Posted on 04/25/2015 9:34:40 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The LGBT community is threatening boycotts and canceling benefits. The hidden reason is the GOP’s Israel strategy.
If you’ve ever been to Fire Island Pines, one of the leading gay utopias on the planet, you know that there isn’t much to do. There’s only one commercial center with a couple of stores, a bar, and a hotel.
And yet, in less than 24 hours, over 4,000 people have said they’re going to boycott it. The reason? It’s owned by Ian Reisner and Mati Weiderpass, the self-described “prominent NYC hotel owners” who recently hosted a “fireside chat” with Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz.
No Tea Dance at the Sip n’ Twirl? Hard to believe, but that’s LGBT politics for you.
As if that weren’t enough, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS went one step further, canceling their popular “Broadway Bares” benefit. It had been scheduled for May 10 at the Out Hotel, which Reisner and Weiderpass own. “I have never considered that all of our many supporters would ever vote monolithically,” executive director Tom Moran wrote on his Facebook page. “But when any politician publicly holds so many of us in contempt… we cannot be misunderstood as standing with him/her.”
This is Ted Cruz, after all, one of 19 members of Congress on the Human Rights Campaign’s “Hall of Shame”, the man who authored the 2014 “State Marriage Defense Act,” which would ensure that gay people get no federal protections, ever. And who recently penned a letter sent to tens of thousands of Christian pastors, asking them to pray, preach, and presumably vote for him to support “biblical marriage.”
(Biblical marriage is actually polygamy and concubinage, but I digress.)
The first question many people must be asking themselves is, what the hell were Reisner and Weiderpass thinking? In the words of gay performer and humorist Justin Sayre, who is supporting the boycott, “Of all the people in the world to invite to a gay party, Ted Cruz? What was it? His sparkling wit? His fair and balanced repartee? Do you have a thing for Canadians? Does he make a mean gin rickey?”
Not quite. In a self-serving press release, the two said they “ignited a dialogue” on the issue.
But that’s not it either. In fact, before the backlash hit, they told the New York Times the real reason for the event:
Mr. Reisner and Kalman Sporn, who advises Mr. Cruz’s Middle East team and served as the moderator for the evening, said the senator told the group that marriage should be left up to the states. The evening focused primarily on foreign policy, including a discussion of gay rights in Israel versus the rest of the Middle East, and opposition to President Obama.
In other words, this was about Israel.
Notice who the moderator was: Ted Cruz’s Jewish/Israel point man, himself a gay Jewish man and longtime Republican consultant.
Nor was this the first time Ian Reisner has hosted a Republican benefit at his home for that reason. Earlier this month, his Central Park South penthouse—where, incidentally, a 23 year old gay man was found dead of a drug overdose just a few months ago—hosted a fundraiser for Republican Senator Ron Johnson.
Shamelessly invoking the Holocaust, Reisner said at the time that his great aunt “was murdered in Auschwitz” and that “we are not too far from history to be wary of politicians who make bad decisions that threaten our lives. The deal with Iran concerns me. Anti-Semitic murder in Paris and Copenhagen concerns me. Bringing Senator Johnson to New York to discuss foreign policy and security helped educate my close friends about these very real issues.”
Reisner is hardly alone in this regard. Gay porn king Michael Lucas has been outspoken in his support of Israel’s right-wing government, going so far as to bully New York’s LGBT Center into banning a pro-Palestinian group from meeting there. (After a yearlong brouhaha, the Center banned both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups.)
Reisner added that he’d just hosted a “Ready for Hillary” benefit at the Out Hotel.
So, should LGBT folks cut Reisner some slack?
No.
It’s no coincidence that Reisner and Weiderpass are rich, white, cisgender men cozying up to another rich, white, cisgender man. They may be gay, but they profoundly don’t get it—the “it” being that the same privilege that oppresses gays is the privilege that oppresses people of color, immigrants, women, and the poor—precisely the groups that Cruz’s policies would hurt the most.
It’s not a coincidence that Cruz is anti-gay and also anti-social-safety net, anti-reproductive-justice, and anti-affirmative-action. What extremely fortunate white gay men like Reisner and Weiderpass don’t understand is that it’s all one big package: the classism, the religious conservatism, the social conservatism—these all go together.
“A Gays” like Reisner act as though Republicans just happen to have a blind spot when it comes to gays, but otherwise they’re just fine. They can’t understand why the LGBT Log Cabin Republicans, for example, have such a rough go of it. If only the GOP could get over this particular prejudice, then there’s no reason why gay people shouldn’t support them.
But it’s not one particular prejudice. Right-wing extremists are extremist through and through. It’s a whole package.
And that includes Israel. Hard-right conservatives are hard-right on Israel for the same reasons they’re hard-right on anti-LGBT and anti-choice politics. They’ve got one extreme conservative narrative: it’s us versus them, Americans versus the gays, Freedom Lovers versus Muslims, civilization versus barbarism. Iran, Palestinians, gay people, poor people, “illegal immigrants,” welfare queens, rowdy young black men—these are bad people. These kinds of dogmatic conservative values are clear, unmistakable, unshakeable.
To be sure, not every foreign policy hawk, Republican, or conservative thinks this way. But Ted Cruz is a moralist on Iran the same way he is a moralist on family values.
That’s why Reisner and Weiderpass don’t deserve a pass. Supporting Ted Cruz isn’t a matter of weighing his hawkish Iran views against his backward anti-gay views, because they are but two aspects of a consistent, conservative ideology that also includes climate denial, allowing the wealth gap to increase, and dismantling the social safety net. You can’t pull the one thread you like out of the tapestry; the whole thing unravels.
I have no doubt that Reisner is sincere when he says he supports LGBT equality. But the reason to do so shouldn’t be in order to win rights for a few, privileged people like him. It should be in order to question assumptions of us and them, whoever the “them” is said to be. It should be about justice.
Then why do only Orthodox recognize homosexuality as an abomination, instead of celebrating it, like the other Jewish denominations do?
It's a Latin preposition that means "on this side of". In other words, it's the opposite of trans-, which means "on the far side, beyond".
For those of you in Rio Linda, if you are cisgender, it means you are normal: you are not boy in a girl's body or a girl in a boy's body. Unlike transgender, it means you have no special rights in Obama's America due to your gender identity.
It's not as if any of the crowd that are landing on the Out Hotel boys Reisner and Weiderpass would be voting for Cruz if he hadn't met with them.
We should instead sit back and savor the outrage the meeting caused and hope for more of the same.
It's like listening to a good Rush Limbaugh monologue, wherein he identifies a Lefty itch and scratches it every which way until it bleeds!
“The left is very afraid of Mr. Cruz.”
Yes because he cannot be attacked the way normal republicans are.
They can’t call him stupid
They can’t make fun of his accent
They can’t snicker at his grads in grad school
He is a minority at least his last name looks Hispanic
He doesn’t back down when they make insinuations but turns the tables on them
He can put complex issues into everyday language
They cannot accuse him of flip-flopping on an issue
He is making them deal him on the issues rather than the window dressing
The only real problem I see with Ted Cruz is that he comes across as sort of a geek and is not particularly handsome. The first one is not that big of an issue and the second one is laughable when you realize he is running against Hilary Clinton
Roll Ted roll!
Gay Gestapo cannot allow dissent - they will try to tear these men’s character down
If you've ever been to Fire Island Pines, one of the leading gay utopias on the planet, you know that there isn't much to do. There's only one commercial center with a couple of stores, a bar, and a hotel. And yet, in less than 24 hours, over 4,000 people have said they're going to boycott it. The reason? It's owned by Ian Reisner and Mati Weiderpass, the self-described "prominent NYC hotel owners" who recently hosted a "fireside chat" with Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz. No Tea Dance at the Sip n' Twirl? Hard to believe, but that's LGBT politics for you... Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS went one step further, canceling their popular "Broadway Bares" benefit. It had been scheduled for May 10 at the Out Hotel, which Reisner and Weiderpass own. "I have never considered that all of our many supporters would ever vote monolithically," executive director Tom Moran wrote on his Facebook page. "But when any politician publicly holds so many of us in contempt… we cannot be misunderstood as standing with him/her." ...(Biblical marriage is actually polygamy and concubinage, but I digress.) ...before the backlash hit, they told the New York Times the real reason for the event:This Jew-hating a-hole agitprop swiller also and quite notoriously claims that the (fake?) Holocaust was exploited by a rich, white Jewish man. Skinhead ping.Mr. Reisner and Kalman Sporn, who advises Mr. Cruz's Middle East team and served as the moderator for the evening, said the senator told the group that marriage should be left up to the states. The evening focused primarily on foreign policy, including a discussion of gay rights in Israel versus the rest of the Middle East, and opposition to President Obama.Notice who the moderator was: Ted Cruz's Jewish/Israel point man, himself a gay Jewish man and longtime Republican consultant... Earlier this month, his Central Park South penthouse [get ready for the damning by association] -- where, incidentally, a 23 year old gay man was found dead of a drug overdose just a few months ago -- hosted a fundraiser for Republican Senator Ron Johnson... Reisner said at the time that his great aunt "was murdered in Auschwitz" and that "we are not too far from history to be wary of politicians who make bad decisions that threaten our lives. The deal with Iran concerns me. Anti-Semitic murder in Paris and Copenhagen concerns me. Bringing Senator Johnson to New York to discuss foreign policy and security helped educate my close friends about these very real issues." ... [get ready for some more damning by association] Gay porn king Michael Lucas has been outspoken in his support of Israel's right-wing government, going so far as to bully New York's LGBT Center into banning a pro-Palestinian group from meeting there. (After a yearlong brouhaha, the Center banned both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups.) Reisner added that he'd just hosted a "Ready for Hillary" benefit at the Out Hotel... It's no coincidence that Reisner and Weiderpass are rich, white, cisgender men cozying up to another rich, white, cisgender man... the same privilege that oppresses gays is the privilege that oppresses people of color, immigrants, women, and the poor...
Thanks NetAddicted.
Cruz To Victory!
I guess it's Latin -- Transalpine Gaul = Celtic lands on the other side of the Alps (now France), Cisalpine Gaul = Celtic lands on this side of the Alps (now NE Italy).
So cisgender means not transgender.
It's all pretty confusing. If Bruce Jenner is "really" a woman, wouldn't that make him "cisgender"?
Rand Paul: Time for GOP to soften war stance...by softening its edge on some volatile social issues and altering its image as the party always seemingly "eager to go to war... We do need to expand the party and grow the party and that does mean that we don't always all agree on every issue" ... the party needs to become more welcoming to individuals who disagree with basic Republican doctrine on emotional social issues such as gay marriage... "We're going to have to be a little hands off on some of these issues ... and get people into the party," Paul said.[Posted on 01/31/2013 5:08:50 PM PST by xzins]
If Jay thinks that Israel is bad, he ought to run around Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or Iran telling everyone thw grand announcement. There are literally hundreds if not thousands, of dead people in the Middle East.
FReeper Grampa Dave perhaps said it best:If Hiterily gets elected with enough votes in Congress, these will be the good old days.
The purists, who will stay at home because our candidate couldn't walk on water without getting the soles of his Teva's wet will have gifted us with another Clintoon pillaging. *
I’ll be overseas before she is sworn-in. Enjoy.
Send us a postcard. :’)
Amen. No candidate will ever meet the impossibly high standards of some.
I’m serious. I thought for sure they’d reject Mr. Obama after four years and the circumstances in 2012 didn’t allow me to do so. They do now.
Amen. No candidate will ever meet the impossibly high standards of some.
And that’s the truth.
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