Hypocrisy
Pardon me for taking two posts from Randy Thomas' blog this week, but I feel like this needs to be said.Randy's post is about hypocrisy--specifically the hypocrisy of the Democratic party for giving Mark Foley a hard time when there have been plenty of Democratic scandals that they allegedly let slide. First let me say that I am all for pointing out hypocrisy. I think it is entirely appropriate for me to point out that Rush Limbaugh has no room to call me immoral for being gay when he is currently in his 3rd marriage. Hypocrisy should be called out.
However, for the Republican party to try to counter the Foley scandal by touting out every scandal they can think of from the Democrats is just a bit too much for me to take. To bring up decades old misdeeds to try to show voters that the Republican party is not worse than the Democrats is just irresponsible and laughable. There's a time and place to point out hypocrisy, but trying to deflect from a scandal by bringing up past scandals isn't the upstanding way to handle this. I'd like to give Randy the benefit of the doubt on this one, but since he doesn't even mention that Republicans have their skeletons too, his post isn't sitting so well with me. It's the deflection that is getting me mad at the Republicans right now, not the scandal itself--only Foley and possibly a couple of others can be blamed for that.
On a related, but separate, note, Randy links to an American Standard article that accuses Nancy Pelosi of being a hypocrite for marching in the same parade as Harry Hay, a person they claim was a supporter of man/boy love while attacking Foley for his own underage attractions.
Here's the problem. First, while the Spectator claims Hay was a proponent of sex with underage boys, they don't cite any quotes showing this to be true (only saying NAMBLA claimed he said such things). So, for me, the honesty of this claim is surely in question. Second, the man was in the parade as a gay rights founder of sorts. He was not there as a member of NAMBLA, nor did NAMBLA have any role in this parade at all. (This is a big point because even Pat Buchanan just tried to claim that she marched alongside NAMBLA.) Given that, I think it is perfectly possible that if this guy indeed support underage sex (which is not proven in the article, remember), Nancy Pelosi would have had no idea of that, especially considering their were some 300 or so floats in the parade. Even the Spectator admits that when Hay died, none of his obituaries mentioned his approval of illegal sex, giving me further skepticism of The Spectator's claims that he once supported such behavior and further confidence that Pelosi could have very well not known of such actions. After all, she wasn't there supporting him, she just marched in the same parade as him and thousands of other folks.
So, that's that. Take it for what you will.
Oh, and as long as we are talking about hypocrisy, I'd like to point out that both Gary Bauer and Pat Buchanan claimed in the last few days that gay organizations and/or Democrats are closely tied with NAMBLA. If the above loose connection is the best any conservative group can come up with to try to tie NAMBLA in with anyone, they're not being honest. That's bad, right?
posted by Brady @ 4:37 PM
7 Comments:
Brady,
Hey! :) Just curious....what do you think should be done about groups like NAMBLA? And whose responsibility is it to take that on...if it needs to be "taken on"?
I totally get your point here...and I agree with the hypocrisy you point out.
But....what about that group? What do we do with that?
Or do we?
love,
pam
The only people seemingly still dwelling on NAMBLA are christian conservatives.
Hey Grace. The problem with NAMBLA is that they get a lot more press than they really should. I read on wikipedia that they are estimated to have 1000 members or so, have no national meetings, no office, and very few if any local meetings. They are a terrible group, but they just don't have the support that many people attribute them to having. Plus, there are straight underage sex support groups out there too that you never here about but that appear to be as large as NAMBLA.
I do think it is the gay community's responsiblity to distance itself from NAMBLA, but I also think they have done that. GLAAD has actually written a formal policy against them and they are not permitted to march at any major gay rights parade in the country (I doubt at any minor ones either, but I'm not sure).
Anyway, that's my take
ng- I you're right, although it may be more than just the Christian ones.
Problem is when they keep bringing it up in major media and people take them at face value.
Brady, at best, there may be a small percentile of individuals who probably heard of NAMBLA thru South Park or some late night TV talk show and so, they seek them out in the hopes of perhaps they may having the answers to their same sex integenerational attraction.
Of course, what they don't do is read their history and if they did, they would realize that as the gay movement got up and running, one of the first things done was to kick NAMBLA to the curb given that many foresaw the problems with that group, problems that sadly came into fruition in the 90's.
And that's something these pinhead christian conservatives intentionally overlook.
What should be done?
We did it already, decades ago.
Once again, the only people dwelling on NAMBLA are christian conservatives who long for the groups return. These people should just start a chapter of their own and get it over with already.
Hey guys! Thanks for the info. I know more now than I did. I honestly hadn't read a thing about it until yesterday when I looked at the website and was like "whoa". I'm glad to know the things you've told me!
love ya!
pam
NG- I agree, the gay community has done what it has needed to do regarding NAMBLA. Now if only everyone would give them credit for it. Really, invoking NAMBLA against gays is like bringing out Hitler or the Nazis in a conversation--its a desperate move.
Grace- you were probably better off before you had heard of them ;-)
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