Syndicated "Lesbian Notions" columnist Paula Martinac took both myself and IGF contributing author Dale Carpenter to task in her Jan. 24 column "Speak Out Against War." Martinac quotes me as labeling those who question American foreign policy as "extremist, infantile, America-hating whiners." What she doesn't say is that my remarks are from an essay titled "What's Left?" published one month after the Sept. 11 attacks. I was castigating ad hoc groups of leftwing gays who had taken to the streets against America's pursuit of Al Qaeda terrorists and the liberation of Afghanistan from Taliban rule. While I am also critical of gay groups that recently joined the coalition against military action in Iraq, I have not done so with language as harsh as I used to describe protestors who blamed America for Sept. 11 - a fact Martinac obscures so she can dismiss my views as anti-anti-war extremism.
Meanwhile, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which
recently announced its anti-war position, is spending time and
energy defending
itself against those even further to the left who accuse it of
not being anti-war enough. And the Audre Lorde Project (which describes
itself as a center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit and
Transgender people of color communities) and the LGBT Programs
Community Relations Unit of the American Friends Service Committee
have been sending a statement around the Internet that reads in
part:
we know that militarism and war rely on and promote many forms of oppression -- including homophobia, transphobia, sexism, and racism. As LGBTST people, we know what it means to be targets of hate and violence. We understand what it means to be scapegoated. -- With care and respect, we call on LGBTST organizations and communities to join national and local coalitions to struggle for peace with justice -- and actively and creatively oppose U.S. policies and actions of military/economic/political aggression and war.
You see, I don't demean, I just let the gay left speak for itself. ("Two-spirit," by the way, is what the politically correct crowd now considers acceptable labeling of Native American gay folks.)
Less Regulation, More Gay Inclusion
Back in the real world, Virginia Log Cabin spokesman David Lampo has this op-ed published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, arguing that Virginia law hurts the state's economy by prohibiting (yes, prohibiting) private businesses from granting health insurance to anyone who isn't the spouse or child of an employee, effectively barring benefits for same-sex partners. It's another case where government isn't the solution, it's the problem, holding back a private sector that wants to move forward.
Also in a libertarian vein, IGF contributing author David Boaz
has an
op-ed exposing the pro-choice hypocrisy of some big-name
Democrats running for president. He writes:
what question of choice -- other than abortion -- does Gephardt think should be answered "not by the state but by the individual"? Like Kerry, he opposes Social Security choice, school choice, and the right of individuals to choose what drugs they will use, either for medical or recreational purposes. He voted to deny gays and lesbians the right to marry the person they choose.
Meanwhile, our friends on the left dream of an even more
intrusive regulatory state that would, of course, only do good,
progressive things. Naturally.
--Stephen H. Miller
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