Kinda-political...
Oct. 15th, 2004 04:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnpalmerOkay...
Apparently, there's this flap. John Kerry mentioned that Mary Cheney is gay... "If you ask (her), she'll say she's being who she is".
The Cheney's were outraged... and several other people seem pretty pissy about it too, including buying into the line that Kerry said it for some less-than-neutral reason, to score some points in some way.
I'm puzzled.
The way I see it, Kerry saying this is something bad if
1) Mary Cheney is closetted (and she most certainly is not),
2) being gay is something bad, or at least 'not good', or
3) if saying someone is gay is always (or usually) an insult.
This last one actually caught me. I heard people talking about the Indigo Girls being gay, and my first assumption was that they were pointing to two women touring with strong voices and that suspicious folk-rock kind of music, and coming to a (to them) nasty conclusion. Then I heard just *how* out they were, and it was like "oh."
That was a good turning point for me; it was what's made me get rid of that last idea (that calling someone gay usually is meant as an insult).
Now, I can hardly blame other people for making a mistake that I could have made until I learned better, but I'm kinda puzzled.
Is there another reason to be upset over this? Maybe something I'm missing?
I do have to admit, my feelings on this matter are a little funny.
If I thought Kerry was trying to score points, I'd be upset; I just don't believe he was, and don't even see an strong evidence that he was.
If I found that the Cheneys were using this to score points on Kerry, just because they thought it would work (as in: "HEY! He mentioned our daughter! I bet we can USE this!" versus "that bastard! He won't get away with it!") well, I could hope that Cheney would retire from the ticket and be replaced by a dead rat, since I'd find the dead rat less contemptible and overall a better person to occupy the vice presidency.
But, more than anything else, my feelings are "Mary Cheney's an adult capable of taking care of herself. If she's pissed off about it, let her talk to Kerry, privately or publically, personally or through a spokesperson. If she's not pissed off about it, no one else has any right to be."
Apparently, there's this flap. John Kerry mentioned that Mary Cheney is gay... "If you ask (her), she'll say she's being who she is".
The Cheney's were outraged... and several other people seem pretty pissy about it too, including buying into the line that Kerry said it for some less-than-neutral reason, to score some points in some way.
I'm puzzled.
The way I see it, Kerry saying this is something bad if
1) Mary Cheney is closetted (and she most certainly is not),
2) being gay is something bad, or at least 'not good', or
3) if saying someone is gay is always (or usually) an insult.
This last one actually caught me. I heard people talking about the Indigo Girls being gay, and my first assumption was that they were pointing to two women touring with strong voices and that suspicious folk-rock kind of music, and coming to a (to them) nasty conclusion. Then I heard just *how* out they were, and it was like "oh."
That was a good turning point for me; it was what's made me get rid of that last idea (that calling someone gay usually is meant as an insult).
Now, I can hardly blame other people for making a mistake that I could have made until I learned better, but I'm kinda puzzled.
Is there another reason to be upset over this? Maybe something I'm missing?
I do have to admit, my feelings on this matter are a little funny.
If I thought Kerry was trying to score points, I'd be upset; I just don't believe he was, and don't even see an strong evidence that he was.
If I found that the Cheneys were using this to score points on Kerry, just because they thought it would work (as in: "HEY! He mentioned our daughter! I bet we can USE this!" versus "that bastard! He won't get away with it!") well, I could hope that Cheney would retire from the ticket and be replaced by a dead rat, since I'd find the dead rat less contemptible and overall a better person to occupy the vice presidency.
But, more than anything else, my feelings are "Mary Cheney's an adult capable of taking care of herself. If she's pissed off about it, let her talk to Kerry, privately or publically, personally or through a spokesperson. If she's not pissed off about it, no one else has any right to be."
