Cynthia Yockey, A Conservative Lesbian – Page 11

Buddy Chopra now dispensing wisdom at Interesting News Items

Dear Ling Carter welcomes Deepak Chopra’s younger brother as his new co-blogger:

Recall how Yama, the lord of death, came to visit the widow Patel, who lived alone threshing grain and fielding service calls for Microsoft. Yama tempted her with four gold coins if Patel would curse her fate and renounce acceptance. But Patel tricked the lord of death by pouring milk into a rolled up newspaper then unwrapping the newspaper to reveal no milk. Yama was confused. He left the widow and resumed smoking menthol cigarettes later that day.

What insight should we glean from Patel? How does this tale align with the teachings of the Vedanta?

Joy asks, ‘Why are we letting the enemy moderate our debates?’

At The Conservatory, Joy McCann, aka Little Miss Attila, has a useful summary of last night’s Republican presidential candidates’ debate. Here is how she gets rolling:

Most of the questions Stephanopoulos and Sawyer came up with tonight were clearly designed to do one of two things:

1) Throw out more heat than light, and set the candidates to squabbling over non-issues, while making sure there is as much bad blood on the stage as possible; and

2) Put each potential candidate in a position such that he/she had to either throw out red meat to the base (which can be used in attack ads next year in the general election, to turn independents against whoever the candidate is), or stand there holding their dicks/boobies looking stupid.

UPDATED: Dear Tony Fabrizio, we have no obligation to cut our own throats by keeping your not-secret

Moe Lane has the background on GOProud outing Tony Fabrizio today. Fabrizio is the top pollster and chief strategist for the presidential campaign of Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Moe and I have opposing points of view regarding the outing. But I spent enough time composing my comment at Moe’s that I am cross-posting it here:

Moe, I certainly appreciate your support for marriage equality and the repeal of DADT. But I have to say that sexual orientation is not private for anyone. It is one of the fundamental ways that people use to create rapport, find common ground and build their social network. I challenge you to try an experiment for a week: don’t reveal to anyone a single detail of your life that would let people know you are heterosexual. This includes not mentioning your wife and children — and actively hiding your connection to them. Having to do this deadens the heart and tears the mind and soul. And it turns out to be a pointless sacrifice because most people figure you out right away no matter what you do and one of the biggest giveaways is being secretive — although that also is why gays marry and then lead double lives.

It sounds to me like Jimmy and Chris were fielding calls from reporters who were well aware that Fabrizio is gay. I think they were right to answer those questions honestly and to call Fabrizio out. One of the biggest problems conservative gays have in talking to Leftist gays about fiscal conservatism and the need for a strong national defense is their belief that we are comparable to Jewish Nazi collaborators. Leftist diversity is about different identity groups all toeing the same line. They do not understand that diversity in the conservative movement is about ideas, and groups with ideas that are mutually exclusive may still congregate in the conservative big tent.

So when someone like Fabrizio really does demonize gays for money, I cannot for the life of me see why we have an obligation to keep their secret-that-is-never-really-secret and be complicit in our own destruction in a way that is not required of anyone else ever. The benefits of doing this are potentially huge — Leftists gays will have proof that listening to conservative gays about fiscal conservatism is NOT suicide and it will show them they have a place to go when they realize that the real suicide is sticking with socialism. We really cannot persuade Leftist gays of the glories of conservatism without outing the collaborators wherever we encounter them.

P.S.

Just a reminder that outing Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski has had a salutary effect on her positions on gay equality. When we went along with her secret, she voted for DOMA. After she was outed, she voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment.

P.P.S.

It occurs to me that “outing the collaborators wherever we encounter them” is a little broad, since this means that every gay or lesbian person in politics who is leading a double life for the career and social perks of heterosexuality — while preying on the gay community for sex — should expect to be outed even if they are minding their own business. No. Outing is for when they actively fight gay equality.

UPDATE, 12/10/11, Sat.:

The Daily Caller reports that Andrew Breitbart has resigned from GOProud’s advisory board to protest Fabrizio’s outing. However, the problem really seems to be that Jimmy and Chris have known Fabrizio for so many years and that during all that time he has been so open about his sexual orientation that they had no idea that Fabrizio or anyone else considered it a secret, especially when reporters were asking them questions about Fabrizio from the point of view of already knowing he is gay.

Jazz Shaw at Hot Air notes:

I tend to take the GOProud reps at their word on this one. When you have reporters calling you and asking what you think of “a gay man being involved in the creation of the advertisement” then it’s probably excusable for them to think the reporters were asking from a position of already knowing. Also, GOProud doesn’t have any history of forcibly outing other gay individuals in politics, so it would certainly be out of character for them to start now.

Bruce Carroll, aka Gay Patriot, who serves on the GOProud advisory board, and who allows his blog to be dominated by anti-gay trolls (who are out in force at the post linked), today re-affirmed GOProud’s policy against outing:

On behalf of the GOProud Board and its members and supporters, we want to make it very clear that “outing” a gay or lesbian individual is wrong and should never be used as a political weapon.

Private lives should remain just that — private. The right to disclose one’s sexual orientation belongs solely to each individual. We will continue to oppose “outing” as it has never advanced a political cause but only hurts individuals and their families.

We strongly regret the events of this week.

I repeat, if you think people aren’t automatically figuring out your sexual orientation from the moment they see you, you are living in a fool’s paradise. There’s no such thing as a “right to disclose one’s sexual orientation” as long as you are visible. People will figure you out and they do not need your permission.

However, I support GOProud in having a policy against outing, but only because they work with so many gays in politics, such as Congressional staffers, who lead double lives to advance their careers. You have to understand that the people who do this are severely impaired in the conscience department. Think of the amount of deception they practice on innocent people by marrying a spouse they don’t really love and are not attracted to and having children (for example, my former Congressman, Bob Bauman). Think of their callousness and shallowness in preying on the gay community only for sex and never to find a spouse in order build an honest life together with someone they truly love. Think of their depravity as revealed in their tendency to be unusually vehement in taking anti-gay positions as part of their cover. So the reason it’s good business to protect their non-existent privacy has nothing to do with privacy or innocent families, it’s because they are so viciously destructive when they feel threatened — regardless of how indiscrete they are — that it’s the only way to get anything done.

Another point I’d like to make is that straight people in politics who lead double lives get outed because it is legitimate news that they say one thing and do another. Dear Andrew Breitbart* had no qualms about, you’ll pardon the expression, exposing Anthony Weiner’s double life even though it destroyed Weiner’s career in Congress. One aspect of gay equality has to be that we have equal treatment when we lead double lives. It is a way of treating gayness as shameful to say it has be private and get special treatment when it is revealed or discovered. That’s wrong. It has to stop. It has to stop now. The issue is the double life.

*Note to new gentle readers: when I call someone “dear,” I am sincere, never sarcastic.

Update, 12/10/11, Saturday:

Stacy McCain is gleeful about this story, but analyzes it from his point of view as a supporter of Rick Santorum and the effect this controversy will have on Rick Perry’s campaign in Iowa. He also links Jimmy’s interview with The Huffington Post, which is worth reading.

Why Newt’s lesbian sister is a good reason for gays to vote for him as the Republican presidential nominee

Newt Gingrich is chock-full of character and personality failings that should bar him from being considered for the job as president, but he is gaining steam in the polls because of his well-informed and sharp-tongued performances in the Republican presidential candidate debates. However, a chimpanzee with a magic eight-ball would be an improvement over Obama because it would not have a destructive agenda, so the bar is now set very low. Obama has never been a policy wonk and does not use his spare time to improve his command of any issue. In contrast, Gingrich is deeply versed in policy and history. The prospect of Newt using his well-honed skills against Obama in a debate is making Republicans and conservatives cackle with glee.

My own preferences for the Republican presidential candidate are Gov. Sarah Palin, who decided not to run; Fred Karger; the candidate currently endorsed by GOProud (formerly Herman Cain, now Jon Huntsman) and Newt Gingrich (see above, “cackle with glee”). Newt’s stance on gay equality and marriage equality is toxic, anti-gay, anti-American and anti-Constitution. With no sense of paradox at all, in the name of family values, which he has a lifelong history of flinging to the winds when it comes to his own affairs, Newt opposes the equality of his own lesbian sister, Candace Gingrich-Jones. It makes sense, therefore, that Gingrich-Jones has announced she would not vote for her brother to be president. It is bizarre, however, that she pledges to vote instead for Obama, who also opposes gay equality and empowers his Department of Justice to use scorched earth tactics to fight lawsuits filed by Republicans and conservatives in favor of gay equality. After all, she could choose Fred Karger.

However, besides the prospect of Newt being Obama’s Kryptonite in a debate, Newt personifies how opposition to gay equality, when it ventures from its legitimate home in the realm of persuasion into government, the realm of coercion, in order to force its will on people who are minding their own business, is founded on greed and lust for power rather than any moral, ethical or social good — and, in practice, is deadly and corrupting to society due to the wanton destruction it wreaks on lesbians and gays, their families, friends and colleagues.

For example, if my family had thrown me out in 1972 when I came out, or refused to accept my late life partner into the family (after her parents died she had no support from her remaining family), I would have died in my thirties or forties from undiagnosed thyroid disease, sleep apnea and depression and not been around to play a crucial role in getting my father’s second and third books published, or to care for my mother when she was dying, or to care for my father now as I recover my own health and career. I also would not have been around to tell one friend that it was his undiagnosed sleep apnea that was taking his life and destroying his marriage — he got treated and saved both. And I would not have been around to translate doctorese for another friend, which resulted in his abandoning his plan to use diet to fight his prostate cancer and getting the successful treatment his doctor was prescribing. He and his wife now have a new baby girl.

Society pays a very high price for allowing religions to use governmental powers to deny gays equality and inclusion in their own families. If Newt is the nominee, or, gulp, is elected president, the dialog between him and his lesbian sister will shine a very bright and cleansing light on the falsehood that opposition to gay equality supports family values in any way and will reveal that the true goal of this fraud is to gain control of the reproductive lives of as many followers as possible for purely selfish reasons.

H/T: PJ Tatler.

When the angels ask me to recall

Margaret Ardussi and Cynthia Yockey in December 1984. — Margaret Ardussi and Cynthia Yockey in December 1984 -- celebrating our first Christmas together at my parents' home.

… the thrill of them all, then I will tell them I remember you”: the most beautiful woman in heaven to me — Margaret Rose Ardussi, born June 1, 1941; died Dec. 7, 2004.

UPDATED: Sec. Hillary Clinton bravely speaks out for gay equality

Today Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking to a UN gathering in Geneva, Switzerland, made an eloquent speech supporting gay equality in observance of International Human Rights Day — click the link to read the whole thing. It’s worth it. Here is a sample (bolding mine):

At three o’clock in the morning on December 10th, 1948, after nearly two years of drafting and one last long night of debate, the president of the UN General Assembly called for a vote on the final text. Forty-eight nations voted in favor; eight abstained; none dissented. And the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted. It proclaims a simple, powerful idea: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. And with the declaration, it was made clear that rights are not conferred by government; they are the birthright of all people. It does not matter what country we live in, who our leaders are, or even who we are. Because we are human, we therefore have rights. And because we have rights, governments are bound to protect them.

[snip] Today, I want to talk about the work we have left to do to protect one group of people whose human rights are still denied in too many parts of the world today. In many ways, they are an invisible minority. They are arrested, beaten, terrorized, even executed. Many are treated with contempt and violence by their fellow citizens while authorities empowered to protect them look the other way or, too often, even join in the abuse. They are denied opportunities to work and learn, driven from their homes and countries, and forced to suppress or deny who they are to protect themselves from harm.

I am talking about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, human beings born free and given bestowed equality and dignity, who have a right to claim that, which is now one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time. I speak about this subject knowing that my own country’s record on human rights for gay people is far from perfect. Until 2003, it was still a crime in parts of our country. Many LGBT Americans have endured violence and harassment in their own lives, and for some, including many young people, bullying and exclusion are daily experiences. So we, like all nations, have more work to do to protect human rights at home.

[Note to Obama: start now by speaking out in support of gay equality, repealing DOMA and getting gay and lesbian equality enshrined in federal law.

Leftists/liberals: ditto.

Hollywood: if you want credit for courageous story-telling, have the costume designers craft some spines for you and include lesbians and gays in the stories you tell in movies, TV and online. Confused about where to start? Why doesn’t the diversity in science fiction characters include any lesbians and gays? Doesn’t the future include us?

Leftist/liberal lesbians and gays: stop letting your own party get away with using you as cash cows and volunteer labor with little or no reciprocity.

Cher: You have a transsexual son who is a former lesbian, plus a vast fortune, much of which has come from gay wallets. You could organize, campaign, fundraise and donate for gay equality like no one else in the world. Cher, you could make gay equality happen, practically single-handedly. Yet your activism is confined to a handful of tweets and watching your son compete on “Dancing with the Stars.” It’s time to ask, “What would Elizabeth Taylor do?” And then get busy!]

Now, raising this issue, I know, is sensitive for many people and that the obstacles standing in the way of protecting the human rights of LGBT people rest on deeply held personal, political, cultural, and religious beliefs. So I come here before you with respect, understanding, and humility. Even though progress on this front is not easy, we cannot delay acting. So in that spirit, I want to talk about the difficult and important issues we must address together to reach a global consensus that recognizes the human rights of LGBT citizens everywhere.

The first issue goes to the heart of the matter. Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct; but, in fact, they are one and the same. Now, of course, 60 years ago, the governments that drafted and passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were not thinking about how it applied to the LGBT community. They also weren’t thinking about how it applied to indigenous people or children or people with disabilities or other marginalized groups. Yet in the past 60 years, we have come to recognize that members of these groups are entitled to the full measure of dignity and rights, because, like all people, they share a common humanity.

This recognition did not occur all at once. It evolved over time. And as it did, we understood that we were honoring rights that people always had, rather than creating new or special rights for them. Like being a woman, like being a racial, religious, tribal, or ethnic minority, being LGBT does not make you less human. And that is why gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.

H/T: Jimmy LaSalvia and GOProud.

P.S.

I just have a few more things to handle and expect to start posting regularly again sometime this week. I have missed you.

Update, 12/7/2011, Wed.:

Today is the seventh anniversary of the death of my late life partner of over 20 years, Margaret Ardussi. I don’t feel much like writing. However, I see via Tina Korbe at Hot Air that Sec. Clinton’s speech appears to be coordinated with a memorandum from Obama, which the Washington Times reports, “… instructs the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development and other agencies to use foreign aid to ‘build respect for the human rights of LGBT persons.’ ”

So Obama is going to use foreign aie to bid other countries to do as he says but not as he does regarding gay equality. I’m surprised Obama didn’t compare himself to Lincoln and his memorandum to the Emancipation Proclamation, by which Lincoln freed the slaves over whom he had no jurisdiction without making them equal citizens.

I am most astonished at the reaction of Zombie, at the PJ Tatler, because pieces she has written for PJ Media have been among the most successful I’ve ever read at inciting hatred against lesbians and gays. However, perhaps she was just not skillful in those pieces at making a distinction between being lesbian or gay and holding Leftist/liberal fiscal beliefs and only intended to smash the latter. Apparently she is either in favor of gay equality, or so absolutely callous to gays that she is willing to use us as leverage against the world’s most ruthless regimes because, really, what could go wrong? Nevertheless, I do like her list, even though she overlooks the fact that the most effective first demand is to require Obama to recognize lesbian and gay equality in the U.S. through federal legislation to set an example for the world — note that her last demand includes the U.S. as an anti-gay country because Obama has not gotten DOMA repealed. Do read her piece linked above. Here is her list:

Enforce a total embargo against any country that has a death penalty for homosexual activity, including most importantly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Yemen, Iran, Mauritania, and Somalia.

In order to implement the embargo and make the United States energy-independent from these death-penalty countries, open up to drilling all American-controlled offshore oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico, and loosen any existing restrictions against oil production on U.S. territory.

Enact punitive tariffs and other severe economic penalties against any US trading partners that continue to do business with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, or other countries where gays are executed.

Withhold all – and I mean ALL – foreign aid from any countries where homosexuality is officially illegal and where gays are imprisoned or punished simply for being gay. Promise to restore aid only when homosexuality is legalized. The countries affected by this order include Pakistan, the Palestinian Territories (Gaza), Syria, Qatar, Malaysia, Oman, Lebanon, Kuwait, Bangladesh, Burma, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Ghana, among many others.

Stop all immigration from any countries mentioned above until they relax their anti-gay laws, with the exception of gay asylum-seekers.

Issue a clear timetable to all countries formerly receiving aid from the US: If you relax anti-gay laws and legalize homosexuality within two years, then aid will be restored. But if you maintain or increase existing anti-gay laws, then after two years the withdrawal of foreign aid will be escalated to full embargo status.

All monies saved from the withholding of foreign aid will be allocated to the newly gay-friendly U.S. military, which will be instructed to develop contingency plans to invade and overthrow the government of any country which maintains harsh anti-gay legislation after three years’ time, starting with the death penalty states and continuing down the list from most severe to least severe.

Encourage and fund the building of next-generation ultra-safe nuclear power plants in areas far from population centers and seismic faultlines to minimize any potential danger, to help replace energy sources lost due to economic sanctions.

Remove any restrictions preventing the development of American natural gas fields and other fossil fuels.

At the United Nations, veto, vote against or boycott all proposals by any countries who maintain anti-gay legislation, until such time that homosexuality is fully legalized.

I am the 99 percent manifesto send-up

It took me a few minutes to remember the genre of humor this belongs to — literal lyrics:

Why NOM would be fighting Obamacare instead of gays if it’s true purpose were to protect marriage

Today Fox News ran the story in the video above about how Obamacare will destroy marriage for the middle class because its means-testing requirements will force millions of couples to choose between marriage and health insurance. That’s because married couples who file joint federal tax returns will be means-tested by their combined income, but unmarried couples filing separately will not. Since marriage is optional, but Obamacare is mandatory, most unmarried middle class couples will have to forego marriage to afford their Obamacare. Obamacare may even force millions of couples to divorce.

The poor, the disabled and the elderly who need long term nursing home care already know how means-tested health insurance discourages marriages or forces divorces thanks to Medicaid. (One of the toughest things estate attorneys have to tell their married clients is that they should divorce promptly if one of them may need nursing home care in order to protect the spouse who is still able to live independently from being left destitute by Medicaid’s means tests.)

I pointed out that Obamacare will destroy marriage for everyone on March 24, 2010, the day after Obama signed Obamacare into law.

If the National Organization for Marriage really cared about protecting marriage, Obamacare is the asteroid that is going to make it all but extinct. If NOM’s true purpose were to protect marriage, it would be fighting the things that truly threaten it.

Your online vote for Hallie Miller can launch her modeling career

Hallie M is a model leaning against a security gate wearing cowboy boots, short shorts and a sleeveless knit top. — Help Hallie launch her modeling career by voting for her at the link below.

My friend, Peter Ingemi, of DaTechGuy blog, has some thoughts today on Ron Paul’s ability to win straw polls by busing in his Ronulans and paying their way to conservative events like CPAC and the Value Voters Summit. Then he asks for help for his young friend, Hallie Miller, who needs votes in an online contest for aspiring young models. The top 10 vote-getters will be considered for a magazine cover and cash prize. To vote, just click this link and then fill in the Captcha letters under Hallie’s photo. You may vote as many times as you like.

That is my story for posting this photo and I’m sticking to it.