The aptly named Stephen Funk is a gay Marine Corps reservist who, in consort with leftwing anti-war activists, held a press conference at the beginning of April to announce he was seeking conscientious objector status. Funk said he'd discovered "the military coerces people into killing" and "I believe that as a gay man"I have a great deal of experience with hatred and oppression."
Since being reported by the AP and other media, Funk's story has been used by some rightwing commentators to show that gays don't belong in the military. That logic, of course, is specious; one self-promoter -- who wanted military benefits as long as he wasn't required to keep his end of the contract and actually take up arms -- proves nothing about gay servicemembers in general. But it does show how activists on the left will use gays to advance their own political agenda, even when it undermines the ongoing fight for gay equality (such as the ability to serve one's country in the military, regardless of sexual orientation).
Reaching Out.
Speaking of the anti-gay right, several of the usual suspects
are boiling mad that Marc Racicot, the chairman of Republican
National Committee, addressed a meeting of the Human Rights
Campaign, the
Washington Post reports. Said Robert Knight of the anti-gay
Culture and Family Institute:
"When you meet with a group that holds values that are antithetical to those of your base, you're sending the signal that your base is being taken for granted or is not respected -- that's what Mr. Racicot has done here. It would be like Al Gore meeting with the John Birch Society."
Well, they better get used to it - the GOP is in earnest about reaching out to ethnic minorities and gays, having realized (finally) that its base needs to expand if the party is to grow and thrive. In particular, Hispanics and (to a lesser extent) gays are seen as constituencies that could be attracted to the GOP's key themes of lower taxes and less regulation. Whether the anti-gay conservatives will stage an protracted fight over this remains to be seen.
Welcome to the 21st Century, Mr. Oliveri.
I like this
local story from Hollywood, Florida about a city commissioner
who failed to realize that gratuitous anti-gay remarks will now
land you in hot water, politically speaking. Being forced to
apologize by "outraged gay residents" -- and voters -- over his
there-goes-the-neighborhood remarks linking gays and porn shops was
proper comeuppance, and a sign of how those who fail to recognize
the changed political landscape will find themselves
blindsided.
--Stephen H. Miller
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