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.
The answer is none.
Thanks. I am catholic and I have many friends of different faiths but the new things is I have friends that call themselves “cultural Catholics” and “cultural Jews”. I don’t get it.
Leviticus 18:22
22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.
24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:
25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
(Other deviant acts are included in the same chapter)
wow. thanks.
Oh. I know that
I am also Catholic. If someone called themselves acultural Catholic in front of me, I would tell them they weren’t Catholic. I don’t need any more friends.
Homosexuality is explicitly forbidden in the Torah. Christianity reads from the Jewish biblical source text. It is clearly and explicity defined as a cardinal sin.
The behavior of these individuals of Jewish ancestry is the antithesis of what a Jewish role model would be. If this duo really wants to help the land of Israel in the most meaningful way they can, they would first and foremost rethink their behavior as Jews. Engaging in homosexuality is a formula for disaster.
Leviticus: 22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination.
23 And thou shalt not lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a beast, to lie down thereto; it is perversion.
24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations are defiled, which I cast out from before you.
25 And the land was defiled, therefore I did visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land vomited out her inhabitants.
. 26 Ye therefore shall keep My statutes and Mine ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the home-born, nor the stranger that sojourneth among you—
27 for all these abominations have the men of the land done, that were before you, and the land is defiled—
28 that the land vomit not you out also, when ye defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.
29 For whosoever shall do any of these abominations, even the souls that do them shall be cut off from among their people.
Therefore shall ye keep My charge, that ye do not any of these abominable customs, which were done before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God. {P}
Bible - Leviticus -
The fact that Cruz will have a conversation with these guys simply shows that he is sincere and that he has character. He’s not going to run and hide from something just because it might stir up controversy. He operates outside the fog of political correctness.
Seems to me he appreciates the free exchange of ideas.
The morons who criticize Ted or the other people involved are too thick to understand that’s all they’re doing—participating in the free exchange of ideas.
You people just watch and learn.
Misinformed about what?
I hope so.
I agree. Statistically homosexual couples make more than heterosexual couples. When it comes to homosexuality I could not give a crap, as long as their not “in your face” homosexuals.
I trust Cruz when it comes to who he makes time for...he knew those photos would get out...good move on his part to agree to meet with them when ‘they asked’ for a meeting....... He also knew they were squarely in Hillary’s court so this wasn’t about anything more than a good political move.
We have to remember that Cruz is trusting us as well...to understand there will be some things he does some may Not understand...he’s in a run for this Country and I’m giving him lots of room to do whatever it takes to win this.
I want him to take names and numbers along the way...no matter who they are....every meeting he has puts him one step further toward the goal....and we all know that’s how he sees this. Will he miss-step from time to time...of course...there’s mines out there!
Isn’t it interesting watching Cruz and his team operate.....I can say I haven’t seen such moves in many years....Cruz is going to play his hand and theirs! ...LOLOLOL
....”He is exposing them”.....
That’s exactly right....God didn’t raise this man up to win the Presidency alone....which we are hopeful will come....He’s using this man to expose what needs to be exposed so the people see the “truth”. ...Some will not see it, many will excuse it, but then they will have no excuse. Those who have ears to hear...will.
I have no issues with referencing the devil......we are not ignorant of his devices.
As for Prepping...I’m on the low end of that line. But have been watching how long it’s taking for the rescues in Nepal...as with others....people are really on their own for quite some time even when people get on the ground to help...it’s too late for many.
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