Friday, April 29, 2011

Michelle Malkin accuses the lgbts of creating 'harassment lists' while omitting she did the same thing

After my Know Your LGBT History segment post below, I told myself that I wasn't going to post anymore tonight.

But right-wing firebrand Michelle Malkin did something that just called my name.

According to Equality Matters, Malkin was throwing out a usual whine about how the "left tries to silence opponents:

In an April 29 blog post, she criticized the Left’s attempt to “use campaign finance disclosure as a weapon to intimidate and silence political opponents.” The majority of her post was dedicated to attacking activists who planned to protest companies that have sent donations to Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker.

And she had the temerity to call out the lgbt community:

We saw it during the Proposition 8 traditional marriage battle in California, where gay rights avengers compiled black lists, harassment lists and Google target maps of citizens who contributed to the ballot measure.

We saw it when “progressive” zealots smeared Target Corporation and Chick-fil-A for daring to associate with social conservatives.

Now Equality Matters shoots down Malkin by saying the following:

If companies have a right to endorse certain candidates, causes, or political ideologies, consumers have the same right to endorse (or oppose) particular companies because of their political affiliations. If a company is willing to take a controversial political position (backing policies denying millions of gay and lesbian Americans equal treatment under the law, for example), then it must also be prepared to deal with the significant backlash it could potentially face from its customers.

Free speech does not require that companies or people br shielded from criticism for their political activities. On the contrary, it requires that Americans not be restricted in their ability to mobilize, organize, and protest against activities that they disagree with.

And for the record, it’s not exactly accurate to say companies like Target and Chick-fil-A were attacked for “daring to associate with social conservatives.” Target donated $150,000 to a group working to elect a notoriously anti-gay Minnesota GOP gubernatorial candidate. Chick-fil-A donated over $1 million to some of the country’s most notorious anti-gay groups, including several known hate groups.

These companies were doing more than simply “associat[ing]” with social conservatives – they were actively involved in using money they had made off of their customers to prevent LGBT Americans from receiving equal treatment under the law. 

Significant doubt has already been cast on Malkin’s assertion that “gay rights avengers” harassed and targeted supporters of Proposition 8. Still, even in that instance, LGBT activists weren’t taking issue with anyone’s speech – they were taking issue with an orchestrated political campaign that ultimately succeeded in denying marriage rights to thousands gay and lesbian couples.

Excellent retort, but I am stuck on her claim about "black lists" and "harassment lists" because on December 7, 2009, Malkin did the same thing she accused "the left"of doing.

It was in the middle of the ridiculous attempt by folks on the right to get Obama to fire Kevin Jennings, his appointee to the Department of Education.

While others on the right were spinning all sorts of lies about Jennings "indoctrinating children into homosexuality,"  Malkin took it upon herself to compile a list of the companies which supported the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) - the organization which Jennings founded - and advised her readers to:

Make sure they know that you know what they’re helping put in public school classrooms.

So Michelle, what's the difference between what you did and what you are accusing "the left" of doing?

Or better yet, before you pick up another rock to throw, perhaps you check out the shape of your glass house.



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Know Your LGBT History - Not Another Gay Movie

Not Another Gay Movie (2006) typifies the saying "you've come a long way, baby."

Another other time in our nation's history, this motion picture would have probably caused huge controversy.

But it went by without a whimper and is actually a cult classic in some circles.

Not Another Gay Movie is an extremely low-brown takeoff of another low-brown comedy (American Pie) which tells the story of four gay teens seeking to lose their "anal virginity."

All of the stereotypes are present - the nerdy guy, the cute jock, the flamboyant queen, and the overly horny guy.

And since it's low-brow there is nudity (a lot of nudity), and toilet humor (the enema scene is one I refuse to describe for you).

So what do I think of this movie?

I liked it. It was hilarious.

Not every lgbt movie has to be serious or have "a message." Nor do lgbt movie characters have to be virtuous . There is nothing wrong with a little crass humor every now and then.

I personally believe that there is a thin line between offensiveness and crass humor and this movie doesn't cross that line.

Barely, that is:




Past Know Your LGBT History Posts:

Hate group creating new anti-gay documentary and other Friday midday news briefs

Coming (condemnation of certain) attractions - Let me guess the plot: Lgbts are evil bloodsucking monsters out to destroy the universe.

'Glee' Episode Under Attack For Gay Themes - The religious right must be slipping. It takes them this long to get angry at Glee?

Linda Harvey Blames Mortgage Crisis On Homosexuality - Oh yeah. That's the reason for the mortgage crisis.

U.S. Labor Department strives to be 'model workplace' for gay, lesbian, transgender employees - Good for the Department of Labor.

With Drudge Report's Help, Birthers Latch Onto Phony Forgery Theory - Birthers are like the religious right. When the facts contradict them, they create their own "facts."



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'Porno' Pete LaBarbera getting desperate, returns back to his old habits

Virulent homophobe Peter LaBarbera got the nickname of "Porno Pete" for his habit of going to subcultural leather events, taking pictures, and then giving "loving" details of the shenanigans there by the gay men while ignoring the activities of heterosexuals in attendance.

For a while, it looked like LaBarbera has shied away from the behavior which made him infamous.

But I guess old habits die hard. However instead of prowling subcultural leather events, our "friendly neighborhood anti-gay activist" is now prowling universities, most specifically the University of Chicago:

The University of Chicago provided nearly $3,200 to a “kink” student group for a traveling sadomasochistic “leather library” exhibit at the University that eroticized pedophilia, incest, and the most deviant pornographic perversions known to mankind.

Americans For Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH) sent a reporter yesterday to the exhibit – at the University’s International House – and came back with photos of the shockingly perverse offerings of the “Carter Johnson Leather Library,” including:

. . . Incredibly, the University of Chicago now officially sanctions a “student group” for sexual sadists: RACK (Risk-Aware Consensual Kink), through which the traveling “leather library” exhibit was funded. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, RACK “received nearly $3,200 in university grant money to bring the display to campus.”

The grant for the “fetish” exhibit came from the “Uncommon Fund,” a $40,000, student-run program that “offers a chance for students to pursue a wide range of ideas that can benefit the campus community and campus life,” a U-Chicago spokesman told the Sun-Times.

Photo-"art" from the Leather Library shows a woman beating her male "slave," who has a ball-and-chain attached to his ankle. Why would the University of Chicago pay to promote such "sexualized cruelty" to its students?

The sadistic-sex exhibit was free and open to the public, and while AFTAH’s reporter was present, a few young women and men – who appeared to be around 20 – came to view the depraved materials.

My guess is that the "reporter" was Peter himself. It's always amusing when he attempts to make his organization sound like a big group rather than the depraved fantasy of one man who masks his bizarre interest in subcultural leather events into a crusade "for morality."

And of course LaBarbera provides graphic pictures and descriptions of this event, which by the way, was not lgbt specific. At no time does the original Chicago Sun Times article, which LaBarbera alluded to, called it an lgbt-specific event.

Welcome back, "Porno Pete." Those of us pining for amusement have missed you.

A more balanced view - and between you and me, I probably wouldn't go to an event like this - is here in The Chicago Sun Times.






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