Friday Gay Blogging

I don't remember whether I've used this image before. It's one of my favorites.

OK -- I'm back, sort of. Still a little burnt, but I couldn't let Friday go by without something, so here's a bit of a wander through the gay news and commentary for the week.

First, this story from the SF Chronicle, by way of Pam's House Blend. It seems the Catholic hierarchy is stepping in to aid their friends of the moment, the LDS Church, with damage control:

The Mormon church has said Niederauer, previously the bishop of Salt Lake City for 11 years, played a pivotal role in its joining the cause.

"We were invited to join the coalition," Michael Otterson, managing director of public affairs for the church, told The Chronicle in an interview shortly after the election. "We didn't unilaterally go into the battle."

Otterson said Niederauer's letter persuaded the Mormon church that they wouldn't be fighting this battle alone, a status that would have made them vulnerable.

"Having Catholics, evangelicals and Jews in a coalition was exactly the right way to do it," Otterson said. "We knew someone would make this a Mormon-versus-gays battle."

In his statement Wednesday, titled "Moving forward together," Niederauer urged both sides to tone down the rhetoric and move toward a common cause.

Maybe Niederauer should start by toning down his own rhetoric.

Niederauer's statements need a hard look. Actually, not even that hard -- the falsities are obvious. Take this:

"Religious leaders in America have the constitutional right to speak out on issues of public policy," Niederauer wrote in a statement posted on the archdiocese's Web site. "Catholic bishops, specifically, also have a responsibility to teach the faith, and our beliefs about marriage and family are part of this faith."

Niederauer, who has declined interview requests, wrote that "to insist that citizens be silent about their religious beliefs" would have had a detrimental effect on history, gagging the voices of important abolitionists and people in the civil rights movement.

First, no one tried to gag the Mormons, or the Catholics, or anyone else. And, following the lead of other demagogues on the right, Niederauer conflates the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression without interference from the government with some fantasy right to say what you want without consequences from the public. Take another look at the First Amendment:

Congress shal make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;

The whole point of that was to encourage "the free marketplace of ideas," which is exactly what statements like Niederauer's are trying to curtail: he's using his position as a religious functionary to try to stifle dissent with his and hs allies' pronouncements, and even more their actions in suppressing the freedoms of a minority of whom they disapprove. And he's lying about it by placing the blame on those who have objected, quite rightly, to the actions of his church and the Mormons in placing their religious dogma into the law of California, which is itself a violation of constitutionally guaranteed rights.

This is the standard cant from the religious right, when they're not busy calling gays perverts, child molesters, terrorists, and worse:

In his statement Wednesday, titled "Moving forward together," Niederauer urged both sides to tone down the rhetoric and move toward a common cause.

"Tolerance, respect and trust are always two-way streets and tolerance, respect and trust often do not include agreement, or even approval," he wrote. "We need to be able to disagree without being disagreeable. ... We need to stop hurling names like 'bigot' and 'pervert' at each other. And we need to stop it now.

"We churchgoers need to speak and act out of the truth that all people are God's children and are unconditionally loved by God," he wrote.

Try reconciling that statement with this, which I noted a day or two ago:

The Catholic church — as part of a what it sees as a consistent “pro-life” ethic — opposes the death penalty. But the Vatican’s representative in the United Nations is opposing a measure calling on governments around the world to decriminalize homosexuality — including countries which impose the death penalty on gays:

Archbishop Celestino Migliore said the Vatican opposed the resolution because it would “add new categories of those protected from discrimination” and could lead to reverse discrimination against traditional heterosexual marriage.

“If adopted, they would create new and implacable discriminations,” Migliore said. “For example, states which do not recognize same-sex unions as ‘matrimony’ will be pilloried and made an object of pressure,” Migliore said.

The proposed measure does nothing to extend rights to anyone — unless you consider the elimination of the death penalty, imprisonment or fines for homosexuality a special right. Because that’s all the proposed resolution does: it only calls for decriminalization.

The Vatican has obviously worked its way into a corner -- everything that involves treating gays like human beings is an attack on marriage (which, let me remind you, the Church didn't want to be bothered with for a thousand years -- it only became a sacrament in the early thirteenth century, and now it's the cornerstone of Catholic thought. Who knew?)

And spare me the bullshit about "all people are God's children." Niederauer and his cronies believe that a lot less than I do. Doesn't the Bible say something like "By their deeds shall ye know them"? I seem to remember that one from Sunday school.

You have to admire, though, the consistency of the message: Don't criticize us, no matter what we do.

Here is the full text of Niederauer's statement. It is a case study in special pleading, miscasting and misstating the opposition to the churches' involvement in the campaign. Read it through, keeping a couple of facts in mind that Niederauer doesn't mention: the Catholic Church does not officially permit dissent any more than the Mormon Church does; his comments about disagreement ring rather hollow; also, the Catholic Church, quite officially, does not believe in separation of church and state, one of the foundational principles of American society.

One of the people interviewed in the SFGate article called the letter "condescending." I think it's much worse than that -- it's arrogant, self-serving, and fundamentally mendacious. If you need any evidence of that, Queerty has a very good commentary on Niederauer's statement, and notes one thing I missed, which appears in the headline:

SF Catholic Archbishop Compares Prop. 8 Supporters to Abolitionists & Civil Rights Marchers

Somehow, I find that one hard to swallow, but then, nothing's beyond the reach of the Christianist right.

For another illustration of the degree of blindness on the right, watch this video of Mike Huckabee on the "violent" protests against Prop 8 and hate crimes laws in general. Aside from the gross misrepresentation of what hate crimes laws do and how they work, it's enjoyable to hear him backtrack when challenge on one such anecdote: suddenly a "violent" attack on the church service becomes merely disruptive, although hate crimes continue to be "thought control." When you consider that the thoughts of someone like Huckabee have a demonstrated need for some control, I find that hilarious.

Jeremy Hooper touches on a good question to ask the next time you run into a character like that: How many "Christians" have been murdered by gays for being Christian?

I start feeling like a Cassandra. This report from Queerty confirms what I've been saying for a while:

"The losses we suffered are political, which are not as predictable as poll results are– or as manageable", Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) President Neil Giuliano told Queerty this afternoon after the release of a GLAAD-commissioned Harris Interactive survey that showed widespread support for gay & lesbian rights and issues across a variety of demographics.

My objection to Giuliano's statement stems from the fact that, if they can't read the politics at this point -- remember, these are the "professionals" -- they should get out of activism and get a real job. Any idiot could have figured out that the Christianists were going to go all out on Prop 8, and that blacks, latinos, and other minorities were going to be targeted demographics. Duh.

Incompetent.

And if you don't believe me, check out this story, also via Queerty:

So, the nation's largest gay rights advocacy and political action organization was caught totally unawares that there's a highly qualified openly-gay person who would make a great candidate for Labor Secretary? Isn't the primary goal of the HRC to help out and advocate for gay and gay-friendly politicians and legislation? Are they even tracking the openly-gay political leadership in the U.S.?

You need to ask these questions. How sad is that?

That's it. I've had it. The gay news is no better than the rest of it.

Dessert. We need dessert. Something yummy and sweet,



with maybe a nice spicy chaser: