Homophobia

Dear Senator Craig,

Congratulations! Yesterday, a Minnesota court granted your request to withdraw your guilty plea! But I'm still worried about you. At first I was sure you were straight as an arrow, framed by those determined to silence the Singing Senators, the quartet that sings truth to power whose reunion concert curiously took place a night after the sex sting. But then as the Republicans turned on you, doubt started to creep into my faith in your heterosexuality. And your recent behavior, pleading guilty and then withdrawing your plea, resigning and then reconsidering, suggests a strong bi-curious tendency that worries me.

But it's not too late to get your life back on track! You can't do it alone, though, and I think I know just the person to help you.

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Loving vs. Virginia US Supreme Court decision to strike down the bans against interracial marriage that in 1967 where still in the books of 16 states.

Just to put matters into perspective, I am biracial (even though both my parents are from Puerto Rico). They married in New York City, so the issue of their interracial marriage was moot. Had they been in Maryland or Florida, they technically could have ended up in jail --but maybe not if they could prove even if they were US citizens by birth (all Puerto Ricans are), the 'being Puerto Rican' may have then exempted them from the law.

Anyhow, it is amazing to see over at Loving Day's legal map that Florida had even codified the 1/8 drop rule into the marriage ban --exactly because the ban was about protecting the supremacy of a group of people who, if you look real close, have always been the minority (with the most wealth and political power) in this country. All the white-looking octaroons (at least at that time) need not apply for enjoying the perks of their physical (yet not genetic) whiteness.

So it's 40 years later and the same-sex marriage movement is using Loving vs. Virginia as the standard for all people who want to marry, be fruitful and multiply.

Here's the money quote from Justice Warren's decision :

It is amazing that in this day and age anybody would think that you could create a neuro-toxic bomb that would turn soldiers gay and render them incompetent for war, but that's exactly what the Pentagon considered when they took a look at a proposed $7.5 million chemical weapon project.

CBS5.com reports :

Pentagon officials on Friday confirmed to CBS 5 that military leaders had considered, and then subsequently rejected, building the so-called "Gay Bomb."

Edward Hammond, of Berkeley's Sunshine Project, had used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy of the proposal from the Air Force's Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.

As part of a military effort to develop non-lethal weapons, the proposal suggested, "One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior."

The documents show the Air Force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon.

"The Ohio Air Force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soldiers to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistibly attractive to one another," Hammond said after reviewing the documents.

"The notion was that a chemical that would probably be pleasant in the human body in low quantities could be identified, and by virtue of either breathing or having their skin exposed to this chemical, the notion was that soldiers would become gay," explained Hammond.

Michael Rogers is one of the best things to ever happen to me on these internets. He's one of my best friends who happens to be also one of my heroes, as the founder and Chief Gay Outing Executor of BlogActive. So it's with great pride I lead you to Brokeback Hill, the awesome Yahoo! People Of The Web feature by Kevin Sites:

He's outed so many closeted gay politicos, he's starting to make Capitol Hill look like Brokeback Mountain. All of them, he says, use their positions to actively oppose the equal rights of gay citizens while at the same time, secretly live a gay life.

If you are a gay politico with something to hide, the left hand column of Roger's Web site is exactly where you don't want to see your name. He calls it "the list."

Kevin, honey, please tell Yahoo! to get a clue from Google and put a frigging embed on your work. They still can make money of the work if they embed ads on the thing ... ya know what I mean?

UPDATED AT BOTTOM

Now, I am no fan of Teletubbies. I find it very creepy...surreal even. Maybe this is partly du to the fact that the first time I saw it was in Tel Aviv, in Hebrew, mere days after barely missing the big Turkish quake of 1999. At one point it was either braving the intense, humid heat outside, watching more depressing footage of the rescue efforts in Istanbul (a city we had just fallen in love with) or...Teletubbies in Hebrew. Well, we had also seen Rugrats in Turkish, so it was part of a theme.

Very strange.

But babies love it. That and Boo-bah are incomprehensible to adults but suck babies and toddlers into a wonderful world of smiles and colors. I admit I have a gut-level fear of these shows. There is something just disturbing about them. But I am willing to overcome my fear for the sake of a few peaceful moments as my baby grocks with people in giant, brightly colored costumes. Let's face it. These are just kid's shows!

But some have a Teletubby fear so irrational it borders on the patholgical. We all know about perhaps the most embarassing moment in the life of the recently departed Jerry Fallwell when he decided Tinky-Winky was an evil plot to turn our children gay. The absurdity of this completely dumb claim masked his deadly serious craziness as he turned his mighty media money-making empire to encouraging fear of Tinky-Winky. Somehow, Boo-Bah escaped his twisted mind's wrath. But he tried to smite Tinky-Winky, and from what I can tell, Falwell's sick, sadistic vision of the divinity lost its power struggle with the vapid purple alien...or whatever the hell it is.

Prejudice: Rehab Won't Solve The Problem, Washington, Gibson And Richards Apologized, But Racism Remains - The ShowBuzz:

It's a little soon to determine how their outbursts will affect them in the long run. But so far Richards' career was nowhere to begin with so he can only go up, Mel Gibson bounced back with "Apocalypto," and Isaiah Washington hasn't been discharged from "Grey's Anatomy." Yet.

Unfortunately, it's too easy to vilify these three stooges for their public outbursts and ignore the fact that racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism remain a real problem in our society.

I do have to say that the United States has come a long way when ethnic whites and black Americans can come together in their bigotry and express with so much gusto the diversity of prejudice we harbor in this country.

At least it is not just one group of people against another. No, it's more like a clusterf0ck of hate.

Hate that gets a slap on the wrist and a tap on the back after the haters 'repent' and announce their sabbatical at a 'rehab' center.

W. T. F.

Kudos to Judy for inspiring the title. Now go and read her whole entry at the Showbuzz.

Michael over at PageOneQ has a special request :

If 1,000 people hop over to the Current TV site and vote for the documentary about two teenagers being bullied for being gay, the producers have promised the entire $100,000 prize will be directed towards programs which help reduce homophobia in America's high schools.

So go vote now.

Ted Haggard had a bad day yesterday. His self-loathing, his hatred of his body and its desires, desires he has stifled and twisted, caught up with him--publicly, and shamed, he resigned his position as President of the National Association of Evangelicals.

But, yesterday, I also had a bad day. I spent much of yesterday crying, sick to my stomach, unable to catch my breath, and contemplating the various implements within my own house that could be used to effect my own demise.

Jesus commanded that we should love all people as we love ourselves. But perhaps Ted Haggard and many, many of his compatriots do not love themselves; therefore, they cannot love others.

I get that kind of pain.

This is unbelievable. Captain's Quarters has published a response to BlogActive's outing of Senator Larry Craig by saying, and I quote "the left hates gays".

Uneffingbelievable.

Once again, the Left shows its obsession with sexuality, but it's really more than that. The Left obsesses over identity politics in all forms, and that obsession comes out in pathological terms. Rogers reveals this in his blog post, demanding that gay staffers on the Hill identify their orientation publicly, or else he will do it for them. Sexual identity is everything to him, and the concept of sexual privacy has no value to him at all. He wants to humiliate gays who prefer to keep their sexual activity private, forcing them to wear the virtual pink triangle against their will to experience obloquy and castigation.

I love this. Captain Ed is basically acknowledging the senator is gay but saying that because he is being outed, Rogers gay activism is wrong and proof the left hates gays.

Cognitive disassociation, anyone?

Which political party has been hijacked by extremist theocrats and pushed legislation against gay marriage?

Which political party has been hijacked by extremist theocrats and has run this country on vilifying gays and feminists as the moral opposites of the "family values" people?

Well, if he is not in Capitol Hill or Congress, he may well be having a gay ol' time in the bathrooms of D.C.'s Union Station:

As this message is posted, I have apppeared on the Ed Schultz Show, a nationally syndicated radio program broadcast in more than 100 cities and on Sirius Satellite. On the show I have called on Senator Larry Craig to end his years of hypocrisy by leveling with Idahoans about who he really is. I am also calling upon several prominent Idaho social conservative leaders to ask them how they square their anti-gay positions with their support for this leader.

I have done extensive research into this case, including trips to the Pacific Northwest to meet with men who have say they have physical relations with the Senator. I have also met with a man here in Washington, D.C., who says the same -- and that these incidents occurred in the bathrooms of Union Station. None of these men know each other, or knew that I was talking to others. They all reported similar personal characteristics about the Senator, which lead me to believe, beyond any doubt, that their stories are valid.