Past Time To End The Demonizing Of Gay People In Politics, Religion And Society

I wish it was this simple: gay Democratic politicians are always comfortable in their skins, avoid living in the closet and are mentally healthy, while gay Republican politicians are always fearful and self-loathing, enduring a life-worse-than-death inside hideous closets and are deranged and sick individuals. There may be some truth to that but that's far from the truth.

As you know, DWT doesn't hesitate to "out" gay politicians who live in the closet and exist in a life of hypocrisy. When I see closeted legislators voting against equality for the LGBT community, I'm eager to let their constituents know what they're up to behind the scenes, the way we did with Mark Foley (R-FL) and Larry Craig (R-ID) long before they were caught, respectively, molesting young boys and haunting public toilets. Other Republicans living the same hypocritical lives who are waiting for their moments in the spotlight of national disgrace are congressmembers with homophobic voting records like Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Trent Franks (R-AZ), David Dreier (R-CA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Aaron Schock (R-IL), as just a few examples. I also know a very conservative Democrat, a Blue Dog, who's a closet case. Why isn't his name on this page? Simple-- as much as I loathe how he votes on almost every issue-- crossing the aisle to vote with the GOP enough to make people ask why he's even a Democrat-- on one issue he's diverges from his conservative allies-- issues involving equality and human rights for the LGBT community.

You've probably read that an esteemed old friend of this blog's, Eric Massa, is resigning from Congress, probably on Monday, with charges swirling around his head that he sexually harassed a male staffer. Hate-Talk radio host and GOP propagandist, Bob Lonsberry, has started a flood of slime flowing. There is no gay issue here, none whatsoever. I never asked Eric if he was gay or not and it was never an issue for me, even after the "story" started seeping out a few weeks ago. Why is that? First of all, Eric Massa has a 100% voting record on issues impacting the LGBT community. Since being elected, there have been 4 votes on "gay issues" (each regarding hate crimes) and Eric took a progressive stand each time. Aaron Schock, who was elected to the House on the same day as Eric, and who keeps going on TV and whining how he can't find the "right woman" while gays all over Peoria and DC collapse in gales of laughter, has a mirror image voting record-- a zero, has voted against equality each time. And the closeted Blue Dog? He voted right on 3 of the bills and on a procedural vote in between he voted with the Republicans. (Another couple like that and we'll be running a photograph of him with a cute caption.)

But Massa's service goes beyond the perfect voting record. He's been an outspoken leader for LGBT equality-- even while representing a strongly Republican district with a minimal interest in gay equality. Since he has a distinguished record as a military leader, he's been an advocate of abolishing the kind of painful and wrong-headed policy known as Don't Ask, Don't Tell, something that institutionalizes the horrors of closetry for thousands of honorable gay men and women serving the country in the military. Last time I saw Eric was just a few weeks ago and he insisted on personally showing me a video he was very proud of, one that was broadcast on CNN while I was traveling abroad. We stood and watched it together. Please take a look.

And now take a look at a very different kind of video:



Conservative shitheads, probably predominantly the kinds of chickenhawks and bigots who populate the conservative bowel movement, are having a field day with Massa's misfortune. They're not talking about Roy Ashburn, a rabidly anti-gay fanatic Republican state Senator in California who was pulled over for drunk driving the other night when he left Faces, a gay bar in Sacramento, with a lad he had picked up there. Like Massa, Ashburn has a record beyond just a very consistent pattern of voting. He's organized anti-equality rallies. As Calitics reported on Thursday, the closeted homophobic sociopath's lust for males "was one of the worst kept secrets around Sacramento.  He would periodically appear in a gay bar, trying to be as discreet as a state senator can be in Sacramento.  He's not exactly a rock star or anything, but in a city built around state government, he's pretty recognizable."

Nor all the going closer to the root of this conservative psychosis about gay people: the latest-- as of yesterday-- sex scandal in the Catholic Church, the mothership-- even more than the GOP-- of closet queen homophobia. This one was exposed when a routine investigation of financial irregularities, corruption and graft accidentally led to a male prostitution network servicing the Vatican hierarchy, including a member of the Gentlemen of His Holiness (apparently some kind of deviant fraternity serving the anti-gay fanatic-in-a-dress, Ratzinger).

[N]othing quite compares to the reports of a gay prostitution ring that emerged this week. Citing a police document drawing on intercepted phone conversations, La Repubblica reported Wednesday that Mr. Ehiem procured men for Mr. Balducci. In one conversation, the paper quotes Mr. Balducci as asking Mr. Ehiem, “At what time does he have to return to the seminary?”

Over more than a year of taped conversations, Mr. Ehiem described the physiques of various men to Mr. Balducci. “I have a situation from Naples,” Mr. Ehiem says in one conversation, according to La Repubblica. “I have a situation from Cuba,” he says in another, continuing with “a German who just arrived from Germany,” “two black guys,” “the soccer player” and “the dancer for the RAI” state broadcaster.

Conservatives, whether in the Catholic hierarchy or the right-wing political parties around the world, need to take a good long look in the mirror and ask if it isn't long past time to stop demonizing gays and lesbians and cynically using their oppression as a divisive stepping stone to power. Eric Massa is an honorable man who may have slipped up and is doing the right thing by resigning-- unlike Louisiana Senator David Vitter, who actually broken the law, not just offended ethical standards. The Congress and the nation will be the poorer for Massa's retirement from public service. Here's his open letter to his constituents:

Two days ago as I sat reading my new annual CAT scan, having been told that the anomalies in the films may or may not be scar tissue, I decided to finally take the advice that my doctors have repeatedly given me, and that is to take care of my family and myself before my profession. After I decided not to run again I was told, for the first time, that a member of my staff believed I had made statements that made him feel “uncomfortable.”  I was told that a report had been filed with the Congressional Ethics Committee. At no point prior to this had any member of the Ethics Committee communicated with me directly-- if fact I first read it on the internet.  

I own this reality. There is no doubt in my mind that I did in fact, use language in the privacy of my own home and in my inner office that, after 24 years in the Navy, might make a Chief Petty Officer feel uncomfortable. In fact, there is no doubt that this Ethics issue is my fault and mine alone. But in the incredibly toxic atmosphere that is Washington D.C., with the destruction of our elected leaders having become a blood sport, especially in talk radio and on the internet, there is also no doubt that an Ethics investigation would tear my family and my staff apart. Some would say that this is what happens when you stand apart from political parties, which I have done. Others will say that this is what happens to a non politician when they go to Washington DC.  I want to make something perfectly clear. My difficulties are of my own making. Period. I am also aware that blogs and radio will have a field day with this in today's destructive and unforgiving political environment. In that investigators would be free to ask anything about me going back to my birth, I simply cannot rise to that level of perfection. God knows that I am a deeply flawed and imperfect person.   

During long car rides, in the early hours of the evening, late at night and always in private, I know that my own language failed to meet the standards that I set for all around me and myself. I fell short and I believe now, as I have always believed, that it is not enough to simply talk the talk, but rather I must take action to hold myself accountable. 

Therefore, effective at 5 PM on Monday the 8th of March I will resign my position as the Federal Representative of New York's 29th Congressional District in the 111th Congress. I do so with a profound sense of failure and a deep apology to all those whom, for the past year, I tried to represent as our Nation struggles with problems far greater than anyone can possibly imagine. I hope that my family, constituents, and fellow Members of Congress can accept this apology as being both genuine and heartfelt and I wish for them and all Americans only the best. I will take all actions possible to ensure that my personal health is secured in that I know that mine is a far more fragile lifeline than most. For the millions of fellow cancer survivors with whom I share this experience, they, more than anyone else, will understand the honesty and openness in this statement. 

I ask that members of the press respect the privacy of my family, my staff, and me at this time.

-Congressman Eric Massa

A Blue America volunteer was writing a letter to a TV producer about one of our current candidates and had mentioned that among our proudest achievements was having helped elect Eric Massa to Congress. She asked me if she should take his name out. I thought it would be better to put his name in bold letters. He's been a great public servant the country owes a great deal.