You Vill March, or Else! - IGF CultureWatch

"The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News aired a segment recently about Providence, R.I. firefighters who say they were required by the city government to ride in a gay pride parade last year, despite some of the firefighters religious and moral objections (Firefighters Protest Appearance in Gay Pride Parade). Three of the firefighters are threatening to sue unless officials make participation in future gay parades optional. On the show, an ACLU rep sided with the firefighters on free speech grounds. But Wayne Besen of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest Washington-based lesbigay lobby, felt forced participation was a good thing. As justification, Besen used the case of Tyra Hunter, a pre-operative transsexual in Washington, DC who died after reportedly being mocked and denied treatment by District paramedics following a car accident (Hunter's family subsequently received a settlement of $1.75 million from the DC government).

This did not go over well with one viewer - Rick Rosendall, vice president for political affairs of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, DC (www.glaa.org), who shares his letter to host Bill O'Reilly (and it's a good one). Rick writes:

"As a longtime gay activist, I am appalled that my friends in the Human Rights Campaign don't understand the First Amendment. A gay pride parade has an expressive purpose, and no one, including firefighters, can be compelled to join in that expression. Wayne Besen told you about the wrongful death of transgender Tyra Hunter after discrimination by DC firefighters. I was a leading advocate for justice in that case, which was about a firefighter failing to do his job. But marching in parades is NOT part of a firefighter's job. We should be demanding equal services and fighting discrimination, not trying to force anyone to privately agree with us or march with us. I applaud the ACLU for defending the firefighters. If civil liberties only belong to those who agree with us, they are not civil liberties at all."

Well said, Rick.

Ramblings of a Confused Mind. I can't get over an interview that the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal conducted with our fav demented legislative homophobe, Sen. Jesse Helms, (and which I first wrote about in a March 7 posting, below). Some context: Helms spoke at a Prescription for Hope conference organized by an international Christian organization led by the Rev. Franklin Graham, who had called for a worldwide campaign against AIDS. In his remarks, Helms seemed to be on board, saying he was "so ashamed that I've done so little" about AIDS. But in his subsequent interview with Journal reporters Kevin Begos and John Railey, published March 6, he delivers the following statement, which is well worth parsing:

"I really did question - and I confess my sin - I questioned taking so much money away from scientists looking into heart problems, or other medical defects of humanity and dumping it in research on AIDS," Helms said of past comments. "I did that, and (critics) didn't like that one bit. But I didn't care whether they liked it or not. It was a reasonable position to take."

Now, at first, Helms seems to describe his questioning of AIDS funding as a "sin," which would gel with his being "ashamed that I did so little." But as he goes on to describe why he opposed the funding, he gets caught up in his own hateful rhetoric ("dumping funds on AIDS"), and winds up reaffirming his opposition to AIDS funding as "reasonable" after all. Amazing.