Matt Gunterman October 31st, 2007
God bless Joe Sonka. God bless Joe Sonka because he works his tail off traversing Kentucky covering the various manifestations of right-wing lunacy in the commonwealth [If you haven't checked out Joe's blogosphere-famous coverage of the Creation Museum from earlier this year, do so].
I envy Joe because he has that ability to observe the multitude of nitwits that make up the Kentucky GOP with a humorous eye and a sly smirk. I, on the other hand, don’t suffer these fools so well, even from a thousand miles away. Yet Joe has the gift, through his writing, of putting the crazy nature of social conservatives in Kentucky in perspective.
For example, Joe has a frightening new report over at BlueGrassRoots (the article itself will be published in the Lexington-based W Weekly) about a recent meeting of the American Family Association of Kentucky.
I’m going to include some excerpts from Joe’s piece below, but the most important thing to remember is that both the Republican candidate for state attorney general, Rep. Stan Lee, and for state auditor, Linda Greenwell, were in attendance and fully engaged at this meeting.
You know how most of the world has been up-in-arms against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R?) over his years-long effort to promote the cause of holocaust denial? It’s craziness. Rational people know it. That didn’t stop the Iranians from organizing and hosting a Holocaust denial conference last year. Birds of a feather flock together, as even the U.S.’s very own former Klu Klux Klan member David Duke took part.
In the end, we will never eliminate crazy beliefs like Holocaust denial, racism, xenophobia, or homophobia, but we can marginalize them. Peer pressure does work, especially here in the United States. Americans, by and large, want to be perceived as successful, accepted, and mainstream. So, by framing these sorts of beliefs as radical, extreme, undesirable and out-of-the-mainstream, you necessitate that people who continue to cling to them make an overt choice for themselves: which is more important to them, their hatred of others or their own prosperity?
It’s objectively true that hatred is not rational; it is morally wrong. Yet some people will not make the rational choice on their own; they need a little cajoling along the way. That’s where societal pressure comes into play.
Keep that in mind as you read what Joe has to say below about this meeting. Think about how outrageous its content was, and how scary it is that two of the Republican candidates for statewide office embraced this message and those who propagate it.
In short, these people at the American Family Association of Kentucky are free to have their beliefs; it’s a free country. The rest of us, however, should expect that men and women who strive to attain the highest levels of elected office in our land would not associate with them, would shun them. Instead, they are embracing them, and on election day the people of Kentucky will shun Stan Lee and Linda Greenwell as punishment.
Raging Bigotry and the Dying of the Right
Did you know that Lexington is run by the “Homosexual Hegemony”? That “the gays” own the government and the media? And the only way to get access to this power is to have the dirty gay sex with them?
Yea, neither did I.
[...]
Roughly 50 people squeezed into the cafeteria. After the first speaker told us how he escaped the evils of today’s society when God told him to start his own line of athletic apparel, it was Kent Ostrander’s turn. Ostrander, the founder of the like-minded Family Foundation, was a key player in the push to amend KY’s Constitution so that gay marriage and civil unions are now outlawed.
He was sure to preface his points with “now, I’m not trying to vilify homosexuals”. For example, he would say this just before his inaccurate tangent on how gay sex is the cause of 75% of AIDS in the world. “These people bring this on themselves!”
He further chastised UK, saying that allowing partners to receive health insurance is to tolerate and “validify” these relationships. Again, he “wasn’t trying to vilify gays”, but the “predatory ideas of the radical homosexual agenda” will destroy our families and society. Ostrander ended his speech, nearly shouting, “Our God shall reign!”
Next, a sociology student presented her research project on why the black community in Lexington is faced with the problems of poverty, crime and drug abuse. Her conclusion, after repeatedly informing us that she was a “scientist”? Young blacks in Lexington are mired in this because of….. The Gays. You see, homosexuals own all of the power in the black community of Lexington, coining it the “Homosexual Hegemony”. Those gays force young blacks wanting access to that power to tolerate and become acclimated to the gay lifestyle. One acclimated to this immorality, they succumb to the evils of drug abuse, crime and dirty gay sex.
But these are just the crazy ramblings of some small fringe cult, right? Apparently, not. Linda Greenwell, Republican candidate for Auditor in next week’s election, was happily handing out campaign literature to the crowd. Ostrander pointed out state Sen. Stan Lee in the crowd, thanking him for all of his work to “support our cause in Frankfort”. Lee, the Republican candidate for Attorney General, took a bow and soaked in the applause.
Then, it was Frank Simon’s turn. He jumped right into the “culture war” routine, blasting the godless villains who have taken the commandments, literal creation science and prayer out of public schools. “We need to stop them and GOD will stop them!”
Simon started in with the gays, then paused, putting on a coy exterior of doubt. “Oh, I don’t want to get into this…” before deciding to share his shocking video with the crowd. The lights were dimmed, and he presented a video that he claimed was being shown in schools. It showed a series of families, in which a child introduced us to his/her two mothers or fathers. Each child explained how, despite their differences, they love and protect each other just like any other family does.
The visceral reaction from the crowd was palpable. Audible gasps. Loud cries of “no!!!”, “my God!!”, “how dare they!” It resembled the “2-minute hate” out of Orwell’s 1984, the crowd whipped up into frenzy at the traitorous Goldstein. “This is what we’re up against!” cried Simon.
“Sure, kids drank beer back in my day, but it wasn’t until the gays that they started smoking the dope! ….. We never used to have to lock our doors!”
They culprit was the ubiquitous “They”. “They” took over our government. “They” want gay sex taught to our children. “They control the media! You’re only going to find out about these votes in Frankfort after they happen. That’s no accident. They don’t want you to know about them!”
Such bigotry among fundamentalists has many forbearers. This used to be the argument against “race-mixing”, how the Bible warned against it and it would tear down the fabric of our society. Such bigots were swept to the margins of society after the civil rights movement, but there is always a new “they” to latch onto. And while fomenting hatred towards gays has proved quite successful for the Christian Right, they also know that the gig is up.
Shortly after this AFA meeting, UK had a “coming out week”, where gay and straight students could show solidarity and promote tolerance. At one event, state Sen. Ernesto Scorsone, our first openly gay representative, told the crowd, “When I went to UK, something like this was unheard of. We’ve progressed to the point where this is now possible.”
And that is why we see the vitriol of the Christian right. They know that their loss in the culture war is imminent. A recent poll showed that those under 30 have rejected this brand of bigotry in politics, supporting gay rights in overwhelming numbers. There is even a rift among evangelicals, as a recent NYT article found many churches abandoning the obsession with gays, moving towards the social justice aspect of Christianity.
Tuesday’s election would seem to validate this trend, as Republicans Ernie Fletcher and Stan Lee are expected to lose by nearly 20 points. But victory is not yet upon us, as KY politicians will still seek to capitalize on this homophobic demographic (Even Todd Hollenbach, Dem. candidate for Treasurer, refuses to renounce Simon’s endorsement).
But at least we now know that it will take more than simply using homophobia to get elected in KY.
Of course, if I was Mexican, I’d be sweating a bit.
- Anti-Science Agenda , Anti-choice , Christian Fundamentalism , Creation Museum , Creationism , Family Foundation , Homophobia , Kentucky GOP , Linda Greenwell , Racism , Religious Fanaticism , Republican Fascism , Republican Party Decline , Stan Lee , wingnuttery
