GOOGLE LAUNCHES “LEGALIZE LOVE” CAMPAIGN – CONSERVATIVES GO CRAZY
by: Jeff Wartman
http://jeffwartman.com/...
Last week, Google announced a great new campaign – the ‘Legalize Love‘ campaign. Google refers to it as “Legalise Love is our call to decriminalise homosexuality and eliminate homophobia around the world.”
Sounds like a wonderful cause, no? There should be nothing conversational about decriminalizing homosexuality and eliminating homophobia.
However, to conservative bigots, this is indeed a big deal.
Over at well known bastion of hatred FreeRepublic.com, which is a discussion forum filled with open racists, birthers and those who want to use violence against elected officials, the consensus is that they will stop using Google products. Of course, that’s after you sift through the homophobic and bigotry in that thread. The real question is how unhinged do you have to be to boycott a service because they’re behind a campaign to decriminalize consensual sex between two consenting adults?
Illinois Review provides another example of open bigotry on the subject – but they do so in a more subtle way. Editor Fran Eaton, an unlettered unhinged wingnut who has a reputation for idiocy so wide in political circles in Illinois that even mentioning her name usually brings a smirk to the face of any serious political observer – generally toes the same line of being an open bigot but does so in a much more subtle way, usually speaking in code. In the case above, she refers to the “Legalize Love” campaign as “anti-religious” for reasons unknown to any thinking individual. It’s not that it’s anti-religious, it’s that she is speaking in code because it wouldn’t be fashionable to use a gay slur.
For another example of how unhinged wingnuts like Fran Eaton write in code, check out a post made today on Illinois Review in which Eaton “reports” on Congressman Mike Quigley’s effort to lift the ban on homosexuals giving blood. There has not been a lot of reporting on it because Quigley is so obviously correct — no educated person believes the ban is justified — it simply goes without saying. However, Eaton “reports” on it not to bring news to the community, but as a silent way for her fellow unhinged wingnuts to have something to rally against. You see, for these people, it’s not about societal health concerns or “saving traditional marriage” — it is simply their outright contempt for gay people that causes them to rally against anything that would allow gay people to have a normal role in society. Their hatred runs that deep.
This isn’t just conjecture. I’ve seen it in person. When I was an elected Republican committeeman, I always fell on the liberal side of the party. I was proud of the history that progressives and liberals had in the Republican Party years ago, but it became clear that the era of progressivism and liberalism in the Republican Party is dead. At events, I heard multiple Will County Republican Party officials make blatant and clear anti-gay remarks about sitting elected officials. The venom and hatred that was behind the comments was so sickening I had to walk to the other end of the event room just to avoid punching the guy in the face. Of course, that person, who was a Township Republican Party Chairman in Will County*, also made comments about attractive women and his desire to cheat on his wife. I suspect the talk about cheating was just blowing smoke and not serious, but that sort of talk had no place at a political fundraiser. So much for “family values” and “protecting marriage”, eh?
Gay rights was one of the moves that caused me to want to leave the Republican Party. It got to the point where the open hatred and bigotry became too much to take. My view can be boiled down simply that I support gay rights because I support treating gay people as human beings. Giving them any less than full rights, including the right to marry the person they love, is not treating them as human beings.
((* – I wish to state that when I say “Republican Party Township Chair” – this was not the Chair of the township that I lived in – Frankfort Township – when I lived in Will County. The guys I’m talking about chaired a township party that I did not live in. The gentleman who was the chair of the township that I lived in was just that, a gentleman, and I never heard a word of hate out of his mouth and he never said anything to me in the years that I knew him that would lead me to believe that he wasn’t anything but a good guy.))