The Other Side of the Sorba Incident Cont’d
To me, the news story was this: Sorba got booed off the stage. At CPAC. This seems like great news. So why focus on the sad truth that yes, there are still homophobes out there? Maybe this is just heterosexual privilege, but this seems like a genuinely great moment in gay rights–and the gay conservatives and libertarians who sent met that clip seemed to take it as such.
And Erik noted,
That’s pretty astonishing if you ask me. While Andrew and others lament how awful conservatives have gotten lately, I see quite the opposite. Never before in the history of this country have gays and lesbians received such support from conservatives – and that support is growing at a pretty incredible pace.
Many of the commenters to the post have expressed their skepticism about how much this incident ought to count as a marker of change within American conservatism writ large. I think that skepticism is well founded and in light of Erik and Megan’s comments I would wend more closely towards that skepticism than describing Sorba speaking and getting booed off stage as “astonishing” or “a genuinely great moment in gay rights”. Especially insofar as that skepticism keeps us real about what kind of challenge stands in front of us and keeps us working hard .
It is, at best, a marker of what could perhaps best be described as the slow shifting in a general direction. That general direction is towards a greater acceptance of gay rights within conservative discourse, but the reaction to Sorba isn’t a slam dunk or a touchdown in terms of that movement such that I would call it describe it as Erik and Megan do.
February 23, 2010 18 Comments
The Other Side of the Sorba Incident
Let me begin with the very bald fact that I found Sorba’s tirade repulsive and continue to be utterly gobsmacked about the state of gay rights in American politics. How a so-called beacon of freedom manages to get away with systemic attitudes towards gay men and women that are only marginally better than many of the “Islamo-fascist” entities it berates as fundamentally evil is outrageous.
But with that said, let me take a slightly different tack on the Sorba incident.
February 22, 2010 32 Comments
The Great Debate – Redux
June 15, 2009 28 Comments
Calling All Leaguers
The purpose of this post; however, is to solicit questions from you that can be put to Conor and Dan while we have them on the line. So fire away because both Dan and Conor, as well as everyone here at the League, are curious to see what you come up with. As always, keep it clean, civil, on topic, but still interesting and challenging.
Thanks much.
June 2, 2009 37 Comments
