quite contrary

John Aravosis of AmericaBlog has another screed pointing out the byzantine layers of hypocrisy in the words of Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of the Vice President. In his polemic, John elucidates a commonly observed facet of sexual politics: the self-hating reactionary tendencies of the 'newly gay'. When people are just coming out of the closet and especially if they come from a conservative background, internalized homophobia tends to bubble up when they encounter other GLBT people. Thus, in political discourse, the newly gay will utter things like:

1. I'm not one of those "activists." (I.e., I don't do anything to defend my rights, so I belittle people who do in order to make myself feel better.)
2. Sure I'm gay, but it's not all I am, I'm other things
   too. (I.e., I'm still a bit embarrassed about who I am and about the fact that I'm not an activist).
3. Why can't gay people be more "normal," like
   me? (Normal means hiding out in the suburbs.)
4. I'm not a single-issue voter. (I.e., I still vote Republican and the only issue I DON'T take account when voting is "me.")
5. Republicans don't really hate gay people, they just "have" to vote the way they do for politics. (I.e., I still vote Republican.)
6. Democrats, sure they vote FOR gay people, but they're not perfect either. (I.e., I know Republicans trash gays 90% of the
   time and the Dems help gays 90% of the time, but I still need to justify why I vote for a party that hates me.)

The hypocrisy is apparent in Mary's descriptions of President Bush, strong supporter of the Federal Marriage Amendment, as someone who just hasn't 'caught up' yet. While his last opponent was a 'son of a bitch' for mentioning her already-public sexuality in a debate. Not to mention the farce of her mother crying for the discrimination she would face when she came out to them. It sure sounds like someone has a guilty conscience. Mary said she responded to Kerry using her as an example of the hypocrisy of Republican values-mongering by mouthing the words 'Go Fuck Yourself'. This, of course, was what her father said on the Senate floor to Patrick Leahy and serves as a fitting epitaph for the Cheney family in politics.

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