Gay News Roundup: 8/30/10

Reclaim the Dream

Fight fire with fire.  As many of you may know, Glenn Beck held a “Restoring Honor” rally in Washington, D.C. Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which was held at the same spot.  And while I can’t imagine anything more vile and disrespectful to that historic event than the mostly all-white rally, they had an ace up their sleeve.  MLK’s niece Alveda King spoke.  It was a shrewd move to avoid an overwhelming pall of slimy ickiness over the event.  Instead, it was only a generous coating of slimy ickiness.

Something you should know about Alveda King, however, is that she is anti-gay maniac.  She has recently made herself a public speaking gun-for-hire, notably at a NOM gathering (I would have said “rally,” but it was just too poorly attended to warrant the term) in Atlanta.  At this divine reception, Alveda stirred up emotions with an eloquent speech worthy of her uncle’s pro-love, pro-respect, pro-civil liberties mindset:

She compared Marriage Equality to a kind of genocide that will lead to the human race’s extinction.

I wonder if future generations will take off school in observance of her birthday?

Devil’s Advocate!  But, Adam, aren’t most African-Americans not in favor of Marriage Equality?

Actually, no.  Julian Bond, head of the NAACP, gave a stirring pro-equality speech at last year’s Equality Across America rally, which had more love in its heart than Beck’s rally could ever pray to.

Want another example?  How about Coretta Scott King, humanitarian and wife to MLK?  In 2004, before it became a little hipper (thanks, NoH8!) to support us, she spoke out passionately against Bush’s proposed Federal Marriage Amendment. “Constitutional amendments should be used to expand freedom, not restrict it,” the Great Lady (who has since passed) said.  “Gay and lesbian people have families, and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union.  A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages.”

Alveda joined Beck and Sarah Palin and other people who should be remanded to a nervous hospital on Saturday.  They ignored black civil rights activists (probably socialists), who objected to the rally’s timing, location and content as tacky (socialists!) and held a counter-rally called “Reclaim the Dream.”

But what about me?  I used the above picture, a very clear parallel to black civil rights during a very sad time.  Am I just as tacky?  A good deal of black activists object to the gay community’s insistence on the parallels between their struggle and ours.  Sexual orientation is different than skin color.  Yes, it is.

Would Dr. King have supported Marriage Equality?  Would Thomas Jefferson?  John F. Kennedy?  Possibly.  Possibly not.  The greatness of these men, however, is in that they understood that there is a spirit, a pioneering spirit, that is greater than any man.  There are laws greater than them.  Laws that oppressed minorities cannot and will not be contained forever.  Jefferson’s words were written intentionally snug but flexible, so that as time went on, oppressions he could not even conceive of yet could be defeated.

Whether King would have supported us or not, his words he spoke were intended to be more far-reaching than just his own community on just that day.  And as long as period-rags like Beck try to use a good man’s preachings not for opening hearts but for emboldening straight, close-minded Christian white people into trying to maintain their rapidly receding stranglehold of racial, religious, sexual and financial majority on America and the world at large, we will attempt to keep the Dr.’s true spirit alive.  Fight fire with fire.

ANOTHER STAY-ON-FOUNTAIN EFF YOU TO MAGGIE GALLAGHER

IT’S COMPLICATED, NOT STARRING DENISE RICHARDS

Another conservative politician has come out of the closet.  And, again, it’s complicated.  British Tory MP Crispin Blunt, who once argued that being gay was not equal to being straight in a parliamentary debate, has come out as gay.

Wait for it…

His wife is devastated. She gave up a career in banking to support her husband, gave over much of her family’s wealth to aide his political ambitions, and just in general, believed they were in love.  Yeah, so that’s all a waste.

Not deceiving your loved ones anymore is good and all.  Not doing it in the first place is better.

Former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman, who came out himself weeks ago, has voiced his support of Blunt’s decision.  Mehlman was previously supported by fellow self-outed Republican shithead Sen. Roy Ashburn.  And on and on it goes.

They spend all their money (or wife’s money) getting into office, unleash a tornado of gay carnage, and on their way out, admit they’re gay, the most of the damage to their wives, children and fellow gays already irrevocably done.

Jesus, they give us all a bad name.  They should all just fuck off and get a big house together to live in, and see which one strangles who first.  It’ll be a mid-season replacement on NBC.

Oh, and PS.  His niece is Emily Blunt.  I’m so sorry, my dear.

NEAT!

Roger Ebert supports Marriage Equality.

GAY EMMYS

Congrats to Emmy winners Jane Lynch, Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family and Ryan Murphy.

OBAMA AT THE ‘GATES’

In unsurprising news, the New York Times observes today, the “steep learning curve” President Obama has faced in his first term regarding military matters.  Having no service experience (not that Bush had much more), and being thrown into the middle of two unpopular wars, Obama has increasingly relied on yielding to the decisions of Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

One of the biggest things he’s yielded to… a pointless, punishingly slow timetable to the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal.

Great.  This yielding to the opinions of others, despite campaign promises and a mountingly raging constituency, is what you want to see.  This guy’s fucking lucky the only other options for Presidents want to see us hanged.

TAR-GAY

I find the LGBT-friendly boycott of Target fascinating for what it has revealed to us about the super wealthy: their giving patterns are very inconsistent.  Just today, it was announced billionaire Hedge Fund manager Paul Singer who will co-host a September fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights with Ken Mehlman (yay?), and who has donated $4 million to pro-gay causes, also donates to anti-gay right-wing political groups. And Target has claimed its $150,000 donation to an anti-gay but pro-big-business Minnesota governor candidate was a business maneuver, and they were heretofore unaware of the man’s anti-gay leanings.  Unlike Target products, I’ll buy that.

However, the recent steep dip in their stock holdings has hopefully taught them (and us) a valuable lesson about donation transparency and doing your God damn homework before you donate.  The Supreme Court has lifted the cap on corporate political donations this year, and so far, they’re off to a rollicking start.

So, what are the implications of this donation should their Favorite Candidate win the Minnesota election this November?  Probably none.   Except here’s one.  More of this.

This is Justin Aaberg.  He was a student at Anoka High School, one of Minnesota’s largest school systems.  Justin won’t be returning to classes today, unlike his peers.

Justin killed himself this summer.

But kids kill themselves sometimes.  Right?  Right.  Except, Justin is one of three gay students from this district who have killed themselves this year.  Could Obama’s slowing down of the Don’t Ask Don’t Repeal or Target’s business-minded donation helped these tragedies to occur, Butterfly Effect-Style?  Can people so high up be held accountable for seemingly barely related incidents?  As Orson Wells asked Joseph Cotton in “The Third Man,” “From this vantage point, the people look like little dots.  What would you tell me if I gave you 10,000 dollars for every dot that stopped moving?  Would you tell me to keep my money, or would you start considering how many dots you could afford to lose?”

They are very high up, how could they affect something so low to the ground?  Justin isn’t just low to the ground.  He’s in the ground.  That boy was a child, and he’s gone.  Whether you believe he’s in a better place now or not, make no mistake, he’s gone and this is a total loss.  He’s staring at the inside of a coffin lid.  Forever.

Is the boy partly to blame?  Many gay kids don’t kill themselves.  That, while a valid point, is a completely inappropriate question for this conversation.  The Minnesota school district in question has become a hotbed of tension between a group seeking to improve anti-bullying conditions for LGBT students, and another group, the Parents Action League, which seek to reduce it further.

Marriage Inequality and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell serve to show people, especially gay kids, that we are second-class citizens, worthy of every drop of criticism and hostility we receive.  It’s already fucking impossible to be a teenager, and this only worsens conditions.

As for Target, your contribution has aided a man who, should he receive the title of Governor for Minnesota, will do everything in his power to worsen conditions at this school.

And that, fuckers, is why you are responsible.

LET’S CLOSE WITH SOMETHING OLD, BUT AWESOME