Gay Politics, Politics
It’s no surprise that there was an A-list book party in Washington for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas last week.
It is also unsurprising that the guest list included Dick and Lynne Cheney, the entire U.S. Supreme Court and a handful of senators, along with Will Smith, Barbara Walters, Charles Barkley, Bob Jones of uber-fundamentalist Bob Jones University, Al Sharpton and Julian Bond. (Okay, Sharpton and Bond are a bit of a surprise since Thomas says in the book that liberals are scarier than the KKK.)
But what might surprise the GOP rank and file about the party is that its host, Armstrong Williams, the former conservative TV pundit, is allegedly gay.
Williams is a familiar face because he was a frequent rightwing pundit on cable news, a stint that ended abruptly in January 2005 when it was revealed he had been paid $241,000 to speak favorability about Bush education policies in his capacity as a TV pundit and elsewhere. (More Bush incompetence and profligacy: Williams would have happily shilled for free.)
The prime indicator that Williams might be gay is the fact he settled a sexual harassment suit with a male employee in 1998:
Williams was trotted out on CNN and other cable nets repeatedly [in 2004] during the gay marriage controversy to trash those who argued that marriage equality for same-sex lovers was a “civil right,” an argument which Williams’ pigmentation–in the eyes of TV news producers–gave him standing to make. As originally reported by New York magazine back in 1998:
Armstrong Williams, the conservative talk-show host who instigated a firestorm last week by asking the senator from Mississippi [Trent Lott] whether homosexuality is a sin, is being sued for sexual harassment by a former employee who happens to be male. Last year, Stephen Gregory — the former YMCA personal trainer whom Williams promoted to executive producer of his show — alleged in his suit that the boss grabbed his buttocks and penis, tried to kiss him, and climbed into his hotel-room bed asking for “affection” while they were traveling together. Williams immediately held a press conference to denounce Gregory’s allegations as “false, baseless, and completely completely without merit.After the man who was suing him produced affidavits from other men on whom Williams had pressed his unwanted attentions, Williams was forced to admit his denial was a lie, and settled the lawsuit–which alleged 50 separate incidents of rejected physical advances–for $200,000.
With so many sex scandals bubbling up in the GOP of late, surely even the most feeble-minded “values voters” must realize that the gay community is over-represented within the Republican elite. The scales dropping from the eyes among the party’s base can’t be good news for the GOP who have relied on homophobia to get out the vote recently — especially including 2004, when an anti-gay ballot initiative may have delivered Ohio, and thus reelection, to Bush and Cheney.
Topics: Gay Politics, Politics
The fact that Clarence Thomas of all people parties with this master of sexual assault is most revealing. Maybe Judge Thomas picked up his infamous “pubic hair on a can of Coke” line from this doofus.
Log Cabin Boys Forever! I didn’t see Jeff Gannon / Guckert’s name on the list. You’d think that after numerous visits to the WH and Security Clearance for the Pressroom He’d be on the A list.
Al Sharpton is a Republican mole, has been for 20 years.
The quote about “security” for the party (in The Hill article) made me gag:
‘“this one is off the charts,†Williams said, adding that Supreme Court Police, Secret Service and Capitol Police have been working with him on the event for the last three months.’
This means that, perhaps, a couple of million dollars of our tax money will be expended to make sure that extremely wealthy people, attending a commercial book-release party, will not have their party ambiance disturbed by angry individuals waving signs or shouting obscenities.
My opinion is that the DC beltway society is in Absolute Corruption Mode and nothing will stop it, except the rotting of it from the inside out.
May God help us all.
Sorry, Ohio was never delivered, it was stolen.
Senator Trent Lott is another closet homosexual. Funny that Army would ask Lott such a question. Even more ironic is that Army is a morning host on “progressive” radio station, WWRL 1600 in NYC, an Air America affiliate.
whoa!
the “gay community is over- represented with the Republican elite.” ??????????
this is homophobic nonsense. armstrong williams may harrass men but that does not make him a member of any “gay community.” why do writers not employ similar stereotypes as “straight community?”
it is simplistic to link people into a “community” because of a few shared characteristics. the left is having a riot linking gay to hypocrite to republican, just like they loved linking roman catholic priest to pederast.
news flash to mr. ponder there are gay black democrats. and, i might venture to say that there are a lot of homosexuals who get involved in politics–maybe they just like “over-representation.”
I wonder if Larry Craig was ne of “the handful of Senators”. My oh my, now THERE’S a HANDFULL
As a gay man, who is an Ohio attorney, I can not understand why some gays have to make opposition to gay marriage as a hate crime. Marriage was intitial a religious institution, then nations decided that this religious institution could be used to advance state interest — particularly in regard to seeing to the needs of women and children.
Straights have almost given up on marriage, 2/3 of kids in the US have unmarried parents. Half of which are no longer together and half which are together unmarried.
Marriage is a religious institution and the government no longer has to use it to advance their now weakening (post feminst age) interest. Many churches will provide gay marriage, but lets take the fourth party (the state) out of the marriage.
Lets also stop assuming that if your not with us your against us. Republican families have gay members, this is not shocking to them but seems to be so to many in our community. If their family works for them its not our place to say its wrong.
People hold different political beliefs for different reasons, assuming the worst reason (and yes some people hate gays for sexual orientation alone) is a terrible decession and will make it impossible to resolve issues as a nation.
G.O.: I have never read or heard anyone suggest that opposition to gay marriage is a hate crime. Most gay people would not trivialize hate crimes that way.
But as a lawyer, surely you know that marriage is not a “religious institution.” It is a state-sanctioned legal agreement, a contract, between the two parties. Proof: Churches do not issue marriage licenses, and couples don’t go to church to divorce, ie. revoke the contract. They go to the state through the court system.
Weddings can be religious but marriage is a civil institution.
Which is exactly the point. This is an issue of fairness. There is no logical reason or sound legal rationale that prevents the state from licensing marriage between two people of the same gender. None.
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Armstrong Williams used to live in Greensboro/High Point, North Carolina and was regularly having sex with a close friend of mine (E. Smith). My friend was a model with Wilheminia Models at the time and was sleeping with the especially unattractive Armstrong because Armstrong promised that he had connections with the television producers of soap opera shows in New York.
At the time he was living with his friend Stedman Graham. No. Stedman is not gay as far as I know.
Presently, Armstrong belongs to RESULTS, THE GYM and cruises the steamroom.