IGF CultureWatch

Jonathan Kay writes on the National Post website:

Brokeback Mountain, Heath Ledger's masterpiece, has been Youtubed, South Parked, Family Guyed and Saturday Night Lived so many times, that it is sometimes difficult to recall what an astonishingly good film it was. Had Brokeback been the only film Ledger had ever made, we would still properly be mourning the loss of one of the world's great actors.

And Alex Altman reflects at Time magazine online:

Though the late actor had taken on other roles since, it was his Oscar-nominated performance as Ennis Del Mar, a sheep rancher who discovers his homosexuality in Brokeback Mountain, that mourners referred to again and again. His death was particularly poignant to gay New Yorkers. "He is a gay icon," says John Lopez, 22, who works in a gourmet food store that Ledger frequented. "To support us, he broke a lot of taboos." From overseas, the film's director Ang Lee said in a statement, "He brought to the role of Ennis more than any of us could have imagined - a thirst for life, for love, and for truth, and a vulnerability that made everyone who knew him love him. His death is heartbreaking."

Of course, couldn't you just predict this.

Addedndum. A look back at Hollywood hypocrisy and more from our Brokeback archive.

I'm not quite sure why I think the ongoing travails between the increasingly reactionary Anglican Communion vs. the (predominantly) inclusive-leaning U.S. Episcopal Church are of so much importance. But, as Theo Hobson blogs, the struggle between inclusiveness and naked bigotry seems to encapsulate the ongoing tension between corrupt religious institutions and the essential Gospel message. He puts it nicely:

An institution that discriminates against homosexuals is without moral credibility-and moral credibility is rather important in religion. Furthermore, it contravenes the spirit of Jesus's teaching. His commandment "Judge not" could almost have been invented for the problem of homosexuality, which most straight people find challenging on some level, but must learn not to condemn. Tolerance seems the only moral response, and a rule against gay priests obviously falls short of tolerance. It institutionalises prejudice....

In my opinion, the gay crisis shakes the foundations of ecclesiology. Organised religion has always been authoritarian, in calling certain moral rules God's will, in saying that moral and doctrinal orthodoxy must be upheld. As I see it, Christianity rejects this; it dispenses with the moral "law". It claims, scandalously, that God wills a new freedom-from "holy morality", from the bossy legalism inherent in religious institutionalism.

I agree, which is why I'm appalled by those who would turn their backs on the Gospel of Love for the sake maintaining the "unity" of the Anglican Communion, at any cost.

Kudos to the Washington Blade for editorializing on why gay fealty to one political party is not now, and never was, good strategy.

In a lawsuit, former Democratic National Committee gay outreach director Donald Hitchcock charges he was fired as director of the DNC's Gay & Lesbian Leadership Council in May 2006 after his domestic partner, Paul Yandura, wrote that "All progressives need to be asking how much has the DNC budgeted to counter the anti-gay ballot initiatives in the states. We also need to know why the DNC and our Democratic leaders continue to allow the Republicans to use our families and friends as pawns to win elections." DNC memos brought to light as a result of the suit reveal the extent to which the DNC expects gays to shut up and keep sending dollars.

Comments Blade Editor Kevin Naff:

it serves as a reminder of what happens when one party knows it can count on the support of a constituency group, no matter what. We have seen this problem manifest before. When Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat who once publicly supported gay marriage, changed his position and invoked the Catholic sacraments following that state's high court ruling upholding a gay ban, our national advocacy groups were silent. It's a safe bet that if O'Malley were a Republican, the indignant press releases would have been flying and rallies would have been scheduled for Annapolis.

When Democrats like John Kerry and 2004 running mate John Edwards announce support for anti-gay state marriage amendments and gays line up dutifully behind them anyway, we teach the party that there are no repercussions for betraying us.

This doesn't mean gay voters should pull the lever for any of the Republicans now in the running. Rather, gay voters, donors and campaign staffers need to learn the art of the barter system: you give something, you get something. No one knows that concept better than the evangelical Christians.

"Free gay votes and dollars for Dems; nothing required" has for too long been the operating principle of major national (and some state) LGBT organizations.

The Cato Institute has posted The Future of Marriage by Stephanie Coontz, author of the recently published book "Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage." She writes:

For most of history, marriage was more about getting the right in-laws than picking the right partner to love and live with.... It was just 250 years ago, when the Enlightenment challenged the right of the older generation and the state to dictate to the young, that free choice based on love and compatibility emerged as the social ideal for mate selection. ....

Massive social changes combine to ensure that a substantial percentage of people will continue to explore alternatives to marriage. ... Stir in the reproductive revolution, which has made it possible for couples who would once have been condemned to childlessness to have the kids they want, but impossible to prevent single women or gay and lesbian couples from having children. Top it off with changes in gender roles that have increased the payoffs of marriage for educated, financially secure women but increased its risks for low-income women whose potential partners are less likely to hold egalitarian values, earn good wages, or even count on a regular job. Taken together, this is a recipe for a world where the social weight of marriage has been fundamentally and irreversibly reduced. ...

[But] marriage is not on the verge of extinction. Most cohabiting couples eventually do get married, either to each other or to someone else. New groups, such as gays and lesbians, are now demanding access to marriage-a demand that many pro-marriage advocates oddly interpret as an attack on the institution. And a well-functioning marriage is still an especially useful and effective method of organizing interpersonal commitments and improving people's well-being. But in today's climate of gender equality and personal choice, we must realize that successful marriages require different traits, skills, and behaviors than in the past.

There's also a responding essay by social conservative Kay S. Hymowitz of the Manhattan Institute, who laments the social costs of "de-linking marriage and childbearing" such as the rise in single mothers dependent on the government for support. She writes:

The United States has spent billions trying to prop up fatherless families through welfare payments, nutrition programs, early childhood education, Title 1, child support, and a teeming, maddening family court system. We don't have much to show for it.

It's a good reminder that social conservatives have some reasons to be concerned with the state of marriage, and that those who support expanding the right to marry to include same-sex couples would do well to recognize these fears, and then explain why marriage equality would strengthen, not weaken, marriage as a social bedrock.

On Jan. 13, 1958, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that ONE (the first national "homosexual magazine") was not pornographic and could be sent through the mail. "This ruling made nationally distributed LGBT print media possible," comments Box Turtle Bulletin, which observes:

when ONE caught the eye of the FBI, they immediately launched an investigation to try to shut it down. They went so far as to write to the employers of ONE's editors and writers (they all depended on their day jobs for income), saying that their employees were "deviants" and "security risks."

It's quite astounding, in fact, how far we've come in less than my own lifetime, with full escape from state-sponsored discrimination (including overcoming the denial of the right to marry and to serve in the military) within reach.

Alas, hard-won freedoms are not always wisely used, as such is the nature of freedom. Case in point, today's mostly slick and vapid national lesbigay publications, where nongay celebrity interviews compete with trendy takes on global warming , and knee-jerk support for "progressive" bigger government as the path to salvation is almost always the order of the day.

More. Dan Blatt (aka GayPatriotWest) shares his thoughts on how The Advocate puts Bush-bashing above gay advocacy.

Sorry, very busy and haven't blogged for several days. Which is a lame way to justify that I don't have much to say about New Hampshire. Okay, here are a few thoughts: An upsurge for Giuliani (who may yet come back), whatever his others failings, would have sent a message that the GOP nationally was prepared to embrace socially tolerant views. Huckabee and Romney at the forefront would send the opposite message, that hardline social conservatism is not going to give way in the Grand Old Party. John McCain comes out better than midway between the two-he opposed the federal anti-gay marriage amendment but supported a state amendment in Arizona (which, as it turned out, was the first in the nation to be defeated at the polls). In the past, he has called the leaders of the religious right on their intolerance, but this time round seems to have concluded that such honesty was a strategic mistake. Still, he's not really one of them, and they know it.

The other blog-worthy political story is the Ron Paul newsletter revelations by James Kirchick. I believe Paul's statement that he did not write the racist, anti-gay screeds that went out in newsletters bearing his name. And he still gets credit for answering "sure" when ABC's John Stossel asked if gays should be allowed to marry (each other, that is). But Paul did license his name to be used on these newsletters (presumably for a profit) and it just won't do to say that he was too busy to keep an eye on what was happening. These rants are old style, hard-right bigotry and not in the least "libertarian." [David Boaz shares his thoughts on the foul newsletters, here. And tangentially, Ilya Somin defends real-deal libertarianism after Michael Kinsley misses the point, here.]

Shifting gears, I'm beginning to like that disgraced Idaho Sen. Larry Craig keeps fighting his restroom sting arrest, arguing in a new court filing that the underlying act wasn't criminal because it didn't involve "multiple victims."

The brief also argues that [the arresting officer who entrapped Craig] himself could not have been offended by the alleged conduct because "he invited it." The alleged conduct, Craig's lawyers added, doesn't rise to the level of being "offensive, obscene, abusive, boisterous or noisy."

Quite right. The state achieves no justifiable end in conducting this type of entrapment, which gives police an easy means to fulfill their arrest quotas by creating misery for the confused and closeted.

An interesting piece is posted at the Hoover Institution website about how California's Republican party has drifted off the centrist track but the state's GOP voters haven't. Morris P. Fiorina and Samuel J. Abrams write:

[There's been] a change in the image of the California Republican Party and a change in the kind of candidate it nominates. A generation ago, it was a pragmatic, broad-based party that emphasized issues such as taxes and spending of concern to the broad middle of the electorate (and even to many on either side). It was a conservative party when conservative was defined largely in economic terms-low taxes, efficient public services, and limited government. Today, it is an ideological, narrowly based party that defines its conservatism by social and cultural issues like abortion and gay marriage that are of only secondary concern to most Californians. Moreover, most Californians take more liberal views on such issues than do California Republican activists.

The middle of the road in California runs through the economically conservative but socially tolerant quadrant of the ideological space.

There's much food for thought here, as the GOP faces a crossroads after Rev. Huckabee's win in Iowa's benighted caucuses.

More. Blogger Rick Sincere notes the passing of former Wisconsin governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus (1926-2008), a Republican who in 1982 signed the nation's first statewide gay anti-discrimination law, saying on that occasion:

"It is a fundamental tenet of the Republican Party that government ought not intrude in the private lives of individuals where no state purpose is served, and there is nothing more private or intimate than who you live with and who you love."

Rick comments that:

[Gov. Dreyfus] represented a Republican Party that held strong to its libertarian roots: the Republican Party of Barry Goldwater, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, not the Republican Party of Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney (unless you mean the pre-2008 election cycle Mitt Romney). Dreyfus maintained his position about government intrusiveness through the rest of his life: He actively opposed the 2006 anti-gay-marriage amendment that was put on the ballot in Wisconsin. His side, unfortunately, did not prevail.

Let's hope that in the year ahead, the GOP finds its way back to the future.

I was pleased to read that Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is standing up for the U.S. Episcopal church, saying it has been unfairly singled out for criticism because it is honest about consecrating gay bishops:

Jefferts Schori told BBC Radio 4's PM program that the church, which is the Anglican body in the U.S., is far from the only Anglican province that has a bishop with a same-sex partner. In 2003, Episcopalians elected the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, causing an uproar that has pushed the Anglican family toward a split.

"He is certainly not alone in being a gay bishop; he's certainly not alone in being a gay partnered bishop," Jefferts Schori said in an interview broadcast Tuesday. "He is alone in being the only gay partnered bishop who's open about that status."

The Anglican Communion's leadership has all but capitulated to its African churches of hate in the name of "unity" as an overriding and unquestionable value. The best thing Schori could do is support full independence for the U.S. church and break definitively with Britain once and for all. How about launching such as campaign around, say, July 4?

My colleague Jon Rauch reminds me that at the end of August an Iowa state judge ruled that the Hawkeye state's constitution required marriage equality for same-sex couples, a decision that was immediately stayed pending the resolution of an appeal to the Iowa supreme court.

So, why hasn't same-sex marriage become an issue in the red-hot caucus race? As Jon said to me, "you'd have thought Republicans would be jumping all over this."

Seems that the gay marriage card is no longer seen as red meat to incite GOP voters, at least in Iowa-certainly a good sign, especially if it holds up nationally.

More. Similarly, New Hampshire's new civil union law just took effect, a week before the first presidential primary. Again, marriage equality hasn't been much of an issue there for the GOP contenders, although last April Giuliani, no doubt expecting a backlash, felt compelled to say that the Granite state had gone too far. Given the lack of heat that marriage equality has generated (so far), that seems to be a capitulation to the right that wasn't necessary, and indeed counter-productive for Rudy as it undercut his attacks on Romeny as a flip-flopper. If the flipper fits…

Tangentially, "One of the benefits of marriage is divorce," which presents major hardships, financial and otherwise, for same-sex couples. That's due in no small part to the fact that the federal government and many states look at gays who were married or civil unionized elsewhere as legal strangers.

An email discussion list I'm on alerted me to this posting from Anthony Bradley's Christian-themed (but not religious right) blog. Are things really this bad for heterosexual men? Bradley paints a depressing picture. Here's an excerpt:

Families like the Keatons and the Cosbys (like the Cleavers and Nelsons of a previous generation) were presented as the pinnacle and fullest expression of life on earth. This is what you want fellas, a beautiful wife, a few kids, a nice house, a good job...then comes retirement, grandchildren and you die a fulfilled man. Ahh, what a life!

Guess what? Lots of guys are finding out the hard way that in the real world having the perfect "American family" image is the rare exception.

Here's the truth: lots of guys I know are in completely miserable marriages, many (I mean MANY) wives have committed adultery, kids have chronic illnesses, guys hate their jobs are stuck because of debt, divorced (even though they swore they were not going to do what their parents did by splitting up), many wives want to leave their husbands because they don't make enough money, lots of "great guys" never marry, many can't get over addictions because after praying for 12-15 years they've discovered that it "doesn't work," depression, dealing with their own sexual abuse at a late age, mulling over a very long list of regrets, wanting to pack it all up and go "into the wild," your daughter has a reputation for being a "slut," your son's already a pot head, etc.

And for guys that I talk to who aren't Christians or part of any religious tradition some of the issues are worse than these.

I know, this is not a cheery Yule Time/New Year's message. But it did strike me that gay people, as do other minorities, sometimes focus a bit too exclusively on our own travails and challenges (as if, say, straight people are the "haves" and we are the "have nots"). There's some truth to this perception, especially in terms of government discrimination and legal inequality. But we should always remember that what unites gay and straight men (as men), and gay and straight women, and all of us together, is the shared challenges of the human predicament.