Look Who's Talking. "The Log Cabin Republicans' ... primary emotional commitment is to the conservative-dominated Republican Party, rather than to the fight against homophobia." So said gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., in an April 1 press release. Frank, who never misses an opportunity to promote his "one party only" view of gay politics, condemned the moderate Republican Log Cabiners because their latest newsletter ran a toss-away item which, as the Washington Post reports, was titled "Rhymes with Abercrombie and . . . -- Cutting to the chase, it expressed support for a Los Angeles police official who called U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., a "bitch." Waters, of course, is one of the most far left members of the House and has shown no hesitancy to condemn the police, the U.S. military, and anyone else to the right of Fidel. Nevertheless, Log Cabin spokesman Kevin Ivers said that "the staff has been told that in the future they need more careful about what is written in the newsletter," and that the comment on Waters is not the official position of LCR.
This, however, did not appease Barney Frank, who wrote that "Log Cabin's smarmy encouragement of this sort of attack stands in drastic contrast to the National Stonewall Democrats, which at its most recent event honored the Congressional Black Caucus".The distinction between Stonewall's expression of gratitude to a group of members who have been our strongest allies and Log Cabin's endorsement of a nasty personal attack on one of the most important members of that group says a great deal about the role the two organizations play." Ah, there it is -- the always useful race card, which is clearly something that Barney Frank and other liberals love to play.
Memo to Barney: it's not ONLY about gay issues, which is a fact to bear in mind given that Frank supported legislation in 1995, 1996, and 1997 to cut back the funding of U.S. intelligence agencies during a period in which attacks against the US were increasing, and also moves to cut the military's budget as well.
A Vast Gay Rightwing Conspiracy? The April 16
issue of The
Advocate has a good cover story on "The Gay Right" that
prominently features out-and-proud GOP officeholders and
powerbrokers, though in the Advocate's eyes even liberal
Republicans are "conservative" and part of "the Right." And
wouldn't you just know it, for the sake of "balance" the magazine
features a full-page opinion piece (not available online) by gay
leftist and self-proclaimed "anarcho-syndicalist" Urvashi Vaid
attacking (yep) welfare reform, which, we"re told, has "ideological
roots [that] lay deep within the antigay, racially bigoted far
right." Yawn. Ms. Vaid also argues that not making opposition to
welfare reform a priority for the GLBT community "is a huge
mistake." Of course, when you believe that the goal of progressive
politics is to redistribute wealth from those who worked for it to
those who simply want it, her perspective becomes clearer.
Disheartened Reactionaries. A story from the
Baptist Press News recounts that religious conservatives are
lamenting that "Christians" are no longer protesting gay characters
on TV. "Christians voiced their outrage when ABC's "Ellen" featured
a lead lesbian character in 1997," said Focus on the Family's Mike
Haley, who continues, "That outrage, five years later, has
dissipated -- even though there are now more than 20 homosexual
characters on television." Guess who's winning the culture war!