Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Don’t Blame Gay Politician for Anti-Gay Bias
Politics / People Robert Gammon — Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 11:44 AM
It’s tempting to harangue Republican state Senator Roy Ashburn as a hypocrite for being virulently anti-gay over the years and then admitting yesterday that he’s gay himself. But Ashburn’s story unfortunately is not uncommon, and it says more about the large number of people in our society who are intolerant of gays and lesbians than it does about one pitiful politician.
It seems clear that if a large majority of Americans openly accepted gays and lesbians, instead of demonizing them, then people like Ashburn wouldn’t be so afraid to embrace their own sexuality. But because they are so fearful of being demonized and marginalized, they overcompensate and become rabidly anti-gay in an obvious attempt to hide their own misplaced shame. It’s pathetic, twisted, and sad.
And it makes it understandable why Ashburn now says that he plans to keep voting against gay and lesbian rights, because that’s what his conservative constituents want. In other words, the world of right-wing bigotry is so powerful and so scary for some people that it can convince a terrified gay politician to deny basic civil rights to people just like him.
That’s not to say that Ashburn doesn’t deserve scorn. He does. He’s a coward. But until our society progresses out of the Dark Ages on gay and lesbian rights, stories like his shouldn’t be surprising.
Comments (3)
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The conservative community's bigotry is a powerful force that works to keep conservative gay and bi men in the closet.
Conservatives have a hard enough time understanding homosexuality, and Larry Craig and Roy Ashburn aren't exactly gay. They're bi, and on the down low. Expecting men who've lived that life for decades to just suddenly come out? Expecting them to do so in the face of simultaneous criticism from both the gay and conservative communities? Totally unfair.
I'm extremely angry about anti-gay bigotry in this country. But if we want to defeat it, the first thing that the LGBT rights community needs to offer an outed conservative politician... is a welcome. Where conservatives rebuke, we must show sympathy. If we do not, the poor souls in this country who still feel the need to hide their orientation will remain in a cruel double bind.
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Accountability has to start somewhere and if it doesn't start at the top, where else can it start when there are hypocritical examples of people in power living a lie like Roy Ashburn. And honestly, if these individuals are actively opposing the very lifestyle they engage in, how can we trust them to govern honestly?
Robert makes a good point. Who can blame Ashburn, he was forced to enter political office and hold hate rallies against gays. Gays were stripped of marital rights in California, but who's to blame because it is all so confusing. A couple of thugs mutilated and then executed Matthew Shepard, but can we really blame these poor victimized perpetrators? Every year, gay men and women in the military have their careers suddenly terminated because they are gay. But who is to blame for any of this? It's a mystery how these laws come into being and therefore we have no right to blame anyone. We can only hope things change somehow mysteriously.
