IGF CultureWatch

In it's ongoing balancing act, the Bush administration has taken a symbolic move to appease it's Christian right critics who have been caterwauling about Bush "pandering to the homosexual lobby." So now the Department of Justice has decided not to allow its employees to hold gay-pride events on its property.

The Washington Post reports that DOJ Pride, which supports the department's "gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees," had planned an after-hours awards ceremony at the agency's main auditorium honoring two lawyers who have defended gay rights. Last year, Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson spoke briefly at the group's event -- outraging the religious right.

During his 2001 confirmation hearings, Attorney General John Ashcroft told the Senate Judiciary Committee he would allow DOJ Pride to use the agency's facilities on the same basis as its other employee groups. This followed then-nominee Ashcroft's meeting with national Log Cabin Republican leaders, who -- to the chagrin of gay anti-Republicans -- thereafter supported Ashcroft's confirmation.

As the Post puts it, "Conservative groups, including the Family Research Council and the Concerned Women for America, have criticized administration efforts to reach out to gay groups," and that's what this is all about. GOP administrations will only make real gestures of support for gays and lesbians when more gays and lesbians support Republicans -- and thus are able as a bloc to counter the threats of religious right activists. But alas, more gays and lesbians will support the GOP only when the party stops kowtowing to its anti-gay constituency -- an unfortunate paradox.
--Stephen H. Miller

Hate Crimes Charges Sought Against Homosexual Protestors reads the headline on the conservative CNSNews.com website. It seems that the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts is seeking state and federal hate crimes charges against gay protestors who "disturbed" Sunday's Mass at Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross to protest the Church's opposition to gay marriage. According to C.J. Doyle, executive director of the league:

"A number of them embraced one another, held hands, and at least two male homosexuals kissed each other. -- A number of parishioners had to get up and actually move because either their view of the sanctuary was being blocked or because they felt somehow threatened or menaced by these protestors."

One of the protestors, Mark Snyder of QueerToday.com, is quoted as saying he found it "hurtful and offensive that I'm being accused of a hate crime because I've been a victim of hate crimes before growing up" -- for example, being "verbally and physically harassed on a daily basis" at high school.

I don't want to be flippant about actual cases of gays, and gay kids, being physically threatened -- or worse. But the language of "hate crimes" has become so whiney and malleable that it's a wonder the other side hasn't caught on sooner to how it can be used to silence dissent.

Real crimes of violence and the threat of violence should be prosecuted. But when "hurtful speech" or obnoxious behavior that makes people feel bad is elevated to the level of "hate crimes," then it's not surprising that the right of gay activists to "act up" is also going to come under attack.

The New York Times catches up with the escalating battle within the Republican Party over the Bush administration's overtures toward gays, which has enraged religious rightists. Those of us who regularly read the gay press's attacks on the president for being anti-gay, and then visit "Christian" activist sites that castigate the president for being pro-gay, sometimes feel like we're living in an Alice-in-Wonderland world.

By the way, the Times article -- unless subsequently corrected online -- mistakenly has George Bush appointing James Hormel as ambassador to Romania. The openly gay Bush appointee is career-diplomat Michael Guest, who has been blasted by social conservatives for "flaunting" his relationship with his partner. Hormel, a gay liberal philanthropist and Democratic Party contributor, was Bill Clinton's recess appointment to be ambassador to Luxembourg -- a far less important post.

Fodder for Conspiracy Buffs?

Some good news for gay Republicans:

The Republican Unity Coalition, a gay-straight alliance working to make sexual orientation a "non-issue" in the GOP, announced that financier David Rockefeller is joining the group's advisory board, on which former president Gerald Ford also serves, as reported in this Washington Post item (scroll down). Rockefeller, by the way, is a founder of The Trilateral Commission, which both far right and far left "wingnuts" accuse of trying to foster a shadow world government. Well, as long as it's a gay-inclusive conspiracy, count me in!

The Face of Hate.

Eric Robert Rudolph, charged with bombing the 1996 Olympics Park, abortion clinics, and a gay nighclub, has finally been caught. The sad part is that at least some residents of the North Carolina hills were apparently helping him evade capture, reports the New York Times, believing that he was doing the Lord's work. Sorry, folks, but Jesus actually wasn't a terrorist.

The Next Pope?

Speaking of those who take bigotry as their gospel, looks as if a likely candidate to become the next pope is virulently anti-gay. He's
Cardinal Francis Arinze, a Nigerian prelate who presides over the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue at the Vatican. At Georegtown University's commencement, he told the grads that the family is "mocked by homosexuality." Prejudice, alas, comes in all colors.
--Stephen H. Miller

Recent Postings

05/25/03 - 05/31/03

Big-tent conservative activist David Horowitz responds to his critics, who accused him of attacking Christians when he criticized the religious right's demand that the GOP condemn homosexuality as immoral and support its criminalization. Writes Horowitz:

Would [anti-gay activist] Robert Knight like the government to investigate every American to determine whether they are homosexual or not and then compel those who are to undergo conversion therapy - or else? This is a prescription for a totalitarian state. No conservative should want any part of it. But this is how Robert Knight sums up the political agenda of social conservatives. Those who agree with him should think again.

Horowitz also scores when he objects to:

the systematic confusion of ethnic, gender, or sexual groups with leftwing political agendas. All blacks are not leftists; all women are not leftists; and all homosexuals are not leftists. To condemn them as such is both intolerant and politically stupid. ...

As a veteran of leftist revolutions, I know the difference between a leftist gay activist and a Log Cabin Republican, and so should Robert Knight. It is not a fiction that homosexuals -- as politically active citizens -- can help Republicans win elections. It is a fact.

After all, he observes, "a higher percentage of homosexuals voted Republican than did blacks, Jews or Hispanics."

Another View of Foley.

Miami Herald columnist Jim DeFede is more critical of Rep. Mark Foley for refusing to discuss his private life -- or, more to the point, the way in which he framed his refusal to discuss his private life -- than was the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund (see yesterday's item).
--Stephen H. Miller

An article in this week's New York Times Magazine called "The Young Hipublicans," by John Colapinto, looks at young college conservatives -- and finds that unlike earlier generations they're pretty cool when it comes to gays. An excerpt:

But the difference between the college conservatives of 20 years ago and today goes deeper than dress. Many members of the Bucknell conservatives club, for instance, endorse same-sex unions. Corey Langer recently wrote a Counterweight article supporting gay marriages. This is a far cry from -- when gay males were termed ''sodomites'' in The Dartmouth Review.

In part, the Bucknellians' openness to gays and lesbians can be attributed to the strong streak of libertarianism that runs through the club -- a conviction that the government should stay out of any and all aspects of life, including the bedroom. But you can't hang out long with the Bucknell Conservatives and not form the opinion that their tolerance on issues like homosexuality goes beyond libertarianism.

Like the rest of their generation, they've been trained, from preschool onward, in the tenets of cooperation, politeness and racial and gender sensitivity. As much as they would hate to admit it -- as hard as they try to fight it -- these quintessential values have suffused their consciousness and tempered their messages. "

Though they don't necessarily think of themselves as Republican, the stance they take on individual issues -- taxes, abortion, affirmative action -- gives them a conservative identity. And being a conservative can be cool and, as Mitchell puts it, not ''just something that wacko people in Alabama do.

Those in the conservative/libertarian camp are taking on the reactionary bigotry of their forebears, so in the not too distant future both the mainstream right and left will offer welcoming alternatives to gay people, as the preachers of prejudice find themselves increasingly marginalized.

Public or Private?

Responding to published accounts "outing" Rep. Mark Foley (R-Florida), who is running for the U.S. Senate, the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund -- which works to elect openly gay candidates -- issued this statement. Says Victory Fund Executive Director Chuck Wolfe:

We believe that openly gay and lesbian public servants are part of a healthy democracy and a representative government. -- At the same time, we believe that all Americans have a fundamental right to privacy, and therefore, a right to choose not to discuss their personal lives. --

It is reported that Congressman Foley, in his conversation today with select reporters, asserted his choice not to discuss his private life, which we respect. At those junctures where Congressman Foley does reference either his personal life or homosexuality, we call on him to be factual and truthful, so as to respect the decision of millions of gay Americans to live open, honest lives.

We also call on Congressman Foley, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and the Republican Party under his leadership to make no statements that suggest that openly gay Americans are unfit for public service or incapable of embracing conservative principles, if they so choose. We believe that voters will choose their elected representatives based on the issues, not speculation.

That seems like a reasoned -- and reasonable -- response. As much as I'd like more gay Republicans to come out, the bar should be set high when it comes to claiming a "right" to label anyone's sexuality against their wishes.

Recent Postings

05/18/03 - 05/24/03

What's fascinating and disturbing about Florida GOP congressman (and senate hopeful) Mark Foley's attempt to avoid discussing "topic G" is the way that, at least for now, anti-gay colleagues like Tom Delay are backing him up. Memo to Mark: Something's got to give, one way or the other -- it's 2003, not 1953 (or even 1993)!

At Least Someone's Having a Good Time.

Popular blogger Eugene Volokh, who teaches at UCLA Law School and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, presents some interesting findings on what he terms "the myth of the median hyper-promiscuous gay male." Volokh writes:

the claim that the median American gay male (not just a minority of gays) is hyper-promiscuous (not just a bit more promiscuous than heterosexuals) appears to be false -- and politically quite important. --

" claims that, say, the median gay man has over 250 sexual partners in a lifetime makes gays seem in a way freakish and deviant, and makes it much harder for people to see gay sexual relationships as emotionally comparable to straight sexual relationships. --

All the data I've seen supporting the hyper-promiscuous median gay male claim has been junk science. It often refers to real studies -- but to studies of groups that we have no reason to think are representative of the median gay male.

In other words, a small minority of the gay male minority is skewing the results for the rest of us -- quell surprise!

Conservatives vs. Religious Right,
Round 2.

Ramesh Ponnuru, a senior editor at the conservative National Review, had this to say at National Review Online about threats being made by religious right leaders that their minions might bolt the GOP if President Bush doesn't toe their anti-gay line:

Social-conservative leaders have the bad habits of not setting priorities and of threatening more than they can deliver. The average social conservative likes President Bush. -- If the administration continues its current course -- and does not nominate a squish to the Supreme Court -- are social conservatives really going to stay home because Marc Racicot [head of the Republican National Committee] met with gay groups and the president didn't support Rick Santorum more forcefully?

To which Ken Connor, the head of the Family Research Council, replied. And to which Ponnuru then replied back (scroll down past the tax-cut story).
--Stephen H. Miller

There's an important new piece by influential conservative David Horowitz on his frontpagemagazine.com website. Titled Pride Before a Fall, Horowitz takes to task the homophobia of the religious right, finding it both intolerant and divisive. He writes:

In four Gospels - including the Sermon on the Mount - Jesus neglected to mention the subject of homosexuality. But that hasn't stopped a handful of self-appointed leaders of the so-called Religious Right from deciding that it is an issue worth the presidency of the United States. In what the Washington Times described as a "stormy session" last week, the Rev. Lou Sheldon, Paul Weyrich, Gary Bauer and eight other "social conservatives" read the riot act to RNC chairman Marc Racicot for meeting with the "Human Rights Campaign," a group promoting legal protections for homosexuals. This indiscretion, they said, "could put Bush's entire re-election campaign in jeopardy."

According to the Times" report by Ralph Hallow, the RNC chairman defended himself by saying, "You people don't want me to meet with other folks, but I meet with anybody and everybody." To this Gary Bauer retorted, "That can't be true because you surely would not meet with the leaders of the Ku Klux Klan."

Nice analogy Gary. Way to love thy neighbor.

There are a growing number of important conservative figures who are not happy with the religious right's anti-gay antics, especially their threats against the Bush administration over its outreach toward gays. Increasingly, the religious right is being marginalized by mainstream conservatives who know that the future is an inclusive one, based on the core values of indivdiual liberty and responsiblity, as opposed to the left's bureaucratic collectivism and the religious right's bigotry (and big-goverment support for bedroom police enforcing sodomy laws). This is a very good sign.
--Stephen H. Miller

Recent Postings

05/11/03 - 05/17/03

Here's the Christian right's view of the 2004 presidential election, via their worldnetdaily website, which laments:

The 2004 election mantra for politicos may well be "It's homosexuality, stupid," as Democratic candidates openly court the "gay" vote, and Republicans make quiet incursions into the traditionally Democratic territory -- all to the distress of conservative, pro-family groups.

One suspects their distress will only grow more acute over time, as a new Gallup poll suggests that supporting gay equality is no longer a losing issue. Among the findings:

"almost 9 out of 10 Americans agree that homosexuals should have equal rights in terms of job opportunities, although opinions on allowing homosexual couples to legally form civil unions, giving them some of the legal rights of married couples, are evenly divided."

Taking the 'Culture War' Home.

Tammy Bruce, an openly lesbian critic of politically correct feminism, has a column on the conservative (but NOT religious right) frontpagemagazine.com site explaining why supporters of limited government should oppose sodomy laws.

Making this argument to mainstream conservatives on their own terms is far more productive than the usual gay protests, which too often seem to consists of little more than chanting "bigot, bigot go away" in the gay left's echo chamber. A similar point is made by Carl Schmid, a former head of DC's Log Cabin chapter, who writes in the Washington Blade:

America is still being educated about gays, and the battle over our equal rights and responsibilities is basically being fought in the Republican Party. This makes sense since the more conservative voters are in the Republican Party.

Given where the remaining minds that need to be convinced are, isn't it incumbent upon all gay and lesbian advocacy organizations, both at the national and local level, to focus more of their attention on conservative-leaning voters and their elected officials?

Since the White House and Congress are controlled by Republicans, and likely will be in at least the near future, there is even more of a reason for the gay rights movement to change its course of action and focus more on Republican voters and officials.

That means our advocacy groups need more Republican voices, both gay and straight; they need more Republican leaders within their ranks; they need to make Republicans feel welcome into their organizations; they need to speak the language and style of Republicans; they need to spend less time in the offices of their friends and more with Republican elected officials, Republican voters in swing districts and conservative media outlets; and they need to learn to criticize in a constructive manner and praise when appropriate.

Well said! The Blade, by the way, also deserves credit this week for covering the attacks by religious rightists on the Bush administration over its outreach to gays -- an invisible story in most of the media. The report is titled Racicot's HRC meeting outrages "pro-family" groups.
--Stephen H. Miller

The religious rightists have caught on to the meeting last week between administration officials and Log Cabin Republicans, and they're hopping mad. Here's a posting from the anti-gay Family Research Council's website:

Despite repeated assurances, both public and private, that the party has no intention of abandoning its commitment to the sanctity of marriage and the family, the White House and the GOP continue to court radical homosexual groups that agitate for policies that would destroy both of these indispensable social institutions. ... This incessant pandering to the homosexual lobby is deeply troubling.

Again, it's amazing that the gay and mainstream media are ignoring the fulminations of the religious right over the administration's tepid outreach efforts.
--Stephen H. Miller

It's interesting that Deroy Murdock's column criticizing sodomy laws, which I first referred to on May 11 (below), has now been printed in the Sunday New York Post and today on National Review Online. That's really taking the argument to the conservatives!
--Stephen H. Miller