Who’s the ‘Fruit Loop’?
October 13, 2010 - by
What’s with this Republican obsession with gays?
There’s state Rep. Larry Brown, who emailed legislators about “queers” and “fruit loops.”
There’s Carl Paladino, the GOP candidate for governor in New York
And there were all the gay slurs in the last race for North Carolina Republican Party chair.
Something about election years just brings Republicans out of the closet, so to speak.
The best comeback came from ex-legislative staffer Bill Gilkeson’s quietly eloquent letter to the editor:
“I once considered e-mailing all legislators that I am gay. Among my reasons was to add a face to the gay community they knew. I had read that people who know someone who is gay are less likely to believe ugly stereotypes….(H)ad Brown known more about me when I was counsel to that committee he served on, he might have been less inclined to say such things about gay people. He did not seem like a hateful man.”
Some Republicans spew hate about gays because that’s what they believe. Some are pandering to prejudice.
But the impulse to divide people and deride some is the fatal flaw that prevents the Republican Party, whatever gains it makes this year, from ever becoming a majority party.
In the long run, hate never wins in America
Who’s the ‘Fruit Loop’?
October 13, 2010/
What’s with this Republican obsession with gays?
There’s state Rep. Larry Brown, who emailed legislators about “queers” and “fruit loops.”
There’s Carl Paladino, the GOP candidate for governor in New York
And there were all the gay slurs in the last race for North Carolina Republican Party chair.
Something about election years just brings Republicans out of the closet, so to speak.
The best comeback came from ex-legislative staffer Bill Gilkeson’s quietly eloquent letter to the editor:
“I once considered e-mailing all legislators that I am gay. Among my reasons was to add a face to the gay community they knew. I had read that people who know someone who is gay are less likely to believe ugly stereotypes….(H)ad Brown known more about me when I was counsel to that committee he served on, he might have been less inclined to say such things about gay people. He did not seem like a hateful man.”
Some Republicans spew hate about gays because that’s what they believe. Some are pandering to prejudice.
But the impulse to divide people and deride some is the fatal flaw that prevents the Republican Party, whatever gains it makes this year, from ever becoming a majority party.
In the long run, hate never wins in America