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The rampant racism among the teabaggers has gotten a lot of coverage on the left, but their heterosexism has yet to get the attention it should. Sarah Palin's Mini Me in Delaware, Christine O'Donnell was a vocal homophobe and was a press spokesperson for the venomously homophobic "Concerned Women for America." CWA was, and still is, a militant Christian supremacist hate group designed for a membership of women but under the control of men.
Now, teabagger candidate Carl Paladino, a wealthy real estate speculator in Buffalo, is spewing heterosexist hate every chance he gets. On NY1, he is quoted saying these things in front of a group of orthodox rabbis.
"I just think my children and your children would be much better off and much more successful getting married and raising a family, and I don't want them to be brainwashed into thinking that homosexuality is an equally valid and successful option. It isn't," said Paladino.
The remarks came right after Paladino said it was time to stop pandering to "pornographers and perverts."
...
"I oppose the homosexual agenda, whether they call it marriage, civil union or domestic partnership," said the Republican candidate.
The fact that Paladino has a gay nephew makes his comments even more reprehensible. He should know better. Also, why is it that bigoted politicians always feel they have free reign to spew bigoted filth in front of orthodox rabbis?
Paladino couldn't stop there either. On the Today show, he spewed the following:
He said, however, that he took issue with the decision of his opponent, state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, to take his two daughters to a gay pride parade.
"I don't think it's proper for them to go there and watch a couple of grown men grind against each other. I don't think that's proper, I think it's disgusting," Paladino said.
Paladino doesn't complain about heterosexuals bumping and grinding, which they do all over TV and in public. What a hypocritical, bigoted jackass. I feel sorry for Paladino's family. That man is a horrible mess. I feel especially sorry for his nephew.
Not surprisingly, Paladino's bigotry is far from limited to hetersexism. From the Today show coverage:
Paladino, who apologized for forwarding racist and sexist e-mails early on in his campaign to replace Democratic Gov. David Paterson, was campaigning on Sunday through traditionally Jewish conservative neighborhoods of Brooklyn.
This is an important lesson. Bigotry is seldom limited to heterosexism. Racism, misogyny, and heterosexual supremacy all are part of an interlinked worldview, one which is pushed at us every day by the rich and the powerful. When queers on the right don't want LGBT organizations to support the struggles of other oppressed groups, they are furthering the oppression and violence that us queers face.
Another weird aspect of this is that Paladino's first audience was made up of militant, Jewish fundamentalists who encouraged Paladino's bigoted nonsense. Obviously, they have no sense of enlightened self interest. The vast majority of homophobes hate Jewish people too, even if they are less vocal about it. Anytime a politician says anything against queers, that should automatically raise red flags among anyone who isn't Christian.
Illustration: ddogbreath
Don't you wonder about people like this who "doth protest too much?" Might I mention Ted Haggard?
This Tea Party homophobia seems to be just part of a huger bigotry against blacks, hispanics (& other aliens), women (especially "uppity" feminists), the godless (or anyone of any religion other than their own), gays, liberals, and anyone else who doesn't fit into their own narrow, conservative Christian mold. And, of course, they can justify anything from passages in the Bible.
I heard an interview on NPR's Fresh Air (years ago) with Floyd Cochran, a former recruiter for the Neo-Nazi, Aryan Nation. He said that when he tried to recruit people, he didn't start out talking about race because by then, people didn't openly admit to being racists. He would start out by talking about homosexuality, because it was still "OK" to be anti-gay. After he had his recruits agreeing with him, then he would turn to racist talk.
Cochran left the Aryan Nation in 1992 after being told that his son would have to be killed because his cleft palate made him a "genetic defect." He now speaks against hate groups, in an attempt to rectify his years of advocating the elimination of other races, ethnic groups and gays.
Cochran says silence and apathy are the biggest allies for hate group recruitment.
I don't doubt that Tea Partiers talk so much about homosexuality because it is still "OK" (in some circles) to be anti-gay. Then they can move on to all the other groups they hate. The possibility of having even one Tea Party member elected to public office scares me to no end.