Outing right wing hypocrites, it's about DAMN time

[Brian_Expat]

Hallelujua for John Aravosis (he of StopDrLaura.com).



I have a message for all of you closet cases and gays selling out your community every day to collect a fat paycheque from Republican powerbrokers and right wing organizations.

Whether you're the director of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, Jay Timmons, who John Aravosis has outed on his web site (http://blogactive.blogspot.com/), or you're Mary Cheney, or you're some staffer looking at making a six-figure income by working for a right-wing bastard who supports efforts to take away our civil rights, this is it.

You can expect the silence of the gay community no longer.

You have abused and disgraced the honor which protected you and have perverted the polite practice of "pretending" when you turned against the very community that protected you.

From now on, you have two choices. Come out and stand against the right wing agenda that you've supported for so many years, or BE outed and resign in disgrace.

You'd better make your decision soon. The clock is ticking, and every day that passes brings the day when John Aravosis is posting YOUR name on his blog that much more likely.

[Fight_n_back]

1. Yikes

This could get pretty wild.

[Brian_Expat]

3. Good

Let the truth be laid bare for the world to see.

Let the Republican hypocrisy be common knowledge.

Let the closeted Republican legislators explain themselves to their right-wing "allies" and also to the gay community they've sold down the river for personal power for years.

[Baltimoreboy]

10. This is merely about blackmail, nothing more

And of course we will never know if the people who's lives are ruined were ever actually gay.

This is a despicable tactic that attempts to know what is in a person's heart -- gay, bi, straight but curious, rumored but untrue, etc.

I am not in the same party with anyone who would do this.

[Liberal Veteran]

13. Not exactly....there is a certain unwritten rule in the gay community.

That you don't go around telling other people's sexual orientation.

(i.e. if God forbid I woke up naked in bed after tying one on and had to gnaw my arm off because Matt Drudge was laying on it, I shouldn't tell anyone)

Now it's starting to become of a matter of "don't expect us to keep your secrets if you going to support a party that actively works to oppress us all".

It's still a hell of a lot nicer than what the labor unions used to do to collaborators.

[skooooo]

18. But everyone already knows...

...about you and Matt Drudge.

:P

[Liberal Veteran]

20. You take that back or I'll hit alert!!!!

Tee-hee!

[Arugula Latte]

43. So, is it over between you and Governor Rick Perry (R-Texas)?

Inquiring minds want to know!

[Baltimoreboy]

21. This claims to understand the sexual orientation of people

I have good friends of mine who I am not sure I know that much about -- and I don't care.

Actually, I really question the legality of this approach. It is blackmail that is attempting to force politicians and staffers to vote a certain way. I think that's criminal and should be treated that way.

[Liberal Veteran]

24. You are entitled to that opinion, but I respectfully disagree.

I would have gladly outed Roy Cohn for the damage he caused.

[Baltimoreboy]

37. And I disagree equally

I don't think blackmail is a legitimate tactic. It's a tactic popularized by criminal undertakings.

[Occulus]

47. Funny how the same people

you're protecting actively use that same type of blackmail AGAINST GLBT people.

"If you don't do X, I'll out you to your parents."

I'd say it's time we started using that same tactic. Nothing else has worked.

[Liberal Veteran]

52. It kinda irks me when people play holier than thou on this issue.

As though I have some kind of moral obligation to actively defend the privacy of a hypocrite who actively tries to make my life more difficult.

I don't like being pushed to the point that I have to get my hands a little dirty, but by God if you push me up against wall I am going to fight back with every weapon in my arsenal and if that includes exposing the "dirty little secret" of someone....I can live with that.

[Baltimoreboy]

73. And I hope they fight back as well

If it is your wish to smear the gay cause, I certainly can't stop you. I do hope anyone threatened by this new website tries to get them locked up for trying to blackmail Congress.

[ronabop]

67. Blackmail is based on....

... a threat of exposure, unless benefits are paid.

Outing someone, without demanding benefits, is not the same.

-Bop

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

69. I think "actively work to support our oppressors" is key here.

Most gay folks are ok w. people being conservative or republican and gay,

But getting behind politcal campaigns or policys that are directed at gays, well, thats different.

Now that the GOP is becoming more aggressive and active on their antigay stands and actually pushing legislation, the line has been crossed. If you are gay and actively working to support those who push this agenda, well....

[LittleApple81]

16. I felt the same way before. BUT THESE PEOPLE ARE CAUSING

enormous damage to America. Their self-hate because of their "gayness" is driving a wedge in our society, provoking hate crimes where gays (or presumed gays) are killed, tortured, mistreated...

I cannot see how allowing gay people to marry can hurt anybody. I have watched these rabid dogs in Congress (and they look and act like closetted, self-hating gays...) I don't know if they really are gay, but boy do they look like it... and again, there is NOTHING wrong with being gay--just using your RW credentials to be despicably criminal against other human beings.

[Baltimoreboy]

22. They have a right to hate who they are

But their sexuality is a private matter and blackmail is wrong.

.

[LittleApple81]

25. hmmmmmmmm.... I don't know. If they respected other people's

sexuality, I might agree with you. There are too many crimes against gays that are justified because of the self-hate spouted by these people.
I am very conflicted about this...because what you say is what I used to think. BUT I SAW THEM IN ACTION IN CONGRESS!!!!!

[Baltimoreboy]

38. Oppose what they say certainly

But they have a right to believe that way or live their PRIVATE lives the way they wish.

[Liberal Veteran]

41. They are entitled to their lives, but I am not?

Turnabout IS fair play.

[Baltimoreboy]

44. They are not outing you

Others are outing them.

[Liberal Veteran]

45. No they are just making me a second class citizen......

And they depend on people like you to try browbeat the rest of us into keeping silent about their hypocrisy.

And you play right into their hands.

I say, "No more!"

Let them try to build a life under the very system they helped foment. I will not give them the courtesy of my silence any longer.

[Morning Dew]

49. The RW thinks gays are self-loathing because

IMO, most gay republicans are, in fact, self-loathing. Anyone who can support that party's bigoted agenda against his/her own basic identity is the worst kind of self hating fool.

[Tsiyu]

2. Kick

Sounds like some fun times ahead.....

[Q3JR4]

4. Oh I tell you,

I can't wait.

:bounce: :party: :bounce:

[QC]

5. Could someone please pass the popcorn?

[kanrok]

6. Santorum certainly sets off my gaydar

Anyone else sense this?

[calico1]

8. Yes.

I get the feeling he is deathly afraid he might be gay. (not that there's anything wrong with that!)

[PA Democrat]

14. I think that Santorum's only sexual attraction is to himself

A friend had lunch with him and reported that Santorum was constantly preening in a mirror on the wall across from him.

[GoneOffShore]

56. Santorum?

That's latin for asshole, right?

[belle]

15. I don't know *what* he is. A freak.

[Deja Q]

7. Out them all. They are public officials.

They make the decisions, or at least the decisions that benefit the people or companies who give them the most money.

Out them then ask them WHY they choose imposing fascism and a eternal second class status for themselves and us.

[keithyboy]

9. Knew about this years ago: "Closets of Power" find it, get it, read it.

Article in an old Hapers magazine, if I remember correctlyl. It blew my mind! (about late 70's early 80's)

[dsc]

11. Profoundly misguided at best

Evil at worst. The one, and only, message our enemies will get from this is that even we think being gay is bad and worth of rebuke. Sadly that is the one, and only, message that our friends will get too.

[Liberal Veteran]

17. I see it a different way....

I see it as a way of saying that if you support a party that is going out of its way to create an environment where you have to hide your sexual orientation, then you should experience the full fruits of your misguided support.

[sendero]

19. No....

... it sends the message that the gay targets themselves think they are bad and worthy of rebuke.

[Baltimoreboy]

23. No

It sends a message that you will be blackmailed if you don't vote our way. I hope anyone involved in this hears from the law.

[Liberal Veteran]

26. It's not slander if it's true.

The law can't do a damn thing about it.

It's people like yourself that allow these kind of hypocrites to get away with openly supporting a party that is actively trying to shove us back into the closet while secretly being gay themselves.

If you believe I owe these people some kind of loyalty or they are entitled to my silence, I beg to differ with you. Their affiliations are negatively impacting my entire community and I'll be damned if I will let them get away with it.

[dsc]

28. Yes it can

If you don't believe me ask the woman who blackmailed Cosby. She threatened to truthfully state that she was his daughter from an illicit affair if he didn't pay up. Here people are threatening gays with truthfully reporting their sexuality if they don't vote their way.

[Liberal Veteran]

32. This would be laughed out of court.....

First you would have to prove that a specific quid pro quo offer was made.

A simple statement of I'm going to tell the truth about you because you are a hypocrite is not going to fly in court for slander.

[dsc]

35. That isn't what the ad says

It says don't promote the FMA or we will out you. Given the public figure status of the people involved and the lack of money, blackmail wouldn't be a slam dunk, but it isn't laugh out of court time either.

[sendero]

29. Exactly which law...

.. are you referring to? The Right to be a Hypocrite Act?

If you think there is a law against "outing" someone, please tell me. I think you are full of it.

5 years ago I would never have agreed with this sort of tactic. At this point, it is WAR my friend and people are going to get hurt.

[dsc]

30. Blackmail is against the law

And this is periously close to blackmail. Vote my way or I'll tell everyone you are gay. It would be seen as blackmail, for sure, if it were being done to affect any other vote.

[sendero]

31. Well...

... we'll just have to let a jury decide. I disagree with you profoundly, and am 95% sure that this does not, will not and cannot meet the legal definition of blackmail.

[Liberal Veteran]

34. Tell that to Larry Flynt........

Is this really any different than what Flynt did when he fired a warning shot at congress that he would do exposes on them for their hypocrisy?

[dsc]

36. In point of fact, it is different

He didn't follow through for one thing. The only person who got outed, got outed before the vote took place. Thus it is impossible to make a case for blackmail.

[Liberal Veteran]

40. Then by all means....let's do it before.

I'm not keeping the secrets of someone who actively works to oppress me.

It's as simple as that. As I said, loyalty is a two-way street.

Unfortunately, in battles such as this, the gloves have to come off once in awile. These people ARE collaborators and you are defending collaborators and wagging your finger at those of us who will not tolerate their collaboration and telling us we have some kind of moral obligation to see to it they don't suffer the consequences of the very enviroment they are promoting.

I respect the idealism, but I find it sadly misplaced.

I only have so many cheeks to turn.

[dsc]

42. that wouldn't be blackmail

though I still disagree with it.

[Occulus]

50. So could kids sue their parents

for emotionally destroying them when their own parents rip the closet doors off and then throw them out of the house, cut their college funding, etc., etc.?

Isn't THAT also blackmail, by your definition?

"Don't be gay, and we'll keep helping you with school."

Hmmmm.

[dsc]

57. I would think kids under 18 could

as they have a right to such support. Also many divorce decrees mandate payment for college by one or both parents. Those kids should also be able to sue. But for run of the mill kids above 18 any such support is a gift and thus can have any strings the giver wishes to give it. Morally they should rot in Hell but legally they are probably on solid ground.

[Brian_Expat]

61. I think it's honest

If you are gay and you are for the FMA, you should stand up and explain it as a gay man or woman.

Not play this fool's game of lying and pretending to support FMA as an "outraged heterosexual."

Besides, Aravosis has said he's only outing high-ranking staffers and congresspeople.

[Occulus]

48. Patently untrue.

The message here is that it's NOT okay to be gay in private and make laws against them in public.

I'm all for this. And as someone whose life was completely destroyed as a result of being outed by his own parents, I can tell you I'm probably in a more qualified position than most to say that.

Out these fucking dangerously damaging hypocrites as of YESTERDAY.

[dsc]

58. that may well be the massage those people intend to send

but that isn't the message which will be recieved.

[Brian_Expat]

62. I don't care what the message is that's received. . .

. . . people making six-figure incomes working in the closet to take away my rights deserve to have their own conduct hit them in the face.

One reason why they don't care about promoting this sort of legislation is because they're members of the power elite and don't have to face the consequences of their actions.

The editor of the Washington Blade astutely noted that there's more of a furore over this threat to out closeted staffers then there's EVER been over an anti-gay law. I find that to be absolutely pathetic.

[porphyrian]

12. Ha, ha! Sweat, fuckers. - n/t

[Obamarama]

27. I say drag them out kicking and screaming.....

I have a couple friends who are gay and were Republicans (they have now seen the light and are Dems) but I used to tell them that if they insisted on supporting the GOP and it's anti-gay policies that when the GOP Gestapo came in the middle of the night to arrest me, I'm giving them YOUR names!

[Baltimoreboy]

39. Gestapo is true

Blackmail was their specialty. But the ones using it here aren't the ones you claim.

[John_H]

33. THis is a dumb idea. Here's why:

There are rabid, foaming, evil and crazy right wing nuts who think these outings are the greatest thing ever. Know who they are? The people waiting in line for the outed guys' jobs. So now, instead of people who may]/i] be slowing progress of the law on the sly(and there are many ways for a staffer to do such a thing) we'll have people in there who REALLY hate gay people in there chugging away.

[Brian_Expat]

63. I don't buy it

It doesn't matter if an anti-gay law is helped by a self-loathing closet case or by a gay-hating bigot, it's all the same at the end of the day.

These people have done nothing but sell their fellow man down the river for money and power in the elite. Well, they can kiss both of those goodbye, as of the end of the day on Friday. :)

[ecstatic]

46. when are they going to stop threatening

and out someone already? Sounds like they have nothing.

[QC]

51. Read the link in the thread header. It names names. n/t

[Cerridwen]

53. I think we run the risk of becoming that which we abhor . . .

when we use the same weapons against our opposition as they use against us.

[Liberal Veteran]

54. That's a fascinating rationalization for allowing a hypocrite to continue.

...his hypocrisy.

I cannot think of a possible good reason to extend the protection of my silence to someone who actively works to undermine my ability to live openly and honestly.

[MUSTANG_2004]

59. I don't think they're hypocrites

If someone agrees with his boss on 9 out of 10 things, does that make him a hypocrite because he does his job of supporting his boss on all 10?

To say that someone gay who works for the GOP is a hypocrite is to say that you completely define someone's politics by their sexuality. People pick their politics for more than a single issue. It seems to me that it would be more hypocritical for a conservative homosexual to align himself with the Democratic party simply because they agree with him on one issue.

[Liberal Veteran]

60. A person who willfully aligns himself with a party that seeks to oppress..

...him is a hypocrite or at the very least a fool.

Being a party to your own oppression because well...you like tax cuts is a ridiculous position.

It's even more hypocritical for you to actively align yourself with a party that seeks to oppress me and then expect me to guard your closet door.

Wouldn't you agree that a Jewish person who voted for Hitler would be just a little bit foolhardy?

But what the hell? I mean it's just one issue, right?

[Brian_Expat]

64. Imagine if a black man who could "pass" as white. . .

. . . worked for a KKK-supporting congressperson who supported putting Jim Crow laws into the constitution. Would outing him as African American be "hypocritical" or "evil?"

Of course not, because it's the TRUTH.

People have to get over the idea that being gay is "shameful" or that telling the truth about someone's sexual orientation is "malevolent" or "an underhanded tactic." There's no difference between being gay or straight or black or white or Asian or male or female in "degree of awfulness," and people who say there is are perpetuating homophobic attitudes.

[MUSTANG_2004]

65. Lousy analogy

Comparing an amendment that prevents something that is currently illegal except in MA to Hitler's genocide is *way* over the top, unless you're seriously equating preventing gays from marrying with locking them in concentration camps.

As I said, people's political views are defined by more than their sexuality. If there is a homosexual who is a fervent neocon, it seems like neither party does a good job of representing him. I don't see why working for a Republican would make him more of a hypocrite than if he worked for a Democrat.

[Brian_Expat]

66. No, it's a perfect comparison

Hitler didn't suddenly just announce one day that Jews were going to concentration camps.

He passed laws like FMA. He argued that Jews "undermine the family" and "hurt society." He argued that "they shouldn't have special rights." He passed laws in the constitution that stripped Jews, slowly, of all their rights, one by one.

Then, when they had no more rights, and they were despised by a majority of the German population, the Jews started "disappearing." Average Germans didn't care since they were happy to take over the property which suddenly became available thanks to the "disappearing" -- later shown to be concentration camps.

people's political views are defined by more than their sexuality

I don't care. People's political views are defined by more than their race, religion or gender too. It doesn't mean that a black man who supports Jim Crow laws or a woman who supports laws to take away a woman's right to vote or work should garner any "respect" either.

Gay neo-cons supporting the anti-gay Republican agenda deserve to be shamed, humiliated and exposed.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

70. Exactley.

..to do so means you become a collaborator of sorts in your own oppression.

[TriMetFan]

55. Good for them. Out them all.

Its about time. The right has never had a problem outing or causing pain to others. Its time we all play by their rules and punch back were it hurts. I don't want any of these jerks to think they can get away with hurting any gay/lesbian family. I have two kids and guess what my kids come first over or not some jerk should or should not be outed. Out them all.

Its time We Americans take back our country and kick Bush and Thugs out of the White House.

[ronabop]

68. My outing solution:

Give them a week. Make no demands. Just let them know that they have a week to come to terms with their friends, their family, their history.

Being outed can be one hell of a shock, so a week gives them time to gracefully come forward.

-Bop

[Sweetpea]

71. Here is an example of a RW hypocrite

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1968198>

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

72. Jay Timmons, gay. Im glad to see this. I support this.

I think when you cross the line and work to enable people who are about oppressing and discriminating against the gay community via legislation, well, I really do draw the line there. Thats active collaboration with the enemy.

This isnt like outing some celebrity or nonpolitical public figure. This is pretty much fighting back agains collaborators with those who have declared a political & cultural war on the lesbian & gay community.