Yet another gay Republican outed

Joe.My.God had a good post about this today:

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/

Scroll down a bit. He actually got a reply from the ChristWire people.

Dave: your conscience is too tender. If Bauer had not been in a position of exercising power over LGBT people (or is that putting the boot to us -- I sometimes get confused as to what is exercising power and what is simply beating somene down) I could see your point. As it is, I will look on indulgently at people as they have fun at this asshat's expense. Ridicule is an effective tool when engaging someone who is unwilling or unable to subject their belief (your term) to rational examination -- doubly effective when they use their public position (be it a legislature or a pulpit) to put the boot to my community. He chose the arena, we are responding with the best tools available to us.

Interesting experiment for those with the stomach for it. Go to the attached link, and play the first audio piece.

Right here

Realizing what we are dealing with is the first step into being able to discuss whether the tactics we use are "in bounds" or not.

Tommy_Paine wrote:

Like Dave, I'd rather this was all not part of the public domain.  I'm sure there's things I do in private that would raise an eyebrow or two here, or anywhere. 

Least ways if I'm doing those things right.

However, it's the types like Larry Craig and now this unfortunate fellow that bring this stuff into the public domain themselves.   They run on a certain platform-- one might say panders to a certain platform-- that takes shots, and passes judgement on the private lives of others.

[emphasis added by bagkitty]

Well Tommy, there is taking shots and passing judgement and then there is:

taking shots and passing judgement, and taking shots, and passing judgement, and taking shots and passing judgement.

Now I don't want to go all professionally indignant on you, but there is a distressing tendency amongst a lot of "progressives" to kinda retreat behind concerns about etiquette when talking about the tactics the LGBT communities uses in responding to asshats like Bauer. While this concern about manners is preferable to the great cone of silence that an even larger number of progressives retreat into when anything other than the topic of same sex marriage is raised, some of us still find it a little galling. Again, I don't want to take you to task for this personally (I loves painting in BROAD strokes), but I really think you should give a little thought to the connection between pandering politicians and preachers trying to roll back any advances we have made and the audience they are pandering to... and the real nature of the taking shots and passing judgements their consituencies and congregations are wont to indulge themselves in.

Imagine, if you will, a world. A world where what two people do in a bedroom remains their busisness and their buisness only.

Seperate church and state IMGO

SparkyOne... again, this is not personal, and I don't mean to use you as an example.... but

There is something incredibly "liberal" about your posting, postively Trudeauesque circa 1967. And while some might argue Trudeau was a progressive in 1968, that was more than 40 years ago. While a bedroom is definitely larger than most closets (hey I have seen H&G TV and now know there are "closets" larger than my entire dwelling), I think the current goal is for us to be able to walk around in public and congregate in front of the local convenience store and stuff like that without having people take shots and pass judgement (see above for examples) on us. The current goal would be for us to have the same right to public space and equal legal treatment under the laws of the lands. We have not yet reached the point where we are seeking special rights.... that is still under "New Business" on the agenda.

Sineed, serious? Ha, I was fooled pretty good then.

SparkyOne wrote:

Uhh, Bagkitty, are you saying you liked my post or you didn't?

Well SparkyOne, I have given it quite a bit of thought, and have come to the conclusion that I really don't want to commit to one side or the other. Part of my not wanting to commit is that it is not a terribly long post.... just long enough to "spark" all sorts of things... but sparking can be good, it can cast a little light on the baggage we are carrying -- albeit briefly.

When I read your post in a particular light, it is the "liberal" position about the state (and let us hasten to add the church) having no place in the bedrooms of the nation (Trudeau circa 1967). But, and here is where the baggage is revealed, I am of an age to remember how the debate was phrased in terms of the need to be a tolerant society (that whole "just" society thing came later). Now don't get me wrong, its opposite (intolerance) is something I find very distasteful. However I am not convinced tolerance itself is really a virtue. To me it is just a wee bit arrogant to use the word tolerance in relationship to other people. I agree with Lillian Hellman when she talks about having an ambivalent relationship with the word tolerance (although in the 1979 afterword to her autobiographical piece "Scoundrel Time" she spells this out much more clearly than in the linked interview, alas I cannot find the afterward online). When the majority community talks about tolerance there is always that echo of a suggestion that we are somehow being forgiven for some bad behaviour. Indeed, the attempt at humour in the first sentence of post #6 by Tommy_Paine is based on the the idea that there is something a little less than proper, something that might best "be kept private", something that might be, to at least a limited degree, shameful.

Of course your post was a rather short one and, I recognize that I might be reading this whole "tolerance" concern of mine into it. But there is always this nagging doubt in my mind if calls for "keeping what happens between two people" private are really neutral or if they are implying a need for tolerance, a need to "forgive" something that is less than ideal.

So if you are really interested in whether your post gets the bagkitty seal of approval, try expanding on it.... reduces the chance of my reading too much or too little into it.