Margaret Cho pays for Whoopi backlash, canned from gig

[wndycty]

Cho no-go in Boston - no joke!

BY CELESTE KATZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Margaret has been Whoopi'd.

The potty-mouthed comedian has been cut from a gay political bash coinciding with the Democratic convention.

Apparently, its John Kerry-friendly organizers are worried that her racy routine will become more fodder for Republicans who have been trying to label the Massachusetts senator the candidate of Hollywood values instead of family values.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights group, insists it is not censoring Cho, whose anti-Bush diatribes are well known in the gay and lesbian community.

"We want this event to be about the unity of the gay community," said group spokesman Mark Shields. "Margaret's people made very clear that they had material that was not in that vein and we didn't want to censor her, so we just made other plans."
-snip-

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/214600p-184738c.html

[truthspeaker]

1. Why is the Dem establishment so spineless about "media firestorms"?

Just do what the Pugs do: laugh it off as if the people criticizing you are idiots.

[AndyTiedye]

9. Repubs Can Do That 'Cause They Own The News

[He loved Big Brother]

2. Margaret has supported the gay community

more than Kerry ever has. Or ever will.

[ronnykmarshall]

3. That's a bunch of crap.

Margaret Cho has a HUGE gay following and is one of our biggest supporters.

[truthspeaker]

4. can we start a letter-writing campaign to the HRC?

Imagine if they got millions of letters from gay people and democrats expressing support for Margaret.

[sangh0]

6. So now HRC is the enemy

How silly

[truthspeaker]

7. That's not what I said at all. What are you talking about?

[Chovexani]

8. HRC has never been my friend

They don't care about queers unless they are white and well-off.

The fact that they "Whoopi'd" Margaret Cho comes as no great shock to me. They are about as establishment as it gets.

[sangh0]

16. They aren't my friend either

but they're not my enemy either. But then again, I've never been a "You're either with us or agin us" kind of person

[truthspeaker]

17. Where on this thread were they called an enemy?

What are you getting at?

[truthspeaker]

5. Here's the email address for the Human Rights Campaign

mailto:[e-mail]

And here's the email I sent:

Dear Human Rights Campaign:

I am writing to urge you to reverse your decision to disinvite Margaret Cho from your event in Boston next week. I understand that much of Ms. Cho's humor involves piling derision on certain politicians and prominent figures. But I do not understand why you find this objectionable, since every one of those figures is openly hostile to equal rights for gay people. The only people who would be offended by Ms. Cho's humor are people who are not and never will be on our side. Criticism from the Republican party and the corporate media is not something to avoid but something to welcome. You are turning your back on a woman who has been advocating gay rights from the stage throughout her entire career, and I cannot understand why. Please reconsider this bad decision.

[truthspeaker]

10. kick! Let's put some pressure on the HRC

[Warren DeMontague]

11. Anybody at the HRC think of this?

The people in the heartland who are going to blow a friggin' gasket in the press over what Margaret Cho has to say are generally not the folks sympathetic to gay rights in the first place... So who cares? Why have a boring event? Margaret Cho is funny as hell. Seems like a pretty wimpy way to go.

Of course, there are plenty of folks, gay and straight, who strike me as occasionally, just a little bit too eager to find certain things people say "offensive"... And, no, I'm not talking about the doofus governor of California.

So, I'm really curious what the material was, specifically, that they considered not acceptable.

[truthspeaker]

12. kick

[DaveSZ]

13. Kerry has a 100% rating from the Human Rights campaign

He's very strong on civil rights.

[truthspeaker]

15. No argument here.

My objection is to letting the GOP define what is offensive.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. All the more reason

For them to have an enjoyable event with hard-hitting comedy.

[Cleita]

14. So our leadership is apparently letting the Republicans

tell us who is acceptable to them? I think Whoopi Goldberg, Margararet Cho, Linda Ronstadt and the Dixie Chicks should all stage a protest type concert in Boston at the same time.

Don't bother saying it would look bad and be divisive. The idea would be for our Democratic leadership to put the DLC in its place and invite them inside.

Until our party refuses to kowtow to the right, we will continue to have the likes of Ralph Nader taking advantage of the disgruntled left and dividing our vote for four more years of Bush.

[He loved Big Brother]

19. Well said!

eom