Earlier there was a diary asking if Michael Savage is gay.
The diarist was immediately inundated with angry comments, and for that reason (I assume) deleted the diary.
Why? Is homosexuality so hideous we can’t discuss whether someone is gay?
Yes, some comments made a valid point that the title question, “Is Savage Gay” can be taken to mean “Is Savage Gay--and by implication gay is a bad thing,” but I think few DKOSers would read it that way. It might be so read on Red State, or even in the New York Times, but we are liberals and grown-ups here, and most of us understand that the bad thing is “hypocrite,” not “gay.”
For that matter, there have been diaries on George Allen having a Jewish mother. Should those have been removed because some might think they implied Jewish is bad?
The sad result is that a diary giving a long list of Savage’s rabidly homophobic quotations was removed. I’d like to see those quotation shouted from the rooftops, to expose him for the slime he is. I’d like people to ask why he, and his network, are not being held accountable for such hate speech. And (at least in my daydreams) I’d like there to be angry letters, and calls, and boycotts and a surge of indignation at Savage’s hate mongering gay baiting.
But in any case, that diary is gone now.
And my fear is that, if we are too sensitive about the word “gay,” the result will be no one will post diaries about it. We gays will get relegated to “the minority that dare not speak it’s name,” and I’m sorry, to me that’s too much like going back in the closet.
Call me gay. Joke about me being gay. As far as I am concerned, even use the term “that’s so gay” (I take it as a compliment). Just don’t ignore me, and the fact that gay people exist, and that the theocrats and the Republicans whip up hate against us, and we are denied equal rights, and in many parts of the world, we are killed.
Finally, as a gay guy, may I offer some “Miss Manners” advice to both commenters and diarists:
- TO COMMENTERS. Don’t knee-jerk get offended at the terms gay, lesbian, etc. They aren’t obscenities. Read the diary first. In all the years I have been on DKOS I have yet to see one homophobic diary. If a diarist has said something in such as way that it might be misconstrued as anti-gay, go ahead and point it out, but don’t accuse him/her of being a bad person; nor demand the diary be removed.
- TO DIARISTS. To avoid knee-jerk reactions from commenters, maybe stress the hypocrite part in your title and lead. Maybe instead of “Is Michael Savage Gay” try “Is Michael Savage a Hypocrite Homophobe” or “Is Michael Savage an Anti-Gay Gay?” That would get the hypocrite part up front.
By the way, from the discussion in the diary, I didn't see much support for Savage being gay, but I did learn that at one time he was a homophile. And I’m wondering if his worship/detest flip-floppery may indicate mental illness, maybe borderline personality.
But it’s a discussion that remains unfinished, unfortunately.