Today Dan Savage posted to Twitter his feelings upon learning that GOProud, the gay Republican Tea Party group, had endorsed Mitt Romney:
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Yes, that’s a link to The New Civil Rights Movement and our excellent story deconstructing the ludicrousness of the GOProud endorsement, complete with a chart and poll results. Savage apparently thought well enough of our article detailing the GOProud/Romney endorsement to post it to his 83,712 followers on Twitter. Followers or not, many on Twitter — and off — were off-put.
Savage’s tweet got well over 70 retweets, some asking, “You’re leading the fight against bullying?,” or, “Is it okay if a straight guy like me uses the word ‪#faggot‬ ? …Faggot,” or “#liberaltolerance.”
Others were more virulently opposed, like “Twitchy,” Michelle Malkin’s ludicrous attempt to capture the thoughts of anonymous Twitter users and claim them as leftist thugs. What riper market than millions upon millions of anonymous donors to her cause?
In, “#ItGetsWorse: Anti-bully Dan Savage uses gay slur to bash GOProud; Update: New video showcasing Savage’s bullying,” Malkin (or her anonymous “Twitchy Staff”) wrote, anonymously:
File under: Unexpectedly! Self-proclaimed gay rights advocate and anti-bullying crusader Dan Savage laid bare his intolerance once again, this time hurling the f*ggot-bomb at gay conservative organization GOProud. GOProud, you see, had the gall to stray from the Gay Left’s plantation and announce its support for Mitt Romney
You can imagine the rest.
The Huffington Post opened their story with:
When Dan Savage, the gay-rights advocate and sex columnist known for his brand of straight talk, is angry, don’t expect him to hide it.
He’s angry.
And that’s the point.
The other point: No one cares what GOProud says or does. They are about as irrelevant as an ant at a picnic. Sure, they’re a good way to expose Republican flapdoodle, but aside from giving us more Ann Coulter codswallop, no one — I mean, no one — pays attention to anything they say or do.
So why elevate their importance, Dan?
Frankly, as regular readers know, I have “colleagueuely” chastised, and clearly castigated Dan Savage for his many missteps.
I think calling anyone a “faggot” is just plain wrong — regardless of how angry you are. And I certainly won’t defend Dan here.
If Bryan Fischer or Chris Barron or a next-door neighbor said the “f word,” I’d have a problem with it. A big one.
It’s wrong, and I’m willing to bet Dan knows it. Dan should apologize. So should GOProud for endorsing Romney, but that’s another story. Neither, I expect, will.
What’s disturbing to me is time and time again, Dan goes out of his way to give our enemies (yes, enemies — people who advocate for your death, imprisonment, people who want me and my relationship to be illegal, are enemies, period) ammunition.
Did Dan bully those high school journalism students? No. It’s bull to say he did. Did he give fodder to the right? Yes.
Were Dan’s New York Times interview comments poorly timed and inappropriate? Yes.
And can we all just agree that Dan has done more good than harm, and agree that he is not the official representative for the gay community?
Unlike Michelle Malkin, who sees anonymous tweets as evidence of a left wing conspiracy, I don’t think it’s fair to take one person and blame their trespasses on their entire race/political party/city/region/county/religion/orientation/gender/etc.
If the world were to end today, and if I believed in Heaven, (or Hell,) I believe God — if he is the being Christians would like us to think he is — would weigh Michelle Malkin against Dan Savage and the winner by a million miles would be Dan Savage. Dan has done more good for all the people in this world in a year than Michelle has done in her entire life.
That’s all I’d like to say about today’s episode.