The best response to Ann Coulter I have read so far is from Andrew Sullivan. He posted it on Tuesday, I just saw it last night. I read it in my local paper. I recommend highly that you go and read the whole thing right NOW.
Here are a few excerpts – but it really doesn’t do it justice. Please please please read the whole thing! The piece packs an emotional punch. I was moved to tears. Anyone who is gay or has someone gay in their life (or simply has any compassion for their fellow humans) will be able to relate to this post.
In addition – it’s written very well. I’d think that even if Ann Coulter was your bestest friend in the whole world, and you believe with all of your heart that she is always right – you’d STILL enjoy this, simply for the exceptional writing.
First – for the Fox coverage of her "explanation".
And no faggots were on the show to defend themselves. That's fair and balanced.
Did you know that Ann Coulter is "pro-gay"? You didn’t? Me neither. That’s what she says, though.
Why would gays care? She is "pro-gay," after all. Apart from backing a party that wants to strip gay couples of all legal rights by amending the federal constitution, kick them out of the military where they are putting their lives on the line, put them into "reparative therapy" to "cure" them, keep it legal to fire them in many states, and refusing to include them in hate crime laws, Coulter is very pro-gay. As evidence of how pro-gay she is, check out all the gay men and women in America now defending her.
Word.
Something I didn’t know – and that brings this POV a different perspective from other articles about this incident – HE WAS THERE:
I was in the room, so I felt the atmosphere personally. It was an ugly atmosphere, designed to make any gay man or woman in the room feel marginalized and despised.
Andrew, man – you friggin NAILED it:
The word "faggot" is used for two reasons: to identify and demonize a gay man; and to threaten a straight man with being reduced to the social pariah status of a gay man. ...snip... This, Ms Coulter, is real social policing by speech. And that's what she was doing: trying to delegitimize and feminize a man by calling him a faggot. It happens every day. It's how insecure or bigoted straight men police their world to keep the homos out.
Whoa.
And for the slur to work, it must logically accept the premise that gay men are weak, effeminate, wusses, sissies, and the rest ...snip... We have as much and maybe more courage than many - because we have had to acquire it to survive. And that is especially true of gay men whose effeminacy may not make them able to pass as straight...
YES! Got DAMN! Can I get an Amen?
I'd like to hear Coulter tell Amaechi and Alva that they are sissies and wusses. A man in uniform who just lost a leg for his country is a sissy? The first American serviceman to be wounded in Iraq is a wuss?
Oh, sah-NAP! No he DIH-int!
She said - and conservatives applauded - that I and so many others are not men. We are men, Ann. As members of other minorities have been forced to say in the past: I am not a faggot. I am a man.
Yes, you are. And thank you.
PS - I am very uncomfortable with the common slam at Ann Coulter that she is a man or mannish. There are PLENTY of reasons to dislike her, her gender is NOT one of them. OR shouldn't be. I mean, we call ourselves progressives, and say that we embrace diversity, and battle homophobia - but we're going to use someone's gender as a SLAM? C'mon people. Lets not be hypocritical. Let's just say for the sake of argument that she is transgengered. So? What does that mean? Should we dislike her because of it? Should that be the reason we make fun of her? You see what I mean, I'm not going to belabor it. I would just appreciate it if you refrain from it.