At least they're all "on message" over there on the edge of religious-right-wingnut land. This morning we had Mr. Hannson from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty comparing Prop 8 protests to Al Qaeda ... now, this just in from the Human Rights Campaign: Pat Boone equating anti-Proposition 8 protesters with the terrorists of Mumbai in India.
In the commentary titled “Hate is hate, in India or America,” which can be viewed here, Pat Boone writes, “let me ask you: Have you not seen the awful similarity between what happened in Mumbai and what's happening right now in our cities?”
“What troubles me so deeply, and should trouble all thinking Americans, is that there is a real, unbroken line between the jihadist savagery in Mumbai and the hedonistic, irresponsible, blindly selfish goals and tactics of our homegrown sexual jihadists."
Read more here.
Here's the response I gave to Episcopal Cafe about this sad
"It is patently irresponsible to equate the actions of American citizens in the streets peacefully protesting discrimination against gay and lesbian people with terrorists in Mumbai or anyplace else. What we are seeing are the same tactics used by the "Yes on 8" campaign here in California to create a fear based response to misinformation in order to continue to marginalize gays and lesbians. That someone of Pat Boone's stature would sink to this level is deeply disturbing and flies in the face of the new spirit of hope and cooperation we look forward to with a new administration in Washington. He should be ashamed of himself."
.
8 comments:
This is a coordinated response to label us as terrorists. I am very impressed at how you are nimbly responding to this! We have to keep challenging their hatred.
The Newsweek article shows that the media is starting to look behind the curtain. The other side are relentlessly on message, but they are panicking. They didn't expect us to fight back, any more than the cops at Stonewall expected the drag queens to fight back. Bullies tend to become cowards when we refuse to be cowed. But they can also be most dangerous.
It's all very Les Miserables, isn't it?
It will only work with those that hate so much that their own sense of their homophobia is buried deeply. They are not movable anyway.
The rest of the country, frankly, must be scratching their heads... this sounds like Bush-Speak and didn't we just toss that thinking to the wind?
As for Pat Boone (and those horrid white shoes), to be honest, his generation is mostly gone, now. In fact, I actually thought he was (oops) deceased. His ridicule is just ancient writhing.
We have a long way to go in this fight, whether lgbt or supporters.
What is happening in New York is just sad, sad, sad. Gay marriange off the table until at least 2010 it looks like.
I'm still holding on to great hope at the court. Perhaps I am too optomistic, some say. Well, yeah, that would be me. My glass is 1/2 full until it isn't.
We all know, though, that ultimately this will be won, one way or another. For the sake of equality and respect (and love), I am holding out for this sooner v. later.
Sticks and stones... and Jihadists.
Sheesh.
There's nothing new under the sun here, is there.
60 years ago: Yell "Communist" long enough, someone will notice.
Now: Yell "Terrorist" or "Al-Qaida" or "jihad" long enough, someone will notice.
I recommend renting the 1956 movie Storm Center, with Bette Davis. It finally premiered on TCM a couple weeks ago. The plot: Middle aged single librarian won't take a book about Communism off the shelf at a public library. All hell breaks loose. Wonderful watching fare in this day and age.
Be sure to check out The Daily Show for 12-9-08: Jon Stewart took Mike Huckabee to SCHOOL re ssm! Completely PWNED, as the kids say. ;-p
[It will be the *second* Huckabee segment, when it's posted to TheDailyShow.Com ]
The Right Wing used the same tactic to smear people who opposed Dubyah's war.
I heard you on KPFA and agree with IT. Thanks for a fine response. How quickly we've forgotten Matthew Shephard, not to mention the daily harassment and beatings and killings that happen to lgbt persons.
IT is spot on. They are also laying the ground work for an organized backlash. They build up thier naratives and then run with them. The problem is that until very recently the rest of us have been slow to respond in the past and now they have to ramp up the volume.
They rae having to combine their rhetoric and, if we push back hard enough, the wheels will come off the wagon. We all need to mount the baracades at this point, no matter where we live.
God help us all.
Here's the link to The Daily Show segment: Stewart vs. Huckabee on Same-Sex Marriage [Spoiler alert: Stewart Wins. ;-)]
****
Onto (horribly) predictable news: another victim of the ACTUAL "sexual jihad" (which is to say, the victims are LGBT people . . . or those who just SEEM like us! :-(
Hand-holding Ecuadorean brothers attacked in NYC as gay: one dies.
[I note that his family hasn't resolved what "brain dead" means, in some reports]
May Jose Sucuzhanay rest in peace, and rise in glory.
Lord, may ALL Hate Crimes END!!!
Post a Comment