Congressman uses anti-gay slurs; nobody caresAnd what a coincidence; it was a Democrat! Last Friday, a fight almost broke out in the House Ways and Means library between Democrat Pete Stark and the Chairman, Republican Bill Thomas, after Stark called Thomas a "fruitcake" and a "cocksucker" and challenged him to a fight during a meeting. The Republicans then called the police to evict the Democrats from the library. A search of CNN.com returns four stories relating to the event: two news stories, one follow-up news story, and one column. Both the follow-up and the column focus not on Stark's slurs but on the Republicans' calling of the police. In both stories, the word "fruitcake" does not appear until the 13th paragraph, and in neither does the word "cocksucker" show up. A search of the New York Times returns one story, again on the Republicans' calling of the police. A search of the Washington Post returns four stories, but none focuses on Stark's remarks. Gay rights groups don't seem to care either. This is the response from Human Rights Campaign political director Winnie Stachelberg: I think Congressman Stark's use of the word, he probably regrets having used it. I think he meant nothing by it, but I think in the 2003 context, it's probably a poor choice of words. But it's also important to note that Congressman Stark is one of the gay community's staunchest allies."And the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination had nothing about this on their website. This, of course, is perfectly consistent with the norm where only Republicans are criticized for anti-gay remarks. Last election, for example, not much was made of two Democrats who implied that their opponents were gay. |
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