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Wayne Besen

  • Panderers and Philanderers
    17 March 2007 par (Open-Publishing)

    By Wayne Besen
    Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential candidate, is the king of crass, the maven of craven and the show pony of phony. He switches positions quicker than a porn star and is more slippery than an okra plate dipped in country butter. I never thought the religious right would be gullible enough to buy Romney’s eleventh hour conversion, but apparently he can buy theirs. According to an article in Sunday’s New York Times, the ultra-wealthy (…)

  • Learning the Hardaway
    24 February 2007 par (Open-Publishing)
    1 comment

    by Wayne Besen
    Grey’s Anatomy star Isaiah Washington called a co-star a faggot and ended up in rehab, while former basketball star Tim Haraway said he hated homosexuals and now his career as an ex-jock pitchman is on a cold slab. This will be remembered as the year the F-word became the new N-word and homophobic comments were no longer considered acceptable in polite company. To be sure, America has not endorsed homosexuality, but the new rules do mean celebrities will lose endorsements if (…)

  • A Return To Reality
    10 November 2006 par (Open-Publishing)

    by Wayne Besen
    In the very week Saddam Hussein was sentenced to hang, George W. Bush has found his presidency in the gallows. Hussein now awaits his fate as a dead duck, while Bush will usher in his final two years as a lame duck. How bitterly ironic it must be that the Democratic landslide victory was fueled on outrage over the quagmire in Iraq and the president’s refusal to "change the course" even after the facts repeatedly changed on the ground. This is more a victory for reality than (…)

  • Bye Bye Bipartisanship
    15 August 2006 par (Open-Publishing)
    1 comment

    by Wayne Besen
    I have long endorsed the political strategy of supporting both GLBT friendly Democrats and Republicans. For pragmatic reasons, it made sense not to put all of our eggs in one basket. However, that was before the GOP leadership was hijacked by right wing basket cases. Sadly, I think it is time for the GLBT movement to reassess the political landscape and consider saying goodbye to bipartisanship.
    The defenders of the status quo will claim that loyalty is an important (…)

  • McGreevey’s Confession
    1 June 2006 par (Open-Publishing)

    by Wayne Besen
    In the shadow of Mary Cheney’s apologist memoir, "Now It’s My Turn," comes an apology from former New Jersey Governor James McGreevey in his new book "The Confession." With Mary receiving a mllion dollars for her "tell nothing" and McGreevey receiving a half million for his "tell-all," it has suddenly become quite lucrative to announce one’s homosexuality. Perhaps, next year’s National Coming Out Day should be held in a bank?
    Cynicism aside, McGreevey’s book is a tome that (…)

  • Thorns In The Rose Garden
    31 May 2006 par (Open-Publishing)

    by Wayne Besen
    The Bush administration is out of gas and nobody can afford it, so the President is priming the pump with the same anti-gay fuel that always runs the GOP’s engine: Same-sex marriage. But will the parlor trick work again for an administration clunking by on fumes?
    According to the conservative magazine, The Weekly Standard, Bush will hold a press conference in the Rose Garden on June 5 to reaffirm his support for a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting gay people from (…)

  • The Million Dollar Staffer
    19 May 2006 par (Open-Publishing)
    2 comments

    by Wayne Besen
    Like her father’s misbegotten war in Iraq, Mary Cheney’s book is backfiring. Just as Dick thought the Iraqis would throw flowers at our troops and greet them as liberators, Mary imagined her tome would liberate her from being perceived as a lesbian lackey. But instead of roses, people are roiled and "Now It’s My Turn" makes Mary appear more sycophantic than sympathetic.
    Time and again, Mary is confronted with opportunities to educate America and voice her opposition to (…)

  • Proud to be Liberal
    14 February 2006 par (Open-Publishing)

    by Wayne Besen
    One of the great fallacies in modern lore is that liberalism stands for nothing and liberals have no core beliefs. The right wing, from the Pope to the President, has impugned the left by unfairly portraying it as a valueless movement mired in moral relativism.
    This could not be further from the truth. Indeed, the left is the backbone of freedom, the defender of personal liberty, the guarantor of free speech and religious worship and the nurturer of democratic movements (…)

  • The King That Was A Queen
    2 February 2006 par (Open-Publishing)
    1 comment

    by Wayne Besen
    Coretta Scott King was a wonderful soul of love and empathy who will be mourned by millions of people. She was the King who was a queen, because she understood her husband’s "dream" was much greater than achieving liberty for one narrow slice of the population.
    "For many years now, I have been an outspoken supporter of civil and human rights for gay and lesbian people," Coretta Scott King said at the 25th anniversary luncheon for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. (…)

  • Will & Disgrace?
    25 January 2006 par (Open-Publishing)
    1 comment

    by Wayne Besen
    When a gay friend found out that NBC was canceling Will & Grace he was ecstatic. He derisively called the show "Will & Disgrace" and compared it to a minstrel show because the effeminate homosexual "Jack," played by Sean Hayes, is consistently the butt of jokes. He is right that Jack is often the punch line, but I think historically this sitcom will go down as a knockout success for the gay community.
    Will & Grace isn’t perfect, but it came along at the perfect (…)