Apologies for not posting in a timelier manner. Damned work got in the way (I had to attend a meeting about the future implementation of a new financial system...oh, never mind).
Anyway, some of you may know by now that the Human Rights Campaign has endorsed Joseph Lieberman against Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary for the Connecticut Senate seat. Yeah, that Joseph Lieberman.
In response, playwright Christopher Durang wrote a HuffPo piece today on why he's cancelling his HRC membership. It's a hell of a thing. Go to.
Speaking personally, I've been an HRC member for a bit over a year now, because it seemed the right thing to do. I don't have any pet causes, as such, but gay rights are right up their with freedom of choice and environmental protection in my own little pantheon of important domestic causes. I have gay friends, several of them, and I'd like very much to imagine that one day, they might be able to marry and raise a family. For that matter, I am myself bisexual, and while I anticpate neither marrying nor raising a family, I'd like to have the option open.
Which is why I feel betrayed. A politician shouldn't be able to say "homosexuality is wrong," and get a pass from a group theoretically opposed to that notion. It doesn't even take recourse to Durang's argument - Ned Lamont is pro-gay, and not pro- all of the shitty things Lieberman supports - to find this a completely unacceptable action for a progressive interest group.
Therefore, I too shall be cancelling my membership.
Via MyDD.
01 June 2006
3 comments:
Just a few rules so that everybody can have fun: ad hominem attacks on the blogger are fair; ad hominem attacks on other commenters will be deleted. And I will absolutely not stand for anything that is, in my judgment, demeaning, insulting or hateful to any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion. And though I won't insist on keeping politics out, let's think long and hard before we say anything particularly inflammatory.
Also, sorry about the whole "must be a registered user" thing, but I do deeply hate to get spam, and I refuse to take on the totalitarian mantle of moderating comments, and I am much too lazy to try to migrate over to a better comments system than the one that comes pre-loaded with Blogger.
Hey, I haven't read any Durang since I last thumbed through "A Stye of the Eye" for a laugh. Good playwright. Good political blogger.
ReplyDeleteWell-played Tim, sitting out of the whole "endorse HRC for your readers" bit that I fell victim to. Now I'm felt with a foot in my mouth and you're left still holy, in your atheist way.
amen to will's comment
ReplyDeleteI think the firedoglake post about how, independent of the war stuff, Lieberman really has been terrible for The Gays, is a lot more persuasive than Durang's piece, which basically makes it All About The War.
ReplyDeleteLieberman is a half-assed advocate for gays and lesbians at best, and at worst, he's a wolf in sheep's clothing.
I sort of understand why HRC did the politically expedient thing and endorsed a candidate who, most likely, will get reelected. However, they're suffering from a severe case of not being able to see the forest for the trees in terms of the way Lieberman actually votes on gays.