• Letters from CAMP Rehoboth
    • Current Issue
    • Past Issues
    • Advertising Information
    • Where Can I Get Letters?
    • The Write Stuff
  • Events
    • SUNFESTIVAL 2023
    • Women's FEST
    • Pride Month Listicle 
    • CAMP Rehoboth Chorus - Out for the Summer!
    • Block Party 2023
  • Programs
    • Arts & Culture
    • Education & Advocacy
    • Health & Wellness
    • Community Building
    • CAMP Facilities
  • About Us
    • Membership
    • Volunteers
    • Board of Directors
    • CAMP Rehoboth Staff
    • Reports and Financials
    • History
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Press
  • Resources
    • Beach Guide Directory
    • LGBTQ Resources
    • LGBTQ Providers
    • LGBTQ Delaware Data
    • Trans & Nonbinary Resources
    • BIPOC LGBTQ Resources
    • LGBTQ Local and National Resources Guide
  • Contact
  • Shop
close× Call Us 302-227-5620
close×

Search form

May 18, 2012 - View Point by Richard J. Rosendall

Servants of Misrule

People in scorned social positions can sometimes transcend their subservient roles by their wit. This is no substitute for a liberation movement, but it can offer a ray of hope during dark times. Golden Age film actors Franklin Pangborn and Edward Everett Horton played comic supporting roles drenched in gay stereotypes, six decades before Sean Hayes on Will & Grace. Their confident performances, however, served as tacit rebukes not only to the equally foolish leading characters, but to film censors.

Much has changed in eighty years, but the ruling class can still mistreat its gay servants. This came to mind recently when Richard Grenell, Mitt Romney’s sharp-tongued, openly gay foreign policy spokesman, resigned after denunciations from the radical right. It was not the ‘phobes themselves who appear to have prompted his departure, but the boss’s refusal to reproach them, coupled with the campaign putting Grenell on ice.

Romney’s failure to back Grenell against his party’s extreme fringe demonstrated how that fringe holds him and the rest of the GOP hostage. Romney’s staffing decisions certainly don’t compare well with President Obama’s gay hires, from Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry to White House social secretary Jeremy Bernard. But my question is why a gay person was eager to help the Republican Party in the first place.

I have not forgotten my recent statement that “it avails nothing to judge others’ choices by one’s own experience.” Given that roughly one-fourth of gay voters consistently vote Republican, we may as well make our peace with the fact that our oft-celebrated diversity includes diversity of opinion. We should respect gay Republicans’ belief in “low taxes, limited government, strong defense, free markets, personal responsibility, and individual liberty,” as DC Log Cabin puts it.

Let us ask, then, how Log Cabin’s cherished free markets are consistent with corporate welfare payouts like oil subsidies; how limited government and individual liberty are consistent with GOP attacks on reproductive choice and gay families; and for that matter how our hawkish president is weak on defense.

I was as unhappy as anyone with President Obama’s long equivocation on marriage. But even without his historic endorsement of marriage equality on May 9, it would dishonor our efforts not to recognize how vastly better he is than the alternative. Given Grenell’s advocacy of marriage equality, it was not unreasonable for Matthew J. Franck of The National Review to ask how quickly he would switch candidates if Obama endorsed it.

Grenell’s tweets insulting everyone from Michelle Obama to Rachel Maddow are not my main problem with him, any more than they are for Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association. My concern as an activist is more about policy than personalities. Bigots like Fischer cannot see past Grenell’s gayness. I see little sign that Grenell’s gayness influences his politics at all.

If gay Republicans’ sexual orientation is only a small part of their lives, as they often say, what are gay Republican groups for? If the goal is to make sexual orientation politically irrelevant, why support a party that scapegoats us, or candidates who pander to it? Why not restrict Republican-focused giving to gay-affirming candidates, as I did with the Republican New York state senators who voted for marriage equality?

The blind partisanship on view has not been symmetric. While progressives were arguing whether to abandon the most pro-gay president in history because he hadn’t given us everything, gay conservatives were aiding a party that aggressively incites a bigoted rabble to consolidate power for plutocrats. Instead of praising Obama’s embrace of marriage equality—even if it would merely be a pause from denouncing him for other reasons—Log Cabin used it as an excuse for an attack, making it painfully clear that they put their party first.

Grenell apologized for his tweets’ hurtfulness, but not for their juvenility. Paul Lynde had better material on the Hollywood Squares. If you are going to help our persecutors, at least offer us a higher class of insult.

Richard J. Rosendall is a writer and activist. Email Richard Rosendall
 

‹ May 18, 2012 - Booked Solid by Terri Schlichenmeyer up May 18, 2012 - Buzz Worthy by Deb Griffin ›

Past Issues

Issues Index

  • February 3, 2012 - Issue Index
  • March 9, 2012 - Issue Index
  • April 6, 2012 - Issue Index
  • May 4, 2012 - Issue Index
  • May 18, 2012 - Issue Index
    • May 18, 2012 - Acknowledgments
    • May 18, 2012 - The Way I See It by Steve Elkins
    • May 18, 2012 - Celebrating Our Civil Unions
    • May 18, 2012 - Letters to Letters
    • May 18, 2012 - In Brief
    • May 18, 2012 - CAMPmatters by Murray Archibald
    • May 18, 2012 - HeART 2012 by Sondra Arkin
    • May 18, 2012 - CAMP Out by Fay Jacobs
    • May 18, 2012 - CAMP Talk by Bill Sievert
    • May 18, 2012 - Amazon Trail by Lee Lynch
    • May 18, 2012 - More Briefs
    • May 18, 2012 - Before the Beach by Bob Yesbec
    • May 18, 2012 - Booked Solid by Terri Schlichenmeyer
    • May 18, 2012 - View Point by Richard J. Rosendall
    • May 18, 2012 - Buzz Worthy by Deb Griffin
    • May 18, 2012 - Volunteer Spotlight by Chris Beagle
    • May 18, 2012 - Volunteer Thank You
    • May 18, 2012 - Ask the Doctor by Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D.
    • May 18, 2012 - CAMPshots Gallery Index
    • May 18, 2012 - CAMP Arts by Doug Yetter
    • May 18, 2012 - CAMPdates
    • May 18, 2012 - Eating Out by Fay Jacobs
    • May 18, 2012 - We Remember
    • May 18, 2012 - Gray & Gay by John D. Siegfried
    • May 18, 2012 - CAMP Profile by Fay Jacobs
  • June 1, 2012 - Issue Index
  • June 15, 2012 - Issue Index
  • June 29, 2012 - Issue Index
  • July 13, 2012 - Issue Index
  • July 27, 2012 - Issue Index
  • August 10, 2012 - Issue Index
  • August 24, 2012 - Issue Index
  • September 14, 2012 - Issue Index
  • October 12, 2012 - Issue Index
  • November 16, 2012 - Issue Index

Follow Us

Follow us on Social Media!

RECEIVE WEEKLY EMAIL

Information

  • Letters
  • Events
  • About Us
  • CAMP Center

Support CAMP

  • CAMP Membership
  • Volunteer
  • Contact Us
  • Donate
Copyright © CAMP Rehoboth, 2023
  • p. 302-227-5620
  • info@camprehoboth.com
  • 37 Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971