GOP Loves LGBT Well Sorta

Yesterday, the White House issued a photo of proud grandparents Lynne and Dick Cheney posing with their new grandson, Samuel David Cheney. It's yet another example of making gays and lesbians invisible. The officially released photo is of the grandparents with the baby? Huh? Where are the parents? Oh, that's right, they are two lesbians -- don't want to give me media that image to run.

The smiles (even Dick looks like he is trying to crack one), of course, are personal and show, once again, that while right wingers are supportive, even happy, when their gay and lesbian kids have kids, they never let those feelings spill over into the court of public discourse. Don't look for Fox News to ask Dick how he reconciles his love of his new grandson with his administration's support of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and don't expect Dick to speak out against Bush's threatened veto of the hate crimes law.

What the right refers to as "the politics of personal destruction" is just code for "despite my personal feelings, don't hold me personally accountable for what I may say or do in the public sphere."

It's really bad when straight people (although, based on her writings, the questions about Lynne linger) use gay people to gain power and then turn around and treat those closest to them with respect. It's a double standard that I can't even understand how Mary can live with.

When the person doing the bashing is gay, it's even worse. Just ask anyone who watches Fox News. Fox News is chock full of closet cases who help to promote homophobia. Just look at Shepard Smith. He is one of the examples of self-hate at Fox.

In some ways, although I am hard pressed to exactly say why, gay men and lesbians who are out of the closet in these places are even worse to me than the closet cases. They fly in the face of the facts and, because they are accepted as individuals, they are able to be complicit in the hate spewed on a greater scale. Take a look at David Brown. In a lengthy article on AfterElton.com. David, who works as a producer for the notoriously homophobic Fox News Channel, is able to justify his employer. How? Well, they like David personally AND they sent a few people to the NLGJA conference. BFD.

Brown is executive producer of Fox's morning show Fox & Friends. From AfterElton:

Brown has worked closely with Fox News CEO and chairman Roger Ailes since two years before the Fox News Channel began, and has been with FNC since its inception. Brown said he's been out to Ailes throughout that entire time and that Ailes has no issue with it. As Brown describes their relationship: "Loved me. I love him."

And Brown said that working with Ailes so closely, "He's your buddy, he's not just your boss. It's wonderful, I got to know him on a different level than a lot of people might have, and he's just a great guy."

As for family-values conservative Sean Hannity, Brown said, "Sean and I love each other." As to whether Hannity has an issue with Brown being gay, Brown said: "I'm Dave and he's Sean, and the show is good, or the show is bad. There is no gay issue." Brown insisted it's like that across the board at Fox, and said that at monthly NLGJA mixers at a local New York gay club, Fox News journalists are "always the largest contingent."

I don't know Brown's political leanings, but like gay Republicans, he could care less about the gay community at large. He has his high paying job, gets to drink at NLGJA events and even gets sent to a conference by Fox. Woo Hoo! As for David's claim that Fox staffers are the largest contingent at the monthly NLGJA social hour, of course they are the largest contingent...They are starved for positive portrayals of gays in the media world, something they are not getting at work...all you need to do is turn on Fox News to know that.

In the article Brown defends those in the media who remain in the closet:

"They've got mortgages to pay," he said. "And if they're scared, or, you know … look, there's a lot of actors in Hollywood who won't come out. So it's the same sort of mentality across the board."

Actually, Dave, it's not the same. While I encourage everyone to come out, it's a big stretch to say that an actor staying the closet is the same as a gay man who is aiding and abetting the hate on Fox News. Given the choice to be friends with an out Fox News staffer or a closeted Hollywood actor, I'd choose the actor every time.

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