First off, let me apologize to anyone who finds the title of this diary offensive. I am using the hateful language to make a point here.
Ann Coulter should be run out of the politcal arena on a rail for the hatespeech she used at the CPAC Convention. We have all accepted the fact that she has an accute case of verbal dysentary, and should be tuned out whenever possible. However, she used a word that propagates violence against LGBT individuals.
As a gay man, whenever I hear that word it makes my blood run cold. If you have been called that word, even if you are or are not gay, you know the sense of shame you feel. The word carries alot of weight for me because it was the word that was spat upon me when I was outed in high school. I am also quite sure it was one of the last words Matthew Shepard heard tied to that fence post in Laramie, Wyoming.
I would like to posit a comparision of the word "faggot" to the word "nigger." Imagine that instead of trashing John Edwards, Coulter had been trashing Barack Obama. Also imagine that instead of using the word "faggot" she had used the word "nigger."
"I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘nigger' – so... Kind of at an impasse. Can't really talk about Obama, so I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions."
If Coulter had done that she wouldn't ever get published again. Even the wingnuts would stop taking her seriously.
It is very sad, that the word "faggot" can still be used in what is a venue intented to be for political discourse. "Nigger" is a word that stopped being used by serious thinking people some time ago, and the same standard should be applied to the word "faggot."
We should find out who Ann Coulter's publishers are, and make this point to them. We should hound any literary, media, or political institution that allows Coulter to darken their door. She is a biggot, and does not deserve a place at the table, period.