The Rise And Fall And Rise Of Ann Coulter And The Business Of Anti-Gay Hate Speech In America (Part One)

Ann Coulter has made it her business to ridicule gays. By ridiculing straights: 

Bill Clinton “show[s] some level of latent homosexuality”, Al Gore is a “total fag”, and “I’d say that’s about even money” on Hillary Clinton “[c]oming out of the closet” in 2008.

“…but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I’m – so, kind of at an impasse, can’t really talk about [John] Edwards…”

It turns out, calling someone a “faggot”, or “faggy”, or even “gay” even if they’re not, can be a hate crime. Even if they’re only kidding. But it turns out you can get away with it. Because the Right has made a business out of hate speech. Yes, that’s right, hate speech. 

Hate speech is defined as “Bigoted speech attacking or disparaging a social or ethnic group or a member of such a group.”

And it turns out it sells books. And ads on blogs, television and radio shows. And ads in newspapers. And conservatives have a far greater reach, and are far more likely to use it to demonize gays than liberals. Here are a few quotes from conservative radio host Michael Savage:

“I don’t like a woman married to a woman. It makes me want to puke. … I want to vomit when I hear it. I think it’s child abuse.”

“…the family unit is…the strongest bond on Earth, which is why homosexual marriage is such a threat to civilization itself.”

“…you may say, ‘Why should we care about homosexuals trying to destroy families through the mock marriage that they perform in order to mock God, the church, the family, children, the fetus, the DNA of the human species? Why should we care about it while we have a financial meltdown?’ Because the spiritual side of the downturn on Wall Street is directly related to the moral downturn in the United States of America.” 

Does that match the definition of “hate speech”? Most certainly. And yet, the Ann Coulters, Michael Savages, and Michelle Malkins of the world are allowed, even encouraged, to continue their venomous attacks on the millions of gays in America. They are rewarded for their hate and hostility. It has become a circus, entertainment, a game, to drive ratings and sell books, advertisements, and speaking engagements. And it seems the harder we fight against the business of homophobia, the more the hate-mongers win.

Perhaps one of the most vicious, homophobic attackers is Michelle Malkin. Although less well-known than Coulter, she has crystalized her brand of venomous hatred into a position at FOX News as a commentator, and as a syndicated columnist and blogger. Malkin seems strangely obsessed with homosexuals. I wrote last month an open letter to Malkin, wondering why, “the word “homosexual” appears in 45 of your blog posts, and … the word “gay” appears in well over 150 of your blog posts.” 

After California’s anti-gay marriage ballot initiative, Proposition 8, passed, Malkin went into full force against the millions of angry gay marriage supporters across the country, calling them “tolerance bullies“, characterizing their anger as “insane rage“, and creating a homophobic panic which might lead any reader to think large numbers of gays, what she called the “mob response to the passage of Proposition 8“, were daily attacking every church and business or individual who supported Prop 8. (For the record, there were not.)

Which brings us back to Ann Coulter. Speaking about the 2006 California gay marriage debate, Coulter said,

“…these black ministers would come on TV and say things no white conservative would say. ‘Sodomy? You’re going to burn in hell for that!’ And I realized to my delight that if we can get blacks to be conservatives, we have an entire race of Ann Coulters. “

Early in the spring of 2007, during the Democratic presidential nominee campaign, Coulter called John Edwards a “faggot”. She received harsh rebuke, primarily from the Left, for it. And she lost advertisers. Lots of them. Via Towleroad:

Net Bank, Verizon, Washington Mutual, AT&T/Cingular, Dollar Rent-A-Car, SmileTrain.org, University of Phoenix, Sallie Mae, LasikPlus, Power Chord Academy, Gulf Shores.com/Alabama Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau, Ulta.com, and Yellow Pages.com have all abandoned the right-wing pundit’s site…

The Human Rights Campaign mounted an effective effort to impact her reach by urging the public to “Help put an end to the politics of hate. Tell the Universal Press Syndicate to stop carrying Ann Coulter’s column!” And it worked. At least eleven newspapers did drop Coulter’s column. But it also drummed up attention. And attention is what feeds the bank accounts of the homophobic hate-mongering crowd.

Ann Coulter is back on top. After losing ground, advertisers, and reach, Coulter has risen to new heights of popularity. The media have catered to her tactics and shenanigans and desperate pleas for attention. All of which have helped her publish books. Seven books, actually. Her current publisher, Random House’s Crown Forum, “is the latest addition to our growing family of targeted imprints. Serving a conservative readership, it includes books from Ann Coulter, Michael Medved, Daniel J. Flynn, Kenneth Timmerman, and others.“ Her latest bestselling book, “Guilty”, has been characterized by Media Matters as “filled with falsehoods“. But it is those falsehoods, like characterizing Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, and John Edwards all as gay that sell her books, and the books, TV appearances, radio talk shows, and public speaking engagements of the conservative Right that keep these hate mongers in business. And we have to stop them.