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In reply to the discussion: You know, I've been on DU for sixteen years... [View all]wonkwest
(463 posts)That power is not given to them, and no one would stand for it if we were discussing sex or race. I'm not sure what makes the LGBT community so special that we can be dismissed so cavalierly like this in liberal enclaves.
Joy Reid needs to own what she said. She claimed gay men go after teenaged boys to recruit them "into the lifestyle." And this was in 2006 when the gay marriage battle was well under way - any liberal should have known better by then. If this were the 50's or even 80's, fine. But 2006? And transphobic slurs being tossed around in 2010? She was in her 40s when saying that stuff.
However, that teenager bit is the one that is sticking in my craw.
I very much believe she said it. The evidence is overwhelmingly against her at this point. The Daily Beast article - her employer who isn't exactly out to get her - is what finally persuaded me that she is scrambling and not being honest. Miss Charlie was one thing. But what is now coming to light is much, much, much worse. I think she knows how terrible those words are, and that is why she is afraid to take ownership of them.
If she had simply come clean, apologized, and made contrition via, I don't know, a show about why what she said was wrong, how damaging it is to the LGBT community, and how we can progress beyond those dangerous attitudes, I think a lot of people would give her a pass. I certainly would.
But to say it, then lie about it? Then have a wave of fans attacking everyone for doubting a highly, highly implausible explanation full of holes? That's even worse. Not only is she minimizing the damaging and dangerous words she wrote, she is risking her journalistic integrity to boot.
Anyway, these threads have been appalling. Homophobia has been excused, diminished, or elided over. I've seen LGBT posters being dismissed and attacked. I've seen homophobic language being defended. I've seen people who object to the severe homophobic language be cynically accused of being sexist, racist, or motivated by Bernie Sanders (just . . . what?).This is supposed to be a liberal and Democratic website, no?
I'm not very familiar with Joy Reid. I don't watch cable news, and outside of a few references I've seen of here and other sites I read, I can't say I know much about her positions on things. So I have no dog in this fight. I'm not invested in seeing her stay or go.
I really didn't want my de-lurking to be on a contentious issue. I'm content to read. But these threads, as an LGBT individual, have made me very angry.
For all the self-congratulation happening here, it is incredibly clear that a lot of posters here haven't quite fully "evolved" nearly as far as they seem to think they have.