with Patrick Murphy leading the way. Before the interview, Rachel points out how stupid and disingenuous it is that extremist right-wingers keep framing DADT repeal as something fringe or liberal, considering the fact that 75% of Americans support it. The 25% who still support DADT are, perhaps not coincidentally, also the 25% of Americans who would most benefit from protective helmets.
The war over gay rights in America and other modern nations has been largely won. Too many people have come out of the closet and will never go back in for the clock to be turned back. Most of these out individuals have loyal friends and family members who offer unequivocal love and unqualified support. We have reached a tipping point where LGBT people are even coming out in traditionally conservative bastions where the issue has long been seen as taboo.
For example, in England, 6′3″, 225-pound rugby star Gareth Thomas recently came out. He was featured in a major Sports Illustrated spread detailing his life as the first openly gay male athlete in team sports. While no comparable male star has come out in America, Thomas’ brave journey sets the stage for this breakthrough to occur.
Gospel singers Ray Boltz and Tonex have acknowledged their sexual orientation, blazing a trail in a very homophobic environment. Country music crooner Chely Wright (pictured), who will be working with the LGBT organization Faith in America to combat religion-based bigotry, courageously came out this month.
While Ricky Martin’ announcement that he is gay did not seem to shock many people, it still had a significant impact in the Hispanic community and reverberated across Latin America. And, the recent support of marriage equality by Cindy McCain and Laura Bush gave fair-minded Republican women across this nation a green light to openly embrace their gay friends.
Daily advances suggest that the LGBT community is about fifteen years away from full equality. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Tuesday indicates that 78 percent of the public supports allowing openly gay people to serve in the military, with only one in five opposed.
“Support is widespread, even among Republicans. Nearly six in ten Republicans favor allowing openly gay individuals to serve in the military,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “There is a gender gap, with 85 percent of women and 71 percent of men favoring the change, but support remains high among both groups.”
A new Gallup poll released Monday showed that while the number of Americans opposed to marriage equality continues to outnumber those in support of it, the number opposed has dropped to tie Gallup’ all-time low for the number. According to the poll, 53% of Americans oppose marriage equality compared to 44% who support it. The 53% number is tied with 2007′ 53% for the lowest opposition to gay marriage among Americans that Gallup has recorded.
In the next decade or so, a more supportive demographic will fully come of age and replace voters who hail from more conservative generations. During this period, we will witness an increasingly bitter and divisive culture war, as opponents sense defeat and grow desperate. There is no alternative to fighting these battles if we expect to win.
Often, I am asked the question: Why do you spend so much time focusing on religious extremists?
I spotlight these zealots because the only way we can now lose is if America is overthrown by a theo-fascist regime that obliterates the separation of church and state. Let me state clearly that it is highly unlikely that such a takeover will occur.
However, such a nightmare can only take place if we do not pay attention to our opponents. There is no shortage of Americans who desire an intolerant “Christian Nation” that excludes non-fundamentalists from first-class citizenship. I have traveled to rabidly right wing conferences, witnessed their radical vision for America and have seen the determination in their eyes. We should never underestimate their will or doubt their commitment to turn this country into the Christian version of Iran.
The one genuine concern I have is the enthusiastic embrace of fringe anti-gay activists by respectable members of the Republican Party. Strong ideological divisions combined with a weak economy and high unemployment could place in power Republicans beholden to fanatical elements. This could potentially create a dire situation where our opponents have the raw power to reverse the LGBT community’ notable gains.
If you don’t think they can do it, consider that the extreme right took over the Texas School Board and rewrote the history books. These same people would have no qualms about writing LGBT people out of America’ future.
Minnesota is a troubling example of GOP leaders in bed with extremists. According to the Minnesota Monitor, a radical anti-gay ministry, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide (YCR), has solidified ties to the Republican Party of this state. The group is linked to Rep. Michele Bachmann and gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer.
YCR recently said on its radio show that Muslim countries that use the death penalty for gays and lesbians are “more moral than even the American Christians”. While this has caused Emmer to tiptoe away from YCR, the question remains, why is the GOP cavorting with crazies?
As we approach the finish line for equality, we must always keep one eye on the prize and the other on the awful surprise our theocratic foes desperately want to inflict on America. If they win, we lose. That is a lesson we don’t have the luxury of forgetting.
(Example in video of the crazy people we must face)
For example, in England, 6′3″, 225-pound rugby star Gareth Thomas recently came out. He was featured in a major
While Ricky Martin’ announcement that he is gay did not seem to shock many people, it still had a significant impact in the Hispanic community and reverberated across Latin America. And, the recent support of marriage equality by Cindy McCain and Laura Bush gave fair-minded Republican women across this nation a green light to openly embrace their gay friends.
