Hannity's Gay Target

[Swede]

It's hard to imagine anything more damning for a public figure than a link to some of the country’s most shameless sexual abusers. Of course, when Hannity finally got to his “new allegations,” the only thing shocking about them was their flimsiness. Jennings once expressed admiration for the radical gay activist Harry Hay, co-founder of the Mattachine Society, one of the earliest gay-rights groups in the United States. Hay advocated for the inclusion of NAMBLA in gay pride parades. A despicable position on Hay’s part, sure, but one that Jennings has nothing to do with, unless one believes that we’re all morally culpable for the actions of everyone we’ve ever praised.

The illogic didn’t really matter, though, because the right’s escalating war on Jennings is all about appealing to primal emotion. Jennings, the assistant deputy secretary of Education in charge of the Office of Safe & Drug-Free Schools, is the target of one of the ugliest homophobic witch-hunts we’ve seen in a while. It plays directly into classic right-wing narratives of predatory gay recruitment. “Children don’t need to be learning about homosexual practices in elementary school,” says Princeton Professor Robert George, in a video on the anti-Jennings Web site preserveinnocence.org. On Monday, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) sent a letter to Obama calling on him to fire Jennings. “Mr. Jennings' life’s work has been the promotion of homosexuality, much of it in our elementary schools,” he wrote.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-10-08/the-next-van-jones/?cid=hp:mainpromo3