Friday, November 03, 2006

More straight guys: Anti-gay Republican leadership or Cher concert?

With the recent revelations about Ted Haggard (he of the gay prostitution and meth addiction) and the Florida gubernatorial candidate and Foley, and others, I've decided that until further evidence is presented, I'm assuming everyone who is virulently and unrepentingly anti-gay is likely closeted.  Whether they're actually gay or just bi-sexual or curious or whatever, I have to assume that they're not being honest.  It's just become too ridiculous.  Trying to identify the straight political homophobe is now like trying to pickout the straight guy at a Cher concert, and you know what, I'm not going to play that game anymore.


Does this mean that when Ted Haggard visits Rick Santorum that Santorum's puppy will be kenneled? How do these people square their intense and unstinting hatred for gays with the fact that they really really want to think about sex with men, or in the case of a rising proportion...do seem to have sex with men. At some point the cognitive dissonance must just tear you apart. There has to be a moment when external hatred reaches some homeostasis with internal hatred and fear. I honestly feel sorry for the repression and self-denial and self-loathing that must define these mens' lives every day. However, that does not excuse their infliction of that loathing on others. Certain Conservatives are fond of saying, Hate the sin, love the sinner. But that expression comes from a place of moral certainty, or moral and religious superiority, a condescension that suggests that the sayer is able to avoid this sin and therefore is in a position to forgive. But what if, as seems the case, the one offering to "forgive" you is guilty of the same, it rings hollow. The Christian Right has come to power through anger, division and sanctimonious self-congratulations. That it may fall apart because the righteousness it so mightly pretends to own is a cover for its own predilictions and hypocritical desires is as they might say "reaping the whirlwind."

No comments: