My good friend, Don Charles has just written a new post on his excellent blog, "Christ, The Gay Martyr". His two part post is entitled, "Is Uncle Tom A Gay Man?"
Although his two part post concentrates on David Benkoff's article entitled, "Why California gays shouldn't celebrate state court ruling," is has much larger implications for the not infrequent counter-productive and counter-revolutionary activities of all too many people, some of whom seem hell bent on sabatoging the struggle for full and equal civil rights for LGBT people.
Indeed, some go so far as to act like agent provocateurs, knowingly or unknowingly working for the very reactionary elements that are trying to keep LGBT people "in their place." In my opinion, Benkoff's article is both pathetic and despicable, and Don Charles, in his inimitable way, dissects that article and, by implication, the likes of the David Benkoffs of the "Gay" communities.
To further whet your appetite to read Don Charles' two part post, here is an excerpt:
"This is how I learned that David Benkof was an LGBT person. All I could do was shake my head in disgust. Why would a Gay man want to take a positive development like the California marriage decision and portray it as a threat to the Bill of Rights? Is the dude crazy, or what? Sure, he's crazy . . . crazy like an Ann Coulter clone!
"His is the modus operandi of the Right Wing 'stealth' journalist, the latest incarnation of Uncle Tom. He cherry-picks the most provocative statements he can get from little-known Gay activists, and presents them as representative of the entire Gay Rights movement. He slants interview questions, distorts the meaning of responses, exaggerates the impact of court decisions, ignores context and manipulates fact in order to paint Gay Rights advances as corrosive to the moral order. His goal is to fuel the fires of conservative opposition by any means necessary. Yet, at the same time, he has the nerve to masquerade in print as someone concerned about the welfare of Lesbians and Gay men! Dude gives new meaning to the Yiddish word chutzpah! I daresay the Jewish community might have to invent a stronger word to describe the kind of chutzpah he practices."
Please read Don Charles' two part post, "Is Uncle Tom A Gay Man". It is excellent!
7 comments:
You know what's "pathetic and despicable"? Spelling someone's name wrong over and over - except in the parts you cut and paste from someone more responsible's article.
It's Benkof, one f.
The first rule of journalism is to spell people's names right.
No, Mr. Benkof: What's "pathetic and despicable" is in any way seeking to limit the civil rights of others, and wittingly or unwittingly working as a shill for homophobic reactionary forces in society.
I emailed Don Charles Mr Benkof's comment and my response to it, and this is his response to Mr. Benkof's comment:
Jerry,
I spelled Mr. Benkof's name exactly as it appeared in his op-ed. I never once doubled the "f". And if he'd noticed that the text in my essay isn't identical to the text in his op-ed, he'd realize that I
didn't "cut and paste" his copy. I edited his copy to match my blog's punctuation style (which I acknowledged doing prior to using the quotes), and then I integrated it into my analysis. I guess he didn't read my essay very closely. So David Benkof (with one "f") doesn't read thoroughly, he doesn't know Gay history very well, he doesn't understand
how law works, he doesn't understand the difference between religious freedom and religious fascism, he does a lousy Ann Coulter impression,
and he seems to be confused about his sexual orientation, too. The poor child! He must be so frustrated. No wonder he's pitching a hissy fit.
Maybe he should choose a less stressful career path? One that calls for integrity would probably do him good.
Wow! It had been my initial impression that Don Charles is of limited mental capacity, but now I know for sure. I'll try my best not to use any hard words from here on out so Mr. Charles can try to follow what I'm saying.
Any intelligent reader would understand that my comment referred to Mr. Manker's post and not Mr. Charles' post. In fact, the misspelling of my name still occurs three times on the Christian LGBT Rights blog, despite my having protested. Real professional, Jerry.
As for Mr. Charles, I read the first several paragraphs of his post about me and gave up when I realized how unethical and, frankly, dumb he is. No respected publication today, including in the gay press, capitalizes gay and lesbian. The only Lesbians alive today live on the Greek Isle of Lesbos. To force-capitalize the words of someone who's actually skilled at the whole, you know, writing thing is really pathetic.
If you search the Web you'll see I've been assiduously (Don - look it up) responding to the various critics of my op-ed piece, including people like Dan Savage who called me a "self-hating douchebag." But with regard to someone who doesn't know the first thing about how to put a sentence together, I can't really be bothered to correct his many, many misstatements of fact and errors of logic. I trust that his lack of intellectual heft will be obvious to anyone who reads his blog, and I'll leave it at that.
It's been several hours and you still haven't posted my response. I'm not going to repeat it. Go ahead and leave the misspelling of my name up - it only shows how irresponsible and unsophisticated you are.
Again, you're wrong, Mr. Benkof. I published and responded to your prior comment over six hours ago.
FOR SOME REASON, MR. BENKOF'S COMMENT WASN'T POSTED BY BLOGGER, SO I'M POSTING IT HERE MYSELF, WITH A RETORT FROM DON CHARLES:
MR. BENKOF'S COMMENT:
Wow! It had been my initial impression that Don Charles is of limited mental capacity, but now I know for sure. I'll try my best not to use any hard words from here on out so Mr. Charles can try to follow what I'm saying.
Any intelligent reader would understand that my comment referred to Mr. Manker's post and not Mr. Charles' post. In fact, the misspelling of my name still occurs three times on the Christian LGBT Rights blog, despite my having protested. Real professional, Jerry.
As for Mr. Charles, I read the first several paragraphs of his post about me and gave up when I realized how unethical and, frankly, dumb he is. No respected publication today, including in the gay press, capitalizes gay and lesbian. The only Lesbians alive today live on the Greek Isle of Lesbos. To force-capitalize the words of someone who's actually skilled at the whole, you know, writing thing is really pathetic.
If you search the Web you'll see I've been assiduously (Don - look it up) responding to the various critics of my op-ed piece, including people like Dan Savage who called me a "self-hating douchebag." But with regard to someone who doesn't know the first thing about how to put a sentence together, I can't really be bothered to correct his many, many misstatements of fact and errors of logic. I trust that his lack of intellectual heft will be obvious to anyone who reads his blog, and I'll leave it at that.
DON CHARLES' RETORT:
If I believed, as Mr. Benkof evidently does, that people start businesses and embark on career paths because of opposition to same-gender nuptials, I wouldn’t be so eager to call other people dumb. But I’m hip to his lame diversionary tactics. It’s easier for him to make a big deal out of my style decisions (I deliberately capitalize the words “Lesbian” and “Gay” and always will) than to admit that his reporting was slanted, his knowledge lacking, his motives opportunistic and his reasoning bizarre. Not to mention the repudiation of his inflammatory claims by the main sources he quoted. How embarrassing for the boy! His desperate (and futile) attempts to draw attention away from his humiliated state remind me of a headless chicken, flopping around the barnyard just before rigor mortis sets in. Everybody knows that the pullet’s destined for the frying pan except the pullet! What a clown! Just look how he brags about getting put in his place by sex columnist Dan Savage. Benkof is clearly seeking his five minutes of fame, and doesn’t care how he gets it. He’s basking in the glow of the oppressor’s approval, just like the shameless Uncle Tom he is. He’s too much to stomach. I won’t demean myself by engaging in back-and-forth with someone so vapid. I’ll just redouble my efforts to expose stooges like him . . . and yes, Jerry, please do quote me!
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