Is There A Significant Correlation Between Right Wing Politics And Living One's Life As A Closet Case?

As I've mentioned several times before, Boehner can get away with embracing a kook like Ohio Republican Party Nazi Rich Iott because, as Iott explained to an incredulous Anderson Cooper on CNN, the SS thugs he likes dressing up as were just "freedom fighters" and "champions of liberty." And by right wing definitions of those concepts-- wrapped up as they are in the right of the rich and powerful to prey, unfettered, on the vulnerable-- it all makes perfect sense. Especially inside a party with a special place in its black heart for fascists in general and Nazis in particular.

No one knows for sure where or when Iott was born or anything about his actual heritage. He was adopted by a well off family of grocers who assigned him a 1951 birth date and claim he was born in Columbus, Ohio. There are no actual birth records available. I have no way of knowing if Iott or his biological parents are Croatians or not, although the name Iott may be. During World War II Croatia was an independent fascist state-- one of the worst-- allied with Germany. The local fascists were dreaded genocidal maniacs, the Ustashi. They hunted Jews, Serbs and gypsies, shipped them to the Jasenovac concentration camp 62 miles southeast of Zagreb and had them exterminated. That's part of right-wing "freedom" to a racially pure society. Am I saying Rich Iott, John Boehner and the American Republican Party are the same? Absolutely; they just haven't had the chance to let their freak flags fly yet.

Why bring up Croatia today? Well, across Europe no one would have to ask where I'm going with this. It's about another right-wing asshat, Vladimir "Vlatko" Markovic, born into a fine Ustashi family in 1937. Now he's the head of the Croatian football federation, best known for saying gay soccer players would be banned from playing for Croatia. In the right-wing mind, that, of course, is a natural part of "freedom." As if to emphasize the extent to which homophobia is still rife in soccer, after saying that "only healthy people play football," he added that there was no room for gay men in the sport. This week saw protests against Markovic all over Europe led by he European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation, which represents 17,000 active sportsmen and women.

Ulrike Lunacek, the Austrian Green MEP and active participant in the Gay Games, warned that if the Croatian government failed to take action against Markovic his outburst could affect its application to join the European Union. One of the conditions is that the country implements EU-standard anti-discrimination legislation.

Markovic told both the Croatian daily Vecernji list and the Serbian tabloid Vecernje novosti: "As long as I'm president [of the football federation] there will be no gay players. Thank goodness only healthy people play football."

The 73-year-old, who is campaigning for a fourth term as federation president, later said he had been misunderstood and apologised. The Croatian gay rights groups Kontra and Iskorak have called for Markovic to prove the sincerity of his remorse by raising the rainbow flag, a symbol of gay rights, during Croatia's Euro 2012 qualifier against Malta this Wednesday. Markovic's remarks were followed by an appeal from a leading German player for gay players to muster the courage to come out. Mario Gomez, 25, the Bayern Munich striker, said it was time to stop treating homosexuality as a "taboo topic", adding that if players felt they could come out, they would "play as though they had been liberated."

Coming out of the closet is healthy for individuals and healthy for society. Imagine how different the twisted life of Catholic priest Bruce Ritter. Do you remember him? Reagan singled him out during his inaugural speech as a paragon of American virtue. His whole life was built around seducing underage boys at the time. That's what people who live in closets, their minds and spirits inevitably diseased, do. Reagan didn't single out Ritter for praise because of his work on a presidential anti-pornography commission-- that came the following year-- but because Ritter, in 1972, had founded Covenant House, ostensibly to help runaway teens. Of course he was helping himself to the runaway teens. And to generous contributions people were making to Covenant House. I was planning to write about Ritter and his sick closeted existence when I started this post but... how many times have I told that story? So just go read it at Wikipedia if you want the sordid details of another demented, hypocritical authoritarian character-- Republican, Catholic priest, homophobe. As yes, of course, Mother Church covered up for him and Covenant House tried whitewashing the whole ugly affair.