Gay people in America are among the most self-righteous and intolerant people there are. The most recent gay backlash against two of their own for stepping out of line shows just how deep politically correct intolerance runs in their community, especially in ultra-liberal bastions like New York.
Ian Reisner and Mati Weiderpass are two prominent gay businessmen in NYC and the owners of OUT NYC, a hotel catering primarily to gay people. Reisner is also Jewish and a supporter of Israel, and last week he hosted a small reception for Senator Ted Cruz from Texas. The dozen attendants discussed foreign policy, but Cruz and Reisner both acknowledged that their views on gay marriage were polar opposites. Cruz is against gay marriage, Reisner is ardently supportive.
Now the NYC gay community is calling for a boycott of OUT NYC and urging gay people to shun Reisner and Weiderpass. The organizers of the Broadway Bares Solo Strips fundraiser, which raises money for AIDs related causes, have canceled their bares solo strips event in protest of Weiderpass and Reisner hosting Cruz. Executive Director Tom Viola explained that organizers could not "in good conscience" host the fundraiser at a venue "whose owners have alienated our community."
Now, Reisner and Weiderpass have spent years supporting gay causes. But apparently the mere act of meeting with a politician unpopular with the gay community is enough to “alienate” them from their “community.” In an open and free society, people should be encouraged to openly exchange views with people they disagree with, but in NYC’s ultra-liberal gay community, it is akin to an act of treason, and the traitors must be boycotted and shunned as social pariahs.
It reminds me when I was a student at Georgetown University Law Center. I was widely despised as an “ignorant and backward homophobe,” as I was more than once called. I was even the subject of several editorials in the student newspaper denouncing me personally.
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Now, I have been an ardent supporter of gay civil rights and specifically gay marriage for almost four decades, long before it became fashionable to do so. I believe under our Constitution, all our citizens should be guaranteed certain basic rights. And I’d like to suggest to my fellow conservatives that that is the direction the wind is blowing.
So why was I reviled as an “ignorant and backward homophobe”? Well, it began with my comment in a constitutional law class that I saw no reason to give gay applicants special preferences in admissions to universities. I argued that it was an entirely false argument that students could not understand legal issues related to gay rights issues without having a certain number of homosexual students present. And the mission of the law school and fairness were both better served by admitting the best qualified students, whether straight, gay, white, black, male or female.
But what really got me in trouble with the PC police was when I added as a humorous aside, “besides, gay people are incredibly boring.” Now, that was considered far, far worse than saying “gay people are going to Hell to burn in eternal agony for their sin of sodomy.” It is a shibboleth of liberals that gay people are simply more fabulous than straight people: better fashion sense, cooler nightclubs, and the admirable bravery to proclaim their gayness in places like Manhattan and GULC (where of course they’ll be feted and congratulated).
I’ve known a lot of gay people, and from time to time have read gay magazines like The Advocate, just to try to understand a different culture. Well, by and large, it’s a culture obsessed with cruises and cruising, and not in the least bit interesting. But in certain ZIP codes in America, mostly the ones where the elites of our country reside, saying that is strictly forbidden, ipso facto proof of bigotry and narrow-mindedness. In fact, it is these same elites are often shockingly bigoted, narrow-minded and intolerant of any opinion they don’t like.
I have no problem with any group of my fellow citizens demanding the same civil rights I enjoy under the law. In the America I believe in, we are all equal before the law. But the respect of fellow citizens must be earned, not arbitrarily demanded. And where we can express honest differences of opinion without being threatened with harm or being cast out socially. These are principles most ultra-liberals simply don’t understand, unfortunately.
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