Sister Toldjah weighs in on the whole Ken Mehlman thing:
This is a big deal, of course, because in the left’s minds, as well as the MSM’s (I know – same thing), Republicans “hate” gay people so it’s a “shocking development” to find out such a formerly high ranking GOPer would say “I’m gay.” Not only that, but this is a big deal more so to the left than the right because we all know how the far left, in particular, gleefully treats gay conservatives – very much like they treat black conservatives. That is, with the same contempt and bigotry that they accuse US of. Make no mistake about it: Mehlman’s “coming out” party has already started The Usual Suspects to crank up the Hate-O-Meter in ways only they have mastered over the years – especially when it comes to “outing” gay conservatives.
There is not a single black or openly gay Republican in Congress or in any of the 50 governor’s mansions around the country. Conservatives do not like black people and they actively legislate against gay people. The contempt from the left is for people who are willing to trade their dignity and rights for a paycheck. It’s a strange kind of bigotry that expects people to hold a belief system that isn’t hateful towards themselves.
And even my friend Mike Rogers, who is the most aggressive of the gay-outers, doesn’t out Republicans who don’t vote against gay rights. He only outs rank hypocrites like Ken Mehlman. Now, Sister Toldjah goes on to make an argument that conservatives are the real progressives on gay rights because they are gradually coming to accept the concept of civil unions (signaling progress) while the left is becoming ever more hateful of closeted gay Republicans who legislate against gays. I wonder if her argument is sincerely made. It appears sincere. But then the question becomes ‘how along ago did she contract syphilis?’ She’s clearly going insane.
She tries a retelling of history that explains that the traditional opposition to gay rights has come from the Christian community and that they obviously approach things from a Biblical point of view. This sometimes led to an unfortunate lack of respect for the principle of separation of church and state, but fortunately, this kind of argument is no longer necessary.
They don’t understand that there has been a gradual change over the last couple of decades on the issue of gay marriage amongst conservatives and Republicans. It used to be that Christian groups were the faces of the opposition to gay marriage, civil unions, and the like and – being Christian groups – they routinely gave Christian rationales for opposing gay marriage (and sometimes it went WAY beyond that, unfortunately), rationales that might have a strong foundation Biblically but which didn’t and don’t mesh with laws on the books that are not supposed to be Biblically based.
Nowadays, most of the vocal faces of anti-gay marriage are Christian and non-Christian alike, but those (like me) who are Christians, more often than not don’t use the Christian rationale to explain the opposition because it’s not necessary. Most of us even support a civil-union type arrangment for gay couples that would give them most of the same rights that “straight” married couples have, something you wouldn’t have seen 20 years ago…
…I’m digressing a bit here, but the overall point is that, in response to Mehlman’s announcement that he’s gay, you’re going to see the “tolerant” left treat him like red meat, which the MSM will dutifully ignore, while the “intolerant” right’s response will be a lot more measured … which the MSM will also dutifully ignore via confining their “the GOP reax” segments to the Pat Robertsons of America who haven’t “spoken” for conservatives in decades.
This is an almost literal 180 degree turn from how things used to be between the left and right on the issue of “gay rights,” which just shows you which side has been “progressive” on the issue – and which side has most definitely not.
The biggest problem with this addled piece is that doesn’t address the central issue, which is Ken Mehlman’s hypocrisy. Both as RNC chairman and as the campaign manager for the Bush/Cheney 2004 campaign, Mehlman presided over a strategy of putting anti-gay measures on the ballot, not for their own sake, but to drive conservative voter turnout. And, unlike Sister Toldjah, Mr. Mehlman does support gay marriage.
Ken Mehlman, President Bush’s campaign manager in 2004 and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has told family and associates that he is gay.
Mehlman arrived at this conclusion about his identity fairly recently, he said in an interview. He agreed to answer a reporter’s questions, he said, because, now in private life, he wants to become an advocate for gay marriage…
So, it doesn’t matter that Republicans (and the president, for that matter) continue to oppose gay marriage or if they’re evolving to a position in favor of civil unions. The issue is Mehlman, and he’s now supporting a position he cynically opposed for purely political reasons. And it isn’t just some abstract issue to Mehlman. If you aren’t gay then the issue of gay marriage only impacts you indirectly. But Mehlman was actually working to destroy his own rights.
That is why other LGBT people are angry with him. Imagine a black man fighting for Jim Crow in the early 1960’s and you get a picture of what Mehlman was doing during the middle of the last decade.
That doesn’t mean that Mehlman needs to be shunned. His decision to come out of the closet and lobby for gay marriage is commendable. It places him ahead of the president on the issue. But his decision won’t mean a damn thing if he continues to work with the Republican Party or to help conservatives get elected.
