“I AM NOT GAY! I NEVER HAVE BEEN GAY!”

The title of this blog comes from a line in former US Senator Larry Craig’s (R-ID) press conference in which he made a statement concerning his arrest for suspicion of lewd conduct in a men’s bathroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport back in June 2007. Eventually he entered in a guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.

So… Earlier in May another anti-gay crusader has been exposed for being a hypocrite. George Alan Rekers was caught returning from a trip at the Miami airport with a young male companion. Here is Mr. Rekers’s anti-gay resume (Not a Democrat. Why would we claim him?). He found the young man on the escort service site: Rentboy.com.

Sorry, but that was the Wikipedia entry. I am NOT providing the actual link. Once again, I am aware of the internet’s primary purpose. I bet my readers will be looking at such materials AFTER they read this latest rant.

ANYWAYS (huff)…

Wow!

Mr. Rekers has joined the list of well know right-wing homophobes to be outed and probably provided the LAMEST excuse out of all of them (I am surprised that California State Senator Roy Ashburn didn’t make the list based on his anti-gay stance). Here is a list of recently outed highly publicized homophobes.

By the way, congratulations, Mr. Rekers, you made the top three! (CLAP, CLAP, CLAP) Achieving that rank was probably based on your bullshit excuse alone. You could have done the following items that would have been more believable than “I had back surgery and needed someone to carry my luggage”.

Michael’s Rant proudly presents…

THREE EXECUSES THAT ARE STILL BULLSHIT, BUT MORE BELIEVABLE

3. Deny it. “Whaaa….. uh…. You see… this good looking young man… he and I sat next to each other on the plane and started conversing.”

2. “I was trying to exercise the homosexual demon from the young man. The demon was too powerful to overcome here in the United States, so we had to go to on an extended vacation to Europe.”

1. When all else fails: Scapegoat. Blame the drugs you are taking due to the surgery/wife/a parishioner/someone stole your credit card/liberal media elites/etc.

Mr. Rekers: Can I still use any of those…?

Too late. Shakes head.

Looks like the documentary Outrage could be working on sequel here soon.

COMMENT

First, an analogy.

Televangelists : 1980s :: Anti-gay crusaders : 2010s

Let that sit in for a moment. Think about it.

I am aware that these anti-gay crusaders were present in 1980s, but they seem to have a larger presence today than back then. I am certain that such programs as “Straight Camp” and “Pray the Gay Away” were in existence back then but bear with me in this comparison. I am focusing mainly on their hypocrisy and their misguided focus on the issues facing this country.

These anti-gay crusaders are no different than the televangelists from the 1980s. The likes of Jimmy Swaggart and James Bakker preached to their parishioners the likes of charity to the church and family values. Then it was discovered that they were embezzling money and “engaging in pornographic acts which are grievous actions in a chasm of torturous hellfire.” (translation: schtooping a woman… that was not their wife)

Today, these equivalents are focusing on a bigger issue. They are advocating protecting God’s creation and the great threat to our nation. No, it is not the environment and the condemning of BP for their blatant mismanagement on how they have handled the oil spill. Not the loss of human life in areas of conflict around the world. Or the promotion of a better health care system that revolved around what Jesus preached of helping your fellow man. According to them the great threat to our country is….

Gay marriage.

That is right. Instead of investing money and time into causes that I am certain Jesus would support, it is being used to exclude people. The idea of exclusion is contradictory to all of the world’s major religions. The central figure of the Christian faith, Jesus, preached loving your fellow man. I am willing to bet that when Jesus came to the local village to preach there were people that did not identify as Christian but they were willing to listen to his message of kindness and draw on that similarity between their faith and the one that Jesus preached.

Why are they are not focusing all their time, money (specifically the money), and energy on the true issues that I mentioned? Imagine the type of world we would have if they channeled it towards building our society up instead of constantly bringing it down. They make statements that gay marriage will bring this country down. I’d like to point out the following states and regions have legalized Gay marriage: Massachusetts, Iowa, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, DC, and the Coquille Indian Tribe in Oregon (as long as ONE of the persons is a member of the tribe). New York, Rhode Island, and Maryland will recognize a same sex marriage license from another state, but will not perform them.

And I am willing to bet these same people from previous generations (hence the 1980s and 2010s being in the analogy) said the same things in support of policies such as banning interracial marriages, disallowing women to vote, and allowing slavery to exist. As I have highlighted in my previous post about the process towards lifting the ban on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, we are repeating ourselves.

If we give equal rights to this group, it will destroy our country.

W-R-O-N-G! It will bring us closer to “FORMING A MORE PERFECT UNION!” An idea expressed in the Preamble of the United States Constitution. In fact that idea is expressed in the first fifteen words the ENTIRE United States Constitution.

My dad put it best when the issue of banning gay marriage came up: “30-40 years from now, we’re going to look back on this the same way we view segregation today and think, boy that was stupid. Why did we do it in the first place?”

Hmmm, and about places equalizing marriage to ALL couples…. Still waiting for that Rapture to show up. I think Jesus is more concerned about how we treat each other than what two consenting adults do in privacy.

Gay marriage according to these groups is like the Seven Dirty Words. It will “infect your soul, curve your spine, and keep the country from winning the war.”

As shown in the documentary Outrage, the anti-gay crusaders and politicians launch a feverish public campaign against LGBT Rights. We saw what happened with Prop 8 in California. These organizations that are on this so called family values platform seek to make forming a family an exclusionary process and only for certain purposes: “It’s only for a man and a woman AND their purpose is to have children. It’s NOT for you because you do not meet those perquisites in order to be married.”

So, that’s why people should get married is for the purpose to procreate? People have been procreating much longer than the idea of marriage. What about enjoying each other’s company? What about sharing a life with another human being? And of course the cliché: “I want you to be the first thing I see when I wake up, and the last thing when I fall asleep.” Do none of those things, which I described as possibly love, matter?

We are talking about two people, somehow coming together in a Hobbes like world. Love is like π (pi): you can’t explain it, there are many different ways to discuss it, and once you think you have it figured out, there’s more.

There is a saying I remember from when I was growing up and hold true to this day:

"Family is what you make."

Yes, I have my BIOLOGICAL family as described in my introduction, but I also have friends that I consider family. I value their input as much as my own family.

We all seek that the same thing: human connection in this confusing world. No one should ever be alone.

True family values means valuing ALL families.

Anyways, without getting into it personally and going on a tangent (Ha, two math references), these anti-gay organizations and politicians run on this supposed family values platform but how many are busted for cheating on their wives? Divorces because one partner wanted an “upgrade?” Right, marriage is only for one group of people (Larry King, Rush Limbaugh, Brittney Spears, etc.), but when it comes to another group (a long term committed gay couple)…

That is the true sanctity of marriage. Not that "One Man + One Woman" crap. It is finding the right person for you, being honest and faithful to them AND the person you find returning the same to you.

The one thing that I find similar is when these people get exposed for being hypocrites as George Rekers did. Remember the analogy at the beginning of the comment, and think about it: is there any difference between this…

And this?

In fact, just recently, Ted Haggard made a “huge” announcement earlier this month. No, it wasn’t what everyone already knows.

He’s starting up another church. Just read this article (here is the same story from the Huffington Post) to hear what he will be preaching to his congregation. Specifically this quote from the NPR link:

"I believe the Bible teaches we should have heterosexual, monogamous relationships, and that can be inculcated into law and form families, etc. Now, that's inside the church. How that applies outside the church in civil law is a totally different discussion," he said. "I believe in civil law there should be total equality under the law. So if heterosexuals get certain benefits for heterosexual relationships, then homosexuals should get those same benefits in their homosexual committed relationships. And that's what I'm going to teach our people."

To me, it sounds like you’re going to talk about one thing, but then completely contradict yourself with another.

Wait a minute… this sounds almost familiar? What did Jimmy Swaggart and James Bakker do AFTER they were busted? They opened up new ministries and once again were embroiled in scandal. History has a strange way of repeating itself. 

Who wants to take odds that Mr. Haggard will have another sexual encounter with a man and pull the same “dog-and-pony show” that he did last time? You’re guaranteed to win money if you take that bet. Odds? I would say at worst… 5-to-1. 

There is really nothing more I can say about this. Honestly, I have been working on this for the last month trying to find the right combination of words and I think these are it. Any more writing and I would just be repeating myself. 

Any shred of credibility Mr. Rekers had is gone (Honestly, was there any to begin with this guy?). The next time he tries to convince a state to ban adoption by same-sex couples by claiming that the child will grow up confused about their sexual identity, I hope someone asks this so called “expert” (and I use the term loosely) these questions:

1. Mr. Rekers, who raised you?

2. I’d like to display this photograph. Mr. Rekers, who is that in the picture with you?

3. It’s clear that you yourself are confused about your sexually identity. Since you call into question how one group raises a child, why don’t we do an in depth review on how YOUR parents raised you? I am certain they didn’t raise you to be hateful, which is the point you are missing with your so called studies. It doesn’t matter if the child turns out straight or gay, but is a functional and productive member of our society.

4. Mr. Rekers, how did your parents raise you?

5. Did they raise you to be a functional and productive member of society?