The New York Times’ conservative columnist, Ross Douthat, spoke last week at a fundraiser for one of America’s most anti-gay groups. Many in the LGBT community are outraged — here’s what they’re missing.
Ross Douthat is the New York Times’ only conservative opinion writer. The Times always has one. His predecessor was the horrific neocon war hawk William Kristol.
Douthat is young (34), smart, and far more religious than the average American.Â
And I can’t stand his work.
This week, some members of the LGBT blogosphere, from Dan Savage to Media Matters to Joe.My.God. to Towleroad, and others, went on the warpath, attacking Douthat for speaking at a fundraiser for the Alliance Defending Freedom. If you’re unsure exactly of what the ADF is, or their embarrassing portfolio of anti-gay legal work, read my recent piece, “Almost Everything You’ve Been Told About The Idaho Wedding Chapel Story Is A Lie.”
Here’s a screenshot of a recent ADF Facebook post that’s clearly not telling the truth:
Bottom line, the ADF is the law firm currently pushing the lie about the “Hitching Post” ministers being “threatened” with jail, etc. They also unintentionally brought same-sex marriage to California and Virginia, having lost those cases. They support putting LGBT people in prison, have ties to international anti-gay groups and actions, and are pursuing a Biblical take on the Constitution.Â
Evil, some might say, is an appropriate word for their work.
Ross Douthat claims he was unaware the event he attended was a fundraiser.
Big mistake.
He apologized, as Media Matters reports today:
“I was not aware in advance that this event was a fundraiser and had I known, I would not have agreed to participate,” he said in a statement issued to Media Matters through the Times Wednesday. “I was invited by an events organizing group, not by ADF directly. I understood this to be a public conversation about religious liberty. This is my fault for not doing my due diligence, and I will be declining the honorarium.”
Douthat is getting heat now for suggesting if it weren’t a fundraiser, he would have attended, revealing an appalling lack of investigation into the ADF — still — and an appalling lack of understanding of why so many are so upset.
Meanwhile, what everyone should be attacking Douthat for, actually, is not just that he showed up,  allowing his name to give creedence to the event, and thus, padding the ADF’s coffers, but that he didn’t chastise the ADF, its leaders, and its audience for being so off-the-wall filled with anti-gay hate once he got there.
Douthat had the opportunity to express just how offensive, dangerous, and anti-Christian the ADF actually is, but he didn’t.
“Hi, I’m Ross Douthat. Thanks for inviting me. I want you to know that I’m a devout Roman Catholic, a successful New York Times opinion writer, and I think what you’re doing, what your mission is, and how you treat God’s children who happen to be LGBT, is vile, disgusting, inhuman, and against God’s message of love. Shame on you all. No one respects you, you’re a laughing stock, you’ve lost nearly every important culture war case you’ve fought, and your ideas are dangerous to the younger generation — including my family.”
That’s not what Douthat told the audience at the ADF, but he should have.
Dan Savage exploded today, writing, “Douthat isn’t apologizing for crawling into bed with the ADF, an organization that wants to send Douthat’s colleagues Frank Bruni (gay), Josh Barro (gay), Charles Blow (bi), and Jennifer Boylan (a trans woman married to another woman) to prison. He’s not apologizing for speaking before the ADF. He’s only apologizing for appearing at a fundraiser for the ADF.”
“So,” Savage continues, “it’s fine for writers at the NYT to speak before hate groups—rabidly anti-gay orgs like the ADF, anti-Semitic groups, the reconstituted KKK, White Citizen Councils—so long as the event isn’t a fundraiser? So… it would’ve been fine for Douthat to have a ‘conversation’ with the organization that wants to send Frank Bruni and Josh Barro to prison but a line was crossed when Douthat helped raise money for the organization that wants to send Frank Bruni and Josh Barro to prison.”
He has several excellent points.
But no one is talking about what Douthat actually did say to the ADF.
Hugh Hewitt, a far-right wing pundit, introduced Douthat as the “special forces of conservative punditry,” someone who’s embedded “behind enemy lines” — meaning, the New York Times.
Douthat actually did a fairly decent job of presenting secular America’s position in opposing the radical religious right. Clearly, Hewitt and his audience were surprised, and Douthat likely didn’t make many friends, but he did plant important ideas in their minds, and there’s something to be said for that, too.
So, here’s the clip:
I agree, the LGBT community and our allies should be outraged at Douthat for “crawling into bed with the ADF,” but that’s not where our anger and upset should end.
Â
Image: YouTube