From The Advocate: Liberals and Their Invisible Homophobia

[canis_lupus]

Before the Don Imus show was canceled last year, New Mexico governor and then Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson used the word maricón, Spanish slang for “faggot,” after the shock jock goaded Richardson by questioning his Hispanic heritage. “Would you agree that Bernard is a maricón?” Imus asked Richardson, referring to his cohost, Bernard McGuirk.

Replying in Spanish, Richardson laughed: “I believe that Bernard, yes, he’s a faggot if he thinks I am not Hispanic.”

Richardson is hardly the only prominent Democrat to engage in such banter. In an excerpt from his book, No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner, Democratic strategist Bob Shrum recounts a 1998 encounter with John Edwards, who had hired him as a consultant for his first Senate campaign. "What is your position, Mr. Edwards, on gay rights?" Shrum recalls asking Edwards. "I'm not comfortable around those people," the future senator replied -- though both Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, have since said that the quote was taken out of context.

<snip>

As odious as this rhetoric may be, it is indicative of an attitude among straight liberals for whom gay rights is not a signature issue. They may be happy to support the notion of gay civic equality in the abstract, but it's certainly not something they're going to go out of their way to do and risk political capital. And if in the course of political debate they have the opportunity to denigrate gays for political advantage (or are forced to contend with a gay person who does not share their views), they won't think twice about saying things that, were they to come out of the mouth of a conservative, would immediately be labeled “homophobic.”

http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid52812.asp

[Bluebear]

1. Visit GD: P on any given day.

[canis_lupus]

2. LOL. Sad but true.

It's a shame the vast majority of GD:P posters won't bother to read it (and if they did, they certainly wouldn't recognize themselves in it).

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. I was going to say, it sure as Hell ain't invisible around here

Then again, the bigots will be the first to point out that Democrat != liberal.

[terrya]

10. No shit.

I always feel about 1,000,000,000 times more comfortable being in here than GDP.

[Yael]

3. Or, it was a joke on a shock jock show.

Pick yer battles

Oh, and welcome to DU.

[LostinVA]

5. Sorry, but I don't think Democratic politicians should be making fag jokes anywhere

Especially on the radio.

Just like people shouldn't defend fag jokes anywhere on DU, especially in the GLBT forum.

[Yael]

6. Self-delete

Wasn't meant as a defense as I am an advocate. Deleting response as to not get any further into this...

[gaspee]

11. You illustrate

The above point perfectly.

I guess making a n***** joke or a sp** joke would be all right in your opinion as well?

[mitchtv]

7. Does "get to the back of the bus' count?

Is so you don't have to leave LGBT.
but GD-P is a shit trove

[Moloch]

8. I remember that Edwards quote...

of course, he's going to say that he didn't mean it because was trying (and failed in every way possible) to be president.

[Bluenorthwest]

9. The linked article

Is one of the truest things I have ever read. Thanks for posting it here, at DU, where the author's words are proved as fact each and every day.

[kdpeters]

12. It was a right wing smear piece--"The most common liberal homophobia ...mostly comes from gays"?

Are you kidding me with this?

It was a Right wing queer really really stretching it, as right wingers often do, to somehow expose this hidden liberal hypocrisy. Most of the stuff detailed isn't even close to being homophobia. Of the few right wing queers I've known, they have a persecution complex and a sort of vendetta against the gay community. There's this right wing blogger called Gay Patriot, and he's constantly constantly attacking the gay community for liberal beliefs or for attacking right wing beliefs. Just like the author:

The most common form of liberal homophobia is the sort launched against gays who identify as conservative, libertarian, or just not liberal. These attacks, unfortunately, mostly come from gays themselves.

I remember that Richardson incident and it is about the only thing in the entire article I'm positive is accurately labelled homophobia. It all reads too much like right-wing innuendo and spin. Notice all the strung together out of context quotes. It should be taken with a grain of salt.

This topic could have been done by someone approaching the topic in good faith and it would have been a good read. Unfortunately, it wasn't.

[Chovexani]

13. If you ignore the Log Cabin martyr crap, he actually makes several good points.

I particularly liked the last line, where he states that support for gay rights does not absolve liberals of homophobia. Too many people seem to think that's the case, and you see this attitude all over DU. "But look how much I've done for you people! I couldn't possibly be a homophobe!" is way too common among progressives.

[and-justice-for-all]

14. I let the stigma of that tone of the word go a long time ago...

I am not at all offended by it. I always refer them to the terms original meaning: A bundle of sticks or a cigarette.

I would rather be called a fag then a republican any day.

[TechBear_Seattle]

15. "Faggot" has an interesting etymology

Ultimately, it derives from Latin fagus, or beech tree. The beech was sacred to Jupiter and was one of the sacred woods that could be used to form the fasces, the bundle of twigs that represented civic authority (it is from the fasces that we get "faggot" as meaning a bundle of sticks.)

There was a class of priests in the ancient Roman religion who tended sacred groves of beech trees, and gave oracles based on the sounds of wind in the leaves and branches. These were the sacredoti fagi, "priests of the beeches." Like many Roman priests, their lives were hemmed in with a great many prohibitions; one of the prohibitions of a sacredotus fagi was to abstain from sexual relations with women. As a result, this priesthood tended to attract men who had no natural inclination towards sexual relations with women and who sought a respectable way out of the intense social pressure to marry and produce children. It is very likely that "faggot" as a reference to gay men has its roots here.

Years ago when I was active in the Society for Creative Anachronism, I met up with a group that called itself the Holy Brotherhood of the Knights of the Burning Brand. Their heraldic symbol was a bundle of sticks envelopped with a gold flame, ie a flaming faggot. They explained the symbol (remembering from a flyer) by saying that a single twig was easily broken, but when bound together by cords of friendship and tradition, the twigs could not be broken. Their purpose was to serve as a light, thus the fire. And yes, they were a group of gay men in the SCA who did community activism.

[and-justice-for-all]

16. sacredotus fagi

Oh yes, that does sound appropriate. "abstaining from sex with women" would indeed make one a sacredotus fagi by that explaination.

"saying that a single twig was easily broken, but when bound together by cords of friendship and tradition, the twigs could not be broken. Their purpose was to serve as a light, thus the fire. And yes, they were a group of gay men in the SCA who did community activism." That definition/logic really lets the stigma go..

Faggot has never bothered me, more so because I have above redneck-bigot intelligence.

[DarkTirade]

17. Sometimes I wish I could rec comments as well a posts. :)

[xchrom]

18. kick