Pride In America-- Shame And Embarrassment About The Soon-To-Be-Gone Political Leadership

I spent most of the years Nixon was in the White House living abroad. He was nearly as bad as Trump and I couldn't live in a country where he was president. So embarrassing. But eventually-- it was a morning after I woke up dreaming in Dutch instead of English-- I decided I wanted to live in my own country. I moved back to the U.S., the country I can now say I chose to live in, didn't just happen to be born in-- though I was that too. And even if I'm on a ferry on the Chao Phraya, Bangkok's river waterway, talking with some friends and a Danish girl comes up and asks us how we can let Trump be president... I'm still proud to be an America. Maybe a little embarrassed sometimes, but never to the point of seriously consider changing my address.

A new Gallup poll released over the weekend, though, shows that national pride here is America has fallen too a record low-- the lowest since Gallup started polling the question in 2001. They report that "15% of Americans say they are 'moderately proud,' 12% 'only a little proud' and 9% 'not at all proud.'"

Do you blame Trump? How could you not? This is just a small thing, but it's a good example. Reporting for Bloomberg News from Seoul yesterday, Jeong-Ho Lee, Nick Wadhams, and Jennifer Jacobs wrote that Trump and Pompeo forced U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Harry Harris, to remove two gigantic banners on the front of the embassy honoring the kind of U.S. diversity that has been so admired around the world-- and so detested and feared by the Trumpist Regime. One honored the LGBTQ+ community in celebration of Pride Month and the other honored Black Lives Matter. This is the "before" picture:

This makes me feel proud of my country. Trumpists flip out though

Señor Trumpanzee hasn't responded to this tweet from the Embassy on his Twitter account yet... but plenty of Trumpist shills have:

Pete Found A Good Line Tuesday To Describe The Shame Of Today's GOP-- "Naked Racism"

Trump's mind by Chip Proser

In Tuesday night's debate, Mayo Pete mostly regurgitated his slick McKinsey-like, carefully-tested talking points. He didn't really have a memorable moment, but he did make a worthwhile point about Status Quo Joe: "We cannot have a vision that amounts to 'back to normal,' he said. "The only reason we got this president, is that 'normal' didn't work." But he suddenly pivoted to Trump and his enablers in the Republican Party-- very smooth, very well-done. "We have to be ready to take on this president and, by the way-- something that hasn't been talked about as much tonight-- take on his enablers in Congress. When David Duke ran for Governor, the Republican Party, 20 years ago, ran away from him. Today they are supporting naked racism in the White house or are, at best, silent about it. And if you are watching this at home, and you are a Republican member of Congress, consider the fact that when the sun sets on your career, and they are writing your story, of all the good and bad things you did in your life, the thing you will be remembered for, is whether in this moment, with this president, you found the courage to stand up to him or you continue to put party over country."

The naked racism line was a great one from Pete-- and several Democrats running for Congress agreed wholeheartedly in terms of their own contests. Kara Eastman is taking on reactionary Republican Don Bacon in Omaha again this cycle. "Donald J. Bacon has voted 95.7% of the time with Donald J. Trump," she reminded us. "Today a prominent community leader in Omaha, Preston Love Jr., made the comment that Bacon pays 'lip service' to the African-American community in Omaha. He says he does not agree with the President’s viewpoints, but then stands with him almost all of the time. Bacon’s refusal to stand up against racism, sexism, anti-semitism, homophobia, and anti-immigrant statements and policies that stem from the President shows his true character. He is not representing the district, but just a party that has clearly lost its way."

Kathy Ellis, is running for Congress in a red, red southeast Missouri district where Trump beat Hillary 75.4-21.0%. Her opponent, notorious anti-gay closet case, Jason Smith, adamantly opposes Trump being impeached (and himself being outed). "I couldn't agree more with Mayor Pete's comments on this topic," Kathy told us yesterday. "The blatant racism of our President is unacceptable, and it is the responsibility of Republican members of Congress to hold him accountable. However, my opponent, Rep. Jason Smith seems to have no comment about this or any other Trump policy that is harming the people in my District. The people in the 8th District and nationwide will not forget his silence."

Jon Hoadley is a Michigan state Rep. running for Congress in the southwest corner of the state. His opponent, Fred Upton, is a sly old Trump enabler. Hoadley told us that "We are at a generational moment. We need bold ideas that place people and communities at the center of decisions. The Fred Upton who folks voted for over 30 years ago is not the Congress Upton of today. When he said no to healthcare, no to equality, and no rising to the challenges of a climate crisis, it is clear voters are going to say no to his reelection. The Trump Republican Party has changed. Congressman Upton has changed. Is that the legacy he wants to leave for the history books?"

Teresa Tomlinson is running for the U.S. Senate. She wants to "remind everyone that Georgia Senator David Perdue was in the Oval Office when President Trump made his infamous 's-hole' countries statement. Perdue first said that didn’t happen, and then said he didn’t hear it. Denial is cowardice. We have seen the true colors of the current failed Republican leadership. They are cowards, for surely they do not condone or support the racism of the president’s tweets and rants, they are simply scared to say so. Or, do they? It is for them to tell us and tell us now. Do you stand with this President and his racist remarks, or are you cowardly enablers? Senator Perdue’s silence speaks volumes."

But, back to Pete; the line just wasn't enough to fish him out of the mayonnaise. In fact, two old buddies-- Ian Welsh and Pachacutec-- teamed up last night to take a swing at explaining who exactly Mayo Pete is... after his endorsement by former New Dem PAC head Patrick Murphy. Pachacutec started by introducing himself-- in contrast to Mayo Pete-- to Ian's readers:

Then he introduced Murphy via something I had once written about him, long, long ago, although my comment was about the other conservaDem Patrick Murphy, the guy from Florida, rather than the guy from Pennsylvania, which I'm 100% certain is the one who endorsed Mayo Pete:

"Pete," wrote Pach, "is getting a fair amount of recognition for being a gay candidate. People who know me know me know that I’m a big old homo. And now with my tiara firmly in place, I’m here to call out Mayor Pete."

Okay, I don’t actually wear a tiara. I’m actually very much like Pete in my gay origins, in that I am a light-skinned person, presumed to be white (though I’m half Latino) with a good education, cis gendered, and a beneficiary of all the presumptions of competence and intelligence that accrue to light-skinned, well educated men who are not effeminate in their conduct or manner.

Like Mayor Pete, I came out later in life, in my young 30s. That was a pretty traumatic time for me, actually. I made a fair mess of my life, and we won’t get into all that. But as Ian’s readers know, it’s what you do with your suffering that makes or breaks you. If you dive into it and learn from it, with the right support and process, you can turn it into your superpower.

Or you can become a preening, pompous, head up his ass climber who cashes in the cultural, social and political checks earned for work done by all the very homos, queers, transgender men and women, and people of color that you personally avoid engaging at all costs.

Everyone in the gay community knows these people. These are the white boys who stand and model, painfully preppy, in bars filled with other white boys, with a few token “ethnics” like black men, Asians or Latino men sprinkled in to provide a little variety, a little sexy “grit” and fetish fodder. Their Grindr profiles say things like “No offense, but I prefer white guys,” or “no fats or fems.”

These are cis gay white boys who might stay for the drag show and enjoy the bawdy jokes, but who feel painfully uncomfortable around effeminate men. As in my tweet, they don’t even see women, non-binary gender rebels, or black folk. Mayor Pete’s relationships with black folk in South Bend are a joke. Gay guys like Mayor Pete never go into a bar if the person of color ratio gets too high, say, higher than 15%, unless for example they really have a thing for Latin guys and it’s salsa night at the club. Some of these guys really fetishize some groups, be they Asians, black men or Latinos. It gets very creepy.

I don’t want to belabor the point. This guy has no claim to stand for gay politics when he is precisely the kind of guy who wouldn’t have been caught dead anywhere near the Stonewall Inn, and lacks the self-awareness to know it or understand why. I personally know the type, because, in the beginning of my coming out journey, I had to overcome the legacy cultural biases, blind spots and presumptions of privilege (I know Ian hates that word, sorry) that would have made me into one of those guys.

For some people, the experience of coming out, and the experience of being marginalized or oppressed in some fashion, leads to expanded empathy and curiosity for others who are downtrodden or outcast. That’s clearly not Mayor Pete. Pete fundamentally believes in his inherent superiority, and subsequently wants to have it both ways: he wants people to overlook his gayness because he’s not that gay, and then he wants credit for being some kind of LGBTQ pioneer. But whether you look at his policies, his politics or his presence in a room with real people, he is what he is: a conservative wannabe frat boy who happens to be gay. No wonder Patrick Murphy loves this guy.

Yeah-- it works for both Patrick Murphys. And-- just asking for a friend-- do gay frat boys still stick to that old "No Fats, No Femmes" thing? Someone should ask Mayo Pete at the next debate.

Gay Identity Politics-- McKinsey Pete

Monday, I responded to a tweet about some random guy primarying Jan Schakowsky (D-IL): "Jan Schakowsky is one of the best members of Congress & is one of the few who has NOT failed us." Notice what I didn't say: Jan Schawkowsky is one of the best female members of Congress" or even "Jan Schawkowsky is one of the best Jewish members of Congress"-- although she is both. But doesn't it sound better that she's just flat out one of the best members of Congress? You know where I learned that? Listening to Joni Mitchell explode when a reviewer would refer to her as the world's greatest female songwriter. From her reaction, you might think the reviewer had written that she has no songwriting ability at all. In her world, her rivals were always Bob Dylan and Neil Young and she sees herself as the best songwriter in the world. It wasn't uncommon to see Joni work on a song for longer than it took Neil to write and record an entire album.

If you read DWT much, you probably know how much I hate identity politics. Picking a candidate for any reason other than their qualifications sickens me and makes me worry for the health of a Democratic Party that is riven with leaders who are all about aggressively choosing people based on extraneous characteristics, even if it means winding up with less qualified-- or even unqualified-- people in positions. Many of my friends disagree with me on this'd I've been through the pros and cons countless times. Monday morning, a weak L.A. Times reporter, Janet Hook, wrote that McKinsey Pete is inspiring pride among gay voters.

I'm a gay voter and I don't feel a twinge of pride in that. I'm glad an openly gay person can run for office but...





My "but" is different than the but Hook wrote about. But but is that he's a crap candidate who spent much of his life in the closet, developing an ability to lie and deceive-- which is what people in the closet do-- and then fit in perfectly with the world's biggest-- and worst-- consulting firm, McKinsey, which trains its robots to lie flawlessly and without blinking. Hook says the but for gay voters is that they fear he can't win. Thank God for small favors!

Win or lose in the 2020 presidential race, Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind., is energizing LGBTQ Americans. With his surprisingly strong run for the Democratic presidential nomination, he is helping a long-marginalized community advance in political stature and pride in a way some compare to the effect Barack Obama’s presidency had on African Americans.

“Mayor Pete Buttigieg is transforming America’s perception of LGBTQ people,” said Annise Parker, president of the Victory Fund, an LGBTQ political group that endorsed Buttigieg in June, the first time it had endorsed a presidential candidate.

Buttigieg does not put his sexual orientation at the center of his campaign, but he is not hiding it either. In recent weeks, as his campaign gained prominence, he has made high-profile appearances before predominantly gay audiences.

When he traveled to Provincetown for a campaign event and fundraiser Friday, Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, received a hero’s welcome from a town that, after the 2010 census, had the highest proportion of same-sex couples in the country.

It was a long way from Iowa, where Buttigieg was heckled by antigay activists this year. In P-town, as the city is known, a popular eatery painted a welcome message to the Buttigiegs in its window. An art gallery displayed an enormous portrait of Buttigieg. He met with students attending a local summer camp for LGBTQ youths. Throngs gathered during a morning stroll through town.

“It felt like our own little parade,” Buttigieg said at an afternoon event where hundreds in the hall-- and hundreds more in the overflow crowd outside-- waved “PETETOWN’’ signs. “It reminds me of what it is to be in a place that celebrates inclusion, that celebrates belonging.”

Buttigieg and his husband have become the most high-profile gay male couple in America. Images of the pair kissing at campaign events have been broadcast across the country. They have appeared together on the cover of Time magazine.

Asked about potential backlash, Buttigieg cites his experience coming out as gay in the conservative state of Indiana in 2015 just before running for reelection as South Bend mayor.

“I came out not knowing what the consequences would be and, in the end, got reelected with 80% of the vote,” he told reporters in Provincetown. “You have to give people a chance to show they can move beyond prejudice.”

But that could be a risky political bet in a campaign against President Trump. Many of Trump’s supporters are among the 31% of Americans who oppose gay marriage, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center poll, and even some of Buttigieg’s admirers question whether the country will accept a gay man as president.

“Homophobia is a very real thing; however, it is not as visible as racism,” said Damian Archer, a gay African American man at Buttigieg’s Friday rally who is undecided about which candidate to support in 2020.

Rufus Gifford, a gay former Obama administration official, who admires Buttigieg but has not committed to him or any other candidate, says: “I do worry with the stakes as high as they are, I ask myself every day: Is the U.S. ready to elect an openly gay president? I still question it. I’m scared to death we’ll reelect Donald Trump.”

Still, the response to Buttigieg’s candidacy is a remarkable sign of one of the fastest shifts in public attitudes ever measured in the U.S.: the growth in acceptance of homosexuality to the point that, at least among Democratic primary voters, Buttigieg’s orientation has ended up a political asset, not a liability.

Some 61% of Americans support same-sex marriage-- double the share in 2004, when only 31% did, according to the Pew Research Center.

Even within the Democratic Party, in 2008, none of the leading presidential candidates supported gay marriage. The ban on gays serving openly in the military ended only in 2011. It was just four years ago, 2015, that the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage could not be banned by states.

“I heard a woman from Alabama call Pete Buttigieg wholesome,” said Richard Holt, a board member of the Victory Fund. “I never thought I’d hear a Bible Belt mother refer to a gay guy as wholesome.”

Buttigieg often appears with his husband. With an active social media presence, Chasten Buttigieg has gained outsize celebrity and embraced the “candidate’s spouse” role with humor and style.

When the pair emerged from a black SUV for a June Victory Fund event in Brooklyn, attendees seemed almost as excited to see the spouse as the candidate.

The event, like the Provincetown visit, was a respite for Buttigieg, who has been battered by criticism for his handling of racial tensions in South Bend after a black man was shot by a white policeman. The fund’s endorsement had been scheduled for earlier in June but was postponed when Buttigieg returned to South Bend to cope with the crisis.

It was rescheduled to a propitious day-- the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, a landmark in the history of the LGBTQ rights movement that occurred after police raided a gay bar in New York City.

“We haven’t seen equality come to the land, not by a long shot, but think about what it means that 50 years after Stonewall, we could be gathered in a room with a top-tier candidate for the American presidency and be in a room with his husband,” Buttigieg said to cheers.

Buttigieg rose implausibly fast in the party’s big 2020 presidential field in part because he is gay. That fact helped him stand out from the pack and garner media attention, and drew a big infusion of early campaign donations from the LGBTQ community. He went on to raisean impressive $24.8 million in the second quarter, more than any of his rivals have announced so far.

Los Angeles political consultant David Wolf said Buttigieg has received significant fundraising support from Hollywood’s LGBTQ community, including TV producer Ryan Murphy and prominent agents Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane.

Buttigieg added to his coffers Friday at the Provincetown fundraiser organized by Bryan Rafanelli, a major Democratic donor who also hosted a Buttigieg event this year at Fenway Park in Boston.

For many Democrats-- gay and straight-- Buttigieg’s biggest liability is not his sexuality, but that he is too young, too inexperienced or not liberal enough.

“I’m still concerned about his ability to beat Trump,” said Mitchell Katine, a Houston lawyer who helped win a landmark 2003 Supreme Court ruling that decriminalized gay sex. “I want him to be in the running and continue this education process. But he’ll have to convince me he can beat Trump.”

Antigay sentiment is still a powerful force. There are only 20 states where LGBTQ people are protected against discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations. Just 46% of Republicans say they are open to electing a gay president, an April Quinnipiac University poll found.

Nor does Buttigieg have a monopoly on LGBTQ voters. Former Vice President Joe Biden earned the allegiance of many with his 2012 endorsement of gay marriage-- getting out in front of Obama on the issue. Sen. Kamala Harris of California enjoys strong support in San Francisco’s gay community.

A group of 47 LGBTQ activists and elected officials announced their endorsements of Harris last weekend ahead of her participation in the city’s Pride parade.

A June poll of LGBTQ voters by Whitman Insight Strategies and BuzzFeed News found a noteworthy gender gap. Buttigieg was the top choice among Democratic gay men, with 27% saying they were likely to support him.

Among lesbians, however, Buttigieg was fifth choice, with just 13% saying they’d likely support him, behind Harris, Biden and Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Some lesbians are torn between their interest in Buttigieg and a desire to elect a female president. But Kate Wise, a gay woman from Cleveland who was in New York for the World Pride celebration, said she was all in for Buttigieg from the minute he announced.

“We landed a bro on the top of the pile,” Wise said. But she added, “He would be my guy even if he was not gay.”

Whether he wins the party nomination and goes on to the White House, gay activists hope Buttigieg will help inspire other LGBTQ candidates running up and down the ballot.

“He can have coattails,” Holt said. “We have to have representatives at all levels.”

Harvey Milk was an incredible person who I spent great deal of time with when he was on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. When I arrived in San Francisco, penniless, he staked me the darkroom equipment I used to set up a photography business and later became his campaign photographer. Many of the unacknowledged photos you see of him were pictures I took. (The Times of Harvey Milk film credits me for my pictures by the rest are just routinely stolen. Sorry for the tangent.) I remember once sitting with Harvey in the back of his photo shop on Castro Street. He had a mail sack filled with letters from all over the country. I remember one from a kid in Kansas or Nebraska. My eyes still well up with tears, around 4 decades later, when I think about it. This kid read about Harvey's election and it made him revaluate his own self-worth and to rescind his decision to commit suicide. Harvey was an inspiring figure. It wasn't just because he was the first openly gay person to win elective office; it was because of who he was. That's not who McKinsey Pete is.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Sometimes actions do speak louder than words. Sometimes words are enough. Trump has, from time to time, insincerely and superficially spoken and tweeted words favorable to the LGBTQ community, including some recent nice words (best words?) directed toward Gay Pride Month (For any republicans reading this, that's THIS month). But, no sooner did Trump board Air Force One to return to the United States than, in a move to show his true self and his solidarity with his party of bigots, he issued a decree that our embassies can no longer fly the Gay Pride flag on their flag poles. Some words are actions in and of themselves, meant to continue to encourage and embolden his followers. Some words are the words of a conniving coward who wants others to do the dirty work.

We've had Nazis for a long time, but with the dawn of Trump, we've had things like endless white supremacy hand gestures and racist comments and policy pronouncements from White House staff. We've had white supremacists from GOP-TV, like Carlson and Hannity, enjoying a direct line to Trump. Trump, too, employs the same hand gestures that aide and speechwriter Stephen Miller is infamous for. Trump enjoys retweeting white supremacy propaganda from Carlson. Richard Spencer's crew chants "Hail Trump." It goes on and on. The Nazis know they have an ally.

The photo for tonight's meme was taken at a Detroit Gay Pride parade on Saturday. Some of Trump's "very fine people" came out of their Nazi closets to attend and mark the festivities in their own very Republican way. You probably won't see much, if any of the photo, unless FOX "News" names the pictured perps as their "Heroes Of The Month." Note that it isn't just the Gay Pride flag that is the object of desecration for Trump's Nazis. I think we know where Trump really stands on that one as well, in his charred black heart of hearts. He's just a little bit more secretive about it. There will be more flags targeted.