Charlie Butts (no kidding) at OneNewsNow gives us the skinny on the outrage, the outrage, the outrage that Peter LaBarbera (as head of the Americans For Truth About Homosexuality) has over the latest bit of news about The Promotion of Teh Gayz.
Pro-‘gay’ promotion ‘everywhere you go’
Man, I just love the “scare quotes” around “gay”. Maybe we should call it One”News”Now, too. Or call AFTAH “Americans” For “Truth” About Homosexuality. It’s the discrediting game everyone can play!
Dolly Parton has apologized for an incident at Dollywood’s “Splash Country” involving a worker’s exchange with two lesbians.
One of the lesbians was wearing a shirt that read “marriage is so gay,” and Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) has an issue with that.
Yeah, there’s a shock.
“I think a lot of things are gay, such as the disproportionate STDs related to homosexual sex. But marriage isn’t one of them,” he contends. “Marriage isn’t homosexual; marriage is between a man and a woman. The shirt is obnoxious.”
Yes, Pete, we know you find the whole conflation of “gay” and “marriage” to be obnoxious. I’d find a “I [heart] Peter LaBarbera” shirt obnoxious, but I don’t know that I’d want a local amusement park to force folks with such a shirt to turn it inside out.
That is why a Dollywood worker asked the woman to turn her shirt inside out. But upon hearing about the incident, Dolly Parton has apologized and reiterated her support for the homosexual and lesbian community.
Support that she’s quite well-known for.
LaBarbera feels that begs a question for the rest of America.
“The question is where can normal families go anymore to get away from the promotion of homosexuality? They can’t go to the ballpark because they’re promoting homosexuality. Apparently, family theme parks are now promoting homosexuality,” he laments. “Everywhere you go, people see the promotion of homosexuality — and they don’t think it’s appropriate for their children, and they’re tired of it.”
The AFTAH president concludes that it is wrong for that lifestyle to deliberately be promoted to young people.
See, Pete, here’s where you lose me. If Dollywood was requiring its employees to wear “Gay Marriage Is Awesome” t-shirts, that would be promotion.
But tolerance is not promotion. Openly welcoming, or even encouraging gay couples to the park is not promotion. Not forbidding people from wearing “marriage is so gay” t-shirts is not promotion. Not forcing gays back into the closet isn’t promotion.
Except, of course, in an Manichean world of Competing Forces of Good vs. Evil, where everything that is not actively suppressing Evil is, in fact, supporting and encouraging and “promoting” it. Which is jim-dandy fine when you’re ostensibly in the “Good” majority, but not so hot when you’re in the minority (and thus considered “Evil”).
Perhaps that’s why so many Christianists are so paranoid and quick to claim victimization when they don’t get their way or when they’re criticized. Because it indicates that, perhaps, their faith isn’t the only ideological game in town any more … and just as they feel the need to oppress and victimize the “Evil” minority, they expect to be oppressed and victimized if they slip from the top spot. It’ll be just like the Christians thrown to the Lions, right?
Look at it another way, Pete: I don’t think you should be thrown in jail, or have your house defaced, or have your kids bullied, or be fired from your job just because you believe as you do, or live the “lifestyle” you live. I don’t think you should have to have a “Jesus loves you” shirt you’re wearing turned inside out if you visit Dollywood.
Does that mean I’m “promoting” you, Pete? I don’t think so, either.
Moreover, he argues that people who oppose the lifestyle “are tired of being called ‘haters.'”
Well, let’s see, Pete … maybe when you stop labeling gays as disease-ridden anti-God perverts out to destroy our nation, folks will stop misinterpreting your principled opposition as “hatred.”
Dolt.
Zero-sum game, anyone?
(at least I think that’s a ZSG those idiots play)
Nope, that’s precisely it. Only one “side” can win. Only one party can be in charge. If you’re not winning, you’re losing, and if you’re not able to persecute others, you will obviously therefore be persecuted.