A Stitch in Haste

"You may say you don't hate us, but the people you vote for do, so what's the difference? Our own country's democratic process declares us to be unequal. Which means, in a democracy, that our enemy is you. You treat us like crumbs. You hate us. And sadly, we let you."
--Larry Kramer*

To review, a very stupid person wrote a very stupid thing:

"The caricatures of the left notwithstanding, there is no substantial conservative constituency which is hostile to homosexual indidividuals [sic]."

Let's review some of those recent "caricatures."

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ITEM: The city manager of Largo, Florida, has been fired for being a transsexual —

The City Commission voted 5 to 2 to dismiss the man, Steven B. Stanton, after a six-hour hearing in which he and his supporters argued that he could do his job just as well once he became a woman. Some commissioners said they had voted to fire Mr. Stanton not because he wanted to become a woman, but because he had violated their trust and caused a major disruption.

Utter nonsense. A sex-change operation is more disruptive than, say, maternity leave? He was fired out of bigotry, by the "no substantial constituency" that loathes gays, transsexuals and other "not hated" "indidividuals."

Stanton had repeatedly received favorable reviews and had just gotten a raise — his firing is almost on a par with the U.S. Attorney scandal. Except here the "no substantial constituency" is being far more overt in their actions.

"Employment at will" is all well and good, but public servants, whom the Largo City Commissioners claim to be, should act in the public interest. Firing a fully competent individual with a better-than-acceptable record, out of petty hatred, fear and ignorance, is simply not "the public interest."

Finally, note that Stanton's plight has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with gay marriage. When they say "it's all about marriage," they lie. It's all about hate.

Previous post here (fourth item). More thoughts from Pam's House Blend.

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ITEM: How are the Soulforce Equality Riders doing?

We ran into police intimidation in Clinton Mississippi. Prior to leaving the town of Clinton Mississippi the Equality Ride bus was confronted three times by the same police officer who told the Equality Ride bus driver to "go on and get out of town." The final time the officer interacted with the bus driver he threatened to arrest him if he did not follow his order.

The group has filed a formal written grievance with the Mississippi Attorney General for the apparent police misconduct, and six national gay rights organizations have written a complaint to the mayor of Clinton.

So if there is indeed "no substantial constituency" that hates gay "indidividuals," one wonders how the incident happened in the first place, and how swiftly action by Mississippi's "public servants" will follow.

And again, note that the Equality Ride is not about gay marriage per se, but merely about attempting to open a dialog about gay issues on college campuses officially unwelcoming to gays. (Such colleges — and there are many — also apparently comprise "no substantial constituency." Go figure.)

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ITEM: Finally, exactly what would qualify as a "substantial constituency" hostile to homosexual "indidivuals"?

What would you think of a country that spends most of its time arguing over whether a man can marry a man and do to each other what is despised by 99.9 percent of humanity from the beginning of time until now? Because make no mistake about it: 99.9 percent of humanity despises this behavior because they do not want to go down that road, and they know it's the road of death.

That was Michael Savage, explaining why Islamofascists want to destroy the Western way of life. Not because of fundamentally different religious texts, not because of perceived incursions into their lands. Not because of oil. Not because of a comprehensive opposition to modernity, individuality, equal treatment under the law, and capitalist egalitarianism.

No, they hate us because we don't hate gays enough. So we need to start catching up — to "99.9% of humanity" — by hating gays even more, so maybe the terrorists will leave us alone.

Michael Savage is the third most popular talk radio personality in America, with an estimated audience of eight million listeners.

Who apparently still don't qualify as a "substantial constituency." Neither, apparently, does "99.9% of humanity," if we are to believe Savage.

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More from Larry Kramer:

What do we do to you that is so awful? Why do you feel compelled to come after us with such frightful energy? Does this somehow make you feel safer and legitimate? What possible harm comes to you if we marry, or are taxed just like you, or are protected from assault by laws that say it is morally wrong to assault people out of hatred?

Good questions all. Perhaps some "substantial constituency hostile to homosexual indidividuals" will someday be able to answer it. For now, unfortunately, remember: no such "substantial constituency" even exists.

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*Source for the Kramer quotes here, via here. You can listen to a lengthy recent Kramer speech with much the same text at this podcast.

Note that I do not agree with much, perhaps most, of Kramer's ultra-left political leanings, especially his absurd theories of pharmaceutical economics, his revisionist history of ACT UP's importance in the 1980s and 1990s, and his sloppy flip-flop equating of the "gay" and "HIV+" communities, which have neither identical constituencies nor issues. Overlapping, yes to some extent, but not identical — and the differences are important. Still, his view on contemporary gay politics — especially contemporary gay Democratic politics — is spot on.