Paris Hilton issued an apology Thursday after audio of her making derogatory comments about gay people was posted online.
In the recording, Hilton is heard saying gay people are “disgusting” and “most of them probably have AIDS.”
“Gay people are the strongest and most inspiring people I know,” the socialite said in an apology to GLAAD Thursday. “It is so wrong when people bully or put down others for being gay. No one should have to go through that.”It's no secret to conservatives that gay men (in particular, white gay men) are a narcissistic and promiscuous lot. So much so that even noted hatemonger and "gay activist" Dan Savage once recently admitted (like many gays) to being a sex fiend who also happens to be is in an "open marriage" with his "husband" of several years.
“As anyone close to me knows, I always have been and always will be a huge supporter of the gay community. I am so sorry and so upset that I caused pain to my gay friends, fans and their families with the comments heard this morning,” Hilton said. “I was having this private conversation with a friend of mine who is gay and our conversation was in no way towards the entire gay community. It is the last thing that I would ever want to do and I cannot put into words how much I wish I could take back every word.”
“HIV/AIDS can hurt anyone, gay and straight, men and women,” she said. “It’s something I take very seriously and should not have been thrown around in conversation.”
While riding in a New York City cab last week, Hilton and an openly gay friend were talking about a smartphone app Grindr, which allows gay men to meet and hook up.
“Ew, ew,” Hilton says on the recording when told about Grindr. “Gay guys are the horniest people in the world,” she continues. “They’re disgusting. Dude, most of them probably have AIDS … I would be so scared if I was a gay guy. You’ll like, die of AIDS.”
The cab driver recorded the conversation, which RadarOnline obtained and posted Thursday.
A group of high school journalism students attending a conference called “Journalism on the Edge” in Seattle over the weekend felt they were pushed over the edge by syndicated sex advice columnist Dan Savage.RELATED: Homosexual radical Dan Savage bullies high schoolers
Savage, the creator of the two-year-old It Gets Better Project, which encourages teens struggling with same-sex attractions to embrace homosexuality, was invited to give a keynote address last Friday at the JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention.
Students were expecting him to talk about bullying. But they also got an earful about birth control, sex, and Savage’s opinions on the Bible.
A 17-year-old from California who was attending with half a dozen other students from her high school yearbook staff, was one of several students to walk out in the middle of Savage’s speech.
“The first thing he told the audience was, ‘I hope you’re all using birth control!’ ” she recalled. Then “he said there are people using the Bible as an excuse for gay bullying, because it says in Leviticus and Romans that being gay is wrong. Right after that, he said we can ignore all the ‘B.S.’ in the Bible.
“I was thinking, ‘This is not going a good direction at all,’ Then he started going off about the Bible. He said somehow the Bible was pro-slavery. I’m really shy. I’m not really someone to, like, stir up anything. But all of a sudden I just blurted out, ‘That’s bull!’ ”
As she and several other students walked out of the auditorium, Savage noticed them leaving and called them “pansies.”
Though recordings of the keynote speech are unavailable, Savage has made similar comments in the past, which can be found on YouTube. Among them:
“Most people that you wind up arguing with about religion and homosexuality have not ever read the Bible without their, you know, moron glasses on.”
“If you believe it is the divinely inspired word of God, if you believe in the literal truth of the Bible, I challenge you to read the first five (expletive) pages. There are two creation myths in Genesis.”
“We ignore the (expletive) in the Bible about race, about slavery, and we’re going to have to get there for homosexuality.”
The student’s father is a public school teacher. Though he said Savage’s comments were inappropriate, he thinks the organizers of the conference are ultimately responsible.
“I’m well-versed in the rules of the game, the captive-audience ethic,” he said. “You have a bunch of kids. They’re required to go to school. They don’t have the option of walking out on you as a teacher, so you guard your speech.
“If Dan Savage was a teacher, they’d suspend him without pay for this behavior,” he added. “He didn’t take account of who his audience was. If he was doing this with a bunch of college journalism kids, that would be a different story — that’s more rough and tumble. How many of the kids who didn’t walk out felt backed into a corner? To me, that’s bullying behavior. It has all the symptoms, as far as I’m concerned.”
Liberals love to pose as free-speech defenders against the “chilling effect” of societal censorship. But when it comes to the gay agenda, they intend to intimidate dissent of any kind. They even line up mourning parents to accepting public shame for their child's suicide for not being "progressive" enough. That is chilling.
On the December 12 Today, NBC reporter Kerry Sanders updated viewers on the suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, who jumped off a bridge after being mocked on Facebook. Sanders asked Clementi’s mother if her son picked up on her shock when he came out as gay to her, and she said yes. Sanders then poked her in the face: “Tyler later tweeted to a friend ‘Mom has basically completely rejected me.’ Has that tweet haunted you in any way?” She said yes.
But that wasn’t enough. They invited Clementi’s parents into the studio, where co-host Ann Curry slapped the mother again: "Did you feel, as you look back over this, that he had someone to speak to, that he was supported, that had he had that support, he might not have taken his own life?...You know, this idea of – we just heard about it in Kerry Sanders' piece about how he felt about your reaction, Jane, when you came out to him saying that you – saying that he was gay. If you had a second chance, if you could have a do-over, how would you wish you could have reacted when he told you he was gay?"
She replied, “I don't know that you can change your reactions.” She explained that her son knew she still loved him. But NBC was implying she had a role in her son’s suicide. Her initial reaction of shock wasn’t supportive enough to save his life.
Any parent can feel empathy (and horror) over a child contemplating suicide, and any parent can feel very protective of their children being bullied in school. But on the subject of homosexuality, the media operate more like a strict church than a Free Speech Club. There is no fairness in a balanced debate. Balance allows the airing of hatred. Fairness is only guaranteed by unquestioning unanimity. A traditional religious viewpoint of opposition – of any religion – is utterly avoided, skipped over, censored. God gets no air time.
This is especially true when the subject is the bullying of homosexual teenagers. “It Gets Better” videos have made by politicians and celebrities around the world urging teens not to commit suicide. The media's approach seems like Winning Through Intimidation. The socially conservative side is cartooned into being "pro-bullying," which gives journalists the free pass to ignore any dissent. The media operate a kangaroo court. A homosexual teenager makes accusations of bullying in school. The alleged bullies and demonizers are not called to confess or object. There is an assumption of deep and heinous guilt. There is a verdict with no trial. Inside the media, there is a new church and a new dogma that must be obeyed: the church of “It Gets Better.”
Consider the case of 13-year-old Jonah Mowry, who made an “It Gets Better” video that was celebrated by the bishops of the new religion, singer Lady Gaga and gay gossip Perez Hilton. Mowry held up a series of cards about being bullied since first grade and cried as he told of how he cut himself in self-loathing. The video's approaching eight million views on YouTube and now sells iTunes on the song Mowry chose to underscore his anguish.
ABC’s Lara Spencer gushed like a waterfall in an inteview on “Good Morning America” on December 9: “And, now, we turn to the bullied teen who stood up for himself in an online video, and has since become a national hero. 14-year-old Jonah Mowry posted this YouTube video. It is raw. It is heartbreaking, and just so courageous. So inspiring, anti-bullying crusader Lady Gaga tweeted about it. Well, that incredible young man is here to speak out for the first time in just a moment.”
Spencer reported, "It might have remained one of the millions of barely-seen videos on YouTube. But then, last week, Perez Hilton blogged about it, and it caught fire, a viral video sensation. Jonah got tweets of support from celebrities like Nick Jonas, Rosie O'Donnell, Jane Lynch, and Lady Gaga."
Then came the warmest of introductions: "For more, now, we're joined by the brave, young man you just saw. 14-year-old Jonah Mowry, along with his mom, and his dad, Peggy Sue and Kevin, and his brother, Julian. Welcome to you all. So, it must feel pretty good to have 7.8 million supporters behind you, including Lady Gaga, Perez Hilton, and so many more."
It sounded like a gay version of “The 700 Club,” but instead of a teen testifying that he was coming to Christ, he was coming out of the closet. Spencer was ABC’s Pat Robertson equivalent, honoring him as “brave” and a “remarkable young man” and a "national hero" and cheering him on to testify.
The story had a happy ending. Mowry said the school principal was “very supportive” and the students were “very supportive and very welcoming and nice.” No one wondered if perhaps Mowry’s accusation of constant daily bullying since first grade was overwrought. But the networks can't even show any skepticism or neutrality or nuance.
Sex columnist Dan Savage has apparently decided that it has been too long since his political opinions mattered. Having already destroyed Rick Santorum‘s internet reputation, Savage is now taking aim at Herman Cain for repeatedly declaring that he believes sexual orientation to be a choice. If it is a choice, Savage demands, Cain should prove it by performing sex acts on Savage. Yes, it has come to this.
Cain admits to being a social conservative in the way he conducts his life, and in his moral beliefs. He has said that the Bible tells him homosexuality is a sin, and he believes that. He also believes it is a “choice” and has said so repeatedly. But he has, for the most part, refrained from making any comments on how his opinions would translate into law. He has stated he has no problem appointing competent LGBT people to his cabinet. As far as the conservative gay community goes, GOProud head Chris Barron stood up for Cain after his initial homosexuality comments, arguing precisely that his policies would help LGBT people, and his personal views appeared to have no bearing on how he would govern.
Given Cain’s relationship with social libertarians (and gay conservatives), this may have been a bit of an overreaction:
Dear Herman,
If being gay is a choice, show us the proof. Choose it. Choose to be gay yourself. Show America how that’s done, Herman, show us how a man can choose to be gay. Suck my dick, Herman. Name the time and the place and I’ll bring my dick and a camera crew and you can suck me off and win the argument.
Very sincerely yours,
Dan Savage
There is a good bit to parse here, so may as well start with the obvious: it is at best megalomaniacal for Savage to assume that being sexually attracted to men necessarily implies being sexually attracted to Dan Savage. Then there is the larger portrayal of gay men– and straight women, to a certain extent– as being so disconnected from their bodily integrity that it is entirely appropriate to demand sexual favors of them. Savage may claim he is attempting to promote the dignity of people born with sexual orientations other than “straight”– or people born attracted to men, whichever the case may be– but how little must he think of the LGBT community to assume that “being gay” consists of fellating complete strangers on demand? It’s like he is seeing the gay community through the prism of a bad George Michael joke. At the very least, he’s not helping any bigots not see the world through the prism of a bad George Michael joke with this letter.
Real Time host Bill Maher thought he had a good soundbite when he compared Congressional Republicans to late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, but was quickly one-upped by “It gets better” LGBT activist Dan Savage, who said “Unfortunately not exactly like him. I wish they were all f**kin’ dead.”Of course, Mediaite forgot to mention that Dan Savage also recently came out, in a New York Times piece, openly supporting adultery while admitting to being in a "monogamish" (i.e. "open") relationship with his "husband"--this while recent reports show that gay men are far more promiscuous and more likely to catch HIV/AIDS than their lesbian counterparts. Mind you Savage is also the same hypocritical (imagine how much his panties would get all in a bunch if a Conservative ever said they "wish all gays were dead") loon who the likes of MSNBC, Olbermann and other leftwing bigots take seriously as an "expert" on politics. Indeed, Dan Savage is the face of the morally bankrupt Left.
Dan Savage’s “It gets better” campaign has been hugely successful, even embraced by the President, and what people often lose sight of is the fact that those messages resonate with all kids, not just LGBT youth. All kinds of kids suffer, and die, from the kind of bullying that “It gets better” strives to put into perspective.
If that makes Savage angry, he’s not alone, but anger isn’t the problem. Properly focused anger can be a powerful motivator, and a spark to real change. The campaign to smear Obama administration safe schools czar Kevin Jennings made me very angry, but it didn’t make me wish Sean Hannity dead, it made me wish him honest, and made me wish his viewers smarter.
It is Savage’s correct life-or-death view of LGBT issues that motivated the campaign, but also that motivates him to do things which undermine that campaign, and its message. Whether it’s wishing all of the Republicans in Congress were dead, or wiping flu boogers on phones as an undercover volunteer at a Republican campaign headquarters, when that view transforms from anger to hatred that Savage undercuts his ability to be an effective messenger, at least to those not already in the choir.
Even anger can trip you up, though. Friday night’s Real Time was marked, not only by controversial statements, but by a weird hostility toward panelist Mark Cuban, who got attacked several times before he could make what were excellent points. The best of these was the fact that taxes, increased or cut, have little or no impact on job creation. Like Thom Hartmann has said many times, it is demand that creates jobs, and as Cuban said last night, it is innovation that creates demand.
Savage’s position on monogamy is frequently caricatured. He does not believe in promiscuity; indeed, his attacks on the anonymous-sex, gay-bathhouse culture were once taken as proof of a secret conservative agenda. And he does not believe that monogamy is wrong for all couples or even for most couples. Rather, he says that a more realistic sexual ethic would prize honesty, a little flexibility and, when necessary, forgiveness over absolute monogamy. And he believes nostalgically, like any good conservative, that we might look to the past for some clues.
“The mistake that straight people made,” Savage told me, “was imposing the monogamous expectation on men. Men were never expected to be monogamous. Men had concubines, mistresses and access to prostitutes, until everybody decided marriage had to be egalitarian and fairsey.” In the feminist revolution, rather than extending to women “the same latitude and license and pressure-release valve that men had always enjoyed,” we extended to men the confines women had always endured. “And it’s been a disaster for marriage.”
In their own marriage, Savage and Miller practice being what he calls “monogamish,” allowing occasional infidelities, which they are honest about. Miller was initially opposed to the idea. “You assume as a younger person that all relationships are monogamous and between two people, that love means nothing can come between you,” said Miller, who met Savage at a club in 1995, when he was 23 and Savage was 30. “Dan has taught me to be more realistic about that kind of stuff.
“It was four or five years before it came up,” Miller said. “It’s not about having three-ways with somebody or having an open relationship. It is just sort of like, Dan has always said if you have different tastes, you have to be good, giving and game, and if you are not G.G.G. for those tastes, then you have to give your partner the out. It took me a while to get down with that.” When I asked Savage how many extramarital encounters there have been, he laughed shyly. “Double digits?” I asked. He said he wasn’t sure; later he and Miller counted, and he reported back that the number was nine. “And far from it being a destabilizing force in our relationship, it’s been a stabilizing force. It may be why we’re still together.”
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