UPDATE: Don't bother going to the link below. GayPatriot took down the post that I was referring to. He had posted pictures of John Aravosis and Michael Rogers and blasted them as gay terrorist. The quote below was from what he wrote below their pictures. Maybe he came to his senses or maybe it was someone else other than GayPatriot blogging on his site. I hope so. I would like for him to post why this was put up in the first place and why it was taken down. From GayPatriot:

"WANTED! Let's do something about these gay terrorists who have infected our community with their hatred and self-loathing bigotry of gay Americans who wish to live their lives in peace."

I am a regular reader of GayPatriot's blog and I find his writing inciteful and thoughtful, even when I don't necessarily agree with his position. However, in reading the article linked above I have one question. Has he lost his damn mind? What I am assuming he is referring to is John Aravosis and Michael Rogers' campaign to out conservative media personalities and Republican officials and office holders as allegedly being gay. While I don't always agree with the outing of any individual, I hardly think these two individuals have infected our (meaning the gay) community "with their hatred and self-loathing bigotry of gay Americans who wish to live their lives in peace." The persons at the center of their outing campaigns have been the ones to help infuse not only the gay community but the country as a whole with hatred and loathing of gay Americans. These are the people who support, defend and even co-ordinate Republican ideology that is aimed at keeping gay Americans defined as second class citizens. It is these people who have created, fanned the flames and used fear of gay Americans as a convenient motivator on their march to power. It is these people who have routinely bashed gay people over the head with their ultra-right wing view that gay people don't deserve what little rights and respect we have gained since Stonewall and certainly shouldn't be entitled to the same rights as hetrosexual Americans. The hypocrisy of a gay person supporting and doing these things to people cut from the same cloth is chilling. And though at the moment life or death doesn't hang in the balance, I would still liken these hypocrits to the handful of Jews who worked with the Nazi party during Germany's darkest days. One definition of terrorism is: "the calculated use of violence (or threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimindation or coercion or instilling fear." The outing of these people certainly isn't violent nor have John or Michael ever advocated the use of violence against anyone. While the people who are conducting outing campaigns may be using fear of discovery as a weapon against some people who have chosen a public life specifically aimed at molding how life should be in this country, I would argue that, under the same definition GayPatriot is applying to the word terrorist, these public figures are terrorists as well. They certainly have went out of their way to instill fear. I do believe in fighting fire with fire. If someone is going to stand before the public and support ideology that harms gay people then I believe it is certainly within the scope of fair discourse to point out that these people are in fact gay themselves. I don't understand why these office holders and Republican party officials don't stand there and proudly say, "I am a gay person and I don't believe gay people should..." (fill in the blank with whatever right-wing issue against gay people you choose) I don't understand why they aren't openly gay to begin with. Maybe it is because they are afraid of the consequences of being known as gay in the atmosphere of this country they have helped create.

¶ 3/25/2005 08:06:00 AM

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