Worse, Huckabee then implied that there is some tit-for-tat equivalency with (purely-mythical) "christian-bashing", as if that makes gay-bashing somehow an acceptable fact of life (like an eye-for-an-eye, Mike?).
Huckabee then quickly tries to recover from his despicable use of violence as a threshold calculus for the legitimacy of a movement for equal rights before law, saying "violence is wrong no matter who is behind it."
Thanks for the afterthought, Mikey.
From Huckleberry's deplorable interview on the TV show "The View" :
HUCKABEE: For us to stand there that day and to see Barack Obama taking the stage, to realize 50 years ago, he couldn’t have served coffee in the White House and now he’ll be the resident of the White House, we have to be happy as Americans.
BEHAR: You’re very passionate about that.
HUCKABEE: I am.
BEHAR: Do you feel that way about gay rights, too?
HUCKABEE: It’s a different set of rights. People who are homosexuals should have every right in terms of their civil rights, to be employed, to do anything they want. But that’s not really the issue. I know you talked about it and I think you got into it a little bit early on. But when we’re talking about a redefinition of an institution, that’s different than individual civil rights. We’re never going to convince each other.
BEHAR: Well, segregation was an institution, too, in a way. it was right there on the books.
HUCKABEE: But here is the difference. Bull Connor was hosing people down in the streets of Alabama. John Lewis got his skull cracked on the Selma bridge.
BEHAR: Gay bashing goes on, too.
HUCKABEE: And there is christian bashing. A lady in california, 69 years old, holding a cross and people come up — violence is wrong no matter who is behind it.
Meanwhile :
Woman was jumped by four men, taunted for being a lesbian, left nakedThe Associated Press - Mon., Dec. 22, 2008SAN FRANCISCO - A woman in the San Francisco Bay area was jumped by four men, taunted for being a lesbian, repeatedly raped and left naked outside an abandoned apartment building, authorities said Monday.
Detectives say the 28-year-old victim was attacked Dec. 13 after she got out of her car, which bore a rainbow gay pride sticker. The men, who ranged from their late teens to their 30s, made comments indicating they knew her sexual orientation, said Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan.
"It just pushes it beyond fathomable," he said. "The level of trauma — physical and emotional — this victim has suffered is extreme."
Hate crimes against gays increasing
Gay rights advocates note that hate crimes based on sexual orientation have increased nationwide as of late. There were 1,415 such crimes in 2006 and 1,460 in 2007, both times making up about 16 percent of the total, according to the FBI.
Avy Skolnik, a coordinator with the New York-based National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, noted that gay, lesbian and transgender crime victims may be more reluctant than heterosexual victims to contact police.
"Assailants target LGBT people of all gender identities with sexual assault," he said. "Such targeting is one of the most cruel, dehumanizing and violent forms of hate violence that our communities experience."
Skolnik said the group plans to analyze hate crime data to see whether fluctuations may be related to the gay marriage bans that appeared on ballots this year in California, Arizona and Florida.
"Anytime there is an anti-LGBT initiative, we tend to see spikes both in the numbers and the severity of attacks," he said. "People feel this extra entitlement to act out their prejudice."
What Huckabee completely ignores is that violence motivated by hatred towards any social group is very much a societal reflection of whether the law and the government recognize the equal civil rights and standing of individuals from such humanity-wide groups.
Discrimination, segregation, and the type of 19th century 'separate but equal' nonsense that Huckabee clearly advocates were very much at the root, part and parcel, of the less-than-human treatment of black people, until they finally fought back and demanded equal justice before law.
Following Huckabee's belief system : as long as the blacks (homosexuals) know their place and don't make trouble, they needn't worry about violence.
Huckabee's faux-passion about electing a black president strikes me as hypocritical, hollow, and pandering, as he positions himself for another failed run for president. (See how that works out for you, Ex-Governor Huckleberry.)
I have no doubt about on which side of the civil rights movement Huckabee would have been 50 years ago....and let's just say it wasn't John Lewis's.
9 comments:
Well said, Tyler. As always.
“….violence motivated by hatred towards any social group is very much a societal reflection of whether the law and the government recognize the equal civil rights and standing of individuals from such humanity-wide groups.”
That, more than anything else, is why I have a problem with Obama’s selection of Rick Warren for the inaugural invocation. No matter what the President-elect may say, this choice lends a certain edge of legitimacy to Warren’s views.
Just as Warren seeks to preserve the “sanctity of marriage” so does David Duke calls on white to preserve their “heritage”. It is a sugar-coating of homophobia and racism in a somewhat affable package, and that in and of itself throws people off.
Gone are the fire-breathing doomsayers. In come the three piece suits. It is a new tactic which will garner sympathy, even from the most progressive. We all need to “get along” and “understand”. Even Melissa Etheridge is talking about “building bridges” and Andrew Sullivan notes today that, “At least Warren appears open to dialogue, rather than recoiling in fear and loathing.”
Ah, but it is the smiling faces that will get you in the end. In the end, no matter what a “nice guy” Mr. Warren is, he is absolutely and unequivocally opposed to gay marriage and homosexuality. There is no compromise available.
Thanks, Joe.
Well said, Shirley. A soft-spoken smiling bigot is still a bigot.
I agree with you Tyler (no surprise there).
It annoys me to no end when theocrats and fundamentalists pull their victimhood schtick.
Seriously, when was the last time you read about a lynch mob stringing someone up because he's a Christian? Or watched a TV report about a rash of "believer-bashings" happening at revival meetings across the region?
Or heard popular music with lyrics about beating, cutting the throats, and torturing Christians?
It doesn't exist, yet these self-indulgent sorts cannot resist the allure of victimhood status.
Melissa Etheridge is talking about “building bridges” and Andrew Sullivan notes today that, “At least Warren appears open to dialogue, rather than recoiling in fear and loathing.”
I don't know what's worse, their rhetoric or the fact that so many in the media paint these two -- along with politicos in suits from HRC -- as "leaders" of some "united gay community."
Yuck.
Great post, TPN. Joy Behar is an idiot, but it's amazing how easily she made Huckabee look the fool he is!
"I disagree with "hate crimes" laws. Huckabee is right about one thing : violence is violence."
This says nothing more than a = a. It is not illuminating in the slightest to the peculiar nature of hate crimes. It suffices to say in refutation that while violence is violence not all acts of violence are hate crimes. What do you have to say then? Repeat the redundancy that a = a?
It is not illuminating in the slightest to the peculiar nature of hate crimes. It suffices to say in refutation that while violence is violence not all acts of violence are hate crimes.
Speaking as a gay man, I find the idea that someone who assaults me would get more of a punishment than someone who assaults and maims my elderly mother, simply because I am gay, to be repugnant.
I disagree with "hate crimes" laws. Huckabee is right about one thing : violence is violence.
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