Quote of the Day: Anne Rice on Christian Bigots

Time and time again we see anti-gay hate and bigotry spewed by far right Christians who try to justify their horrible conduct under the smoke screen of "sincerely held religious belief."   It is little different than the hate and bigotry demonstrated by white Southerners in the past - and in some circles today - who used the Bible to justify behavior that ought to be unconscionable among decent people.  Yesterday, on her Facebook page author Anne Rice congratulated actress Ellen Page for her courage in coming out as gay.  Not surprisingly, the "godly folk" left their trademark hateful comments in response.  Rice did not countenance the batshitery and let loose stating in part as follows:

Our post commending actress Ellen Page for her courage in coming out as gay attracted a lot of hostility and hate and hate speech --- as well as positive and substantive comments. I have banned many from the page today. I will no longer tolerate hate speech in the guise of Christian belief with the usual irresponsible pick and choose bible quotes and talk of "sin" and hellfire. I have had enough of it, and I think the world has had enough of it too. 

Again, I commend Ellen Page for her bravery in coming out. I hope more celebrities and public figures will be inspired to do so. Anyone who thinks this does not matter is deceiving himself or herself. It matters very much. Gay people in all walks of life suffer from bigotry, bias, superstition, and ignorance. Hats off to Ellen Page! (And please do NOT come here to tell us publicly that you “don’t care.” If you don’t care, don’t expect us to care that you don’t care!).

I agree with Rice.  I will no longer give hate-filled bigots a pass simply because they try to hide their foul hate and bigotry under the guise of religious belief.  These people are toxic not to mention utter hypocrites.

SNL Shows Poor Judgment with Gay Sketch

With the recent murder of two gay teenagers and the brutal attack on another, one would think that Saturday Night Live might have thought twice before airing a sketch basically making fun of lesbians. With all the hate filled messages being continually disseminated by the Christianists and members of the GOP across the country, a supposed comedy show should not be adding to a mentality where gays are open game for ridicule and off screen much worse. When I first bought my house in a neighborhood of 80 to 100 year old homes that had seen better days but which had started to transition back for the better, I can assure you that hearing punks yell "get out of here faggot or we'll kill you" was not exactly heart warming. This type of crap on SNL does NOT help end that mentality. Here is what QueerTwoCents very correctly had to say on the topic (http://queertwocents.blogspot.com/2008/03/ellen-page-is-lesbian-sketch-snl.html):

Is the Oscar-nominated star of the hit film Juno, Canadian actress Ellen Page (pictured at left), a lesbian? Just the rumour that the 21-year-old Page might be gay provoked Saturday Night Live into action this past weekend. They built an entire sketch around Page's goin'-gay (or not, wink, wink). Her sketch character pokes fun at the pesky lesbian notion when she returns home to her boyfriend after attending a Melissa Etheridge concert. She declares to him (SNL regular, Andy Samberg) that she felt like "...an oil lamp that had never been lit... now I'm finally burning bright with sister fire." She added, "There were so many cute short hair cuts and I didn't care that I didn't have any makeup on..." The boyfriend declares she's "so gone gay", to which she replies, "Why can't I just hug a woman with my legs in friendship?"

Wasn't it only the morning before that the other Ellen, the openly gay one, Ms. DeGeneres, told her vast TV audience that it's "okay to be gay" and that we should "... start paying attention to how often being gay is a punchline . . . Ellen DeGeneres' words were not prophetic, just accurate. Choosing to make fun of someone or maliciously speculate about their 'chosen lifestyle' because of a haircut or "tomboy movie roles", is still a national sport and we are still the targets. Whether Ms. Page is lesbian - or not - it's too bad she felt the need to participate in the hunt.