Republicans Are Erasing LGBTQ People From Orlando Tragedy

[finehoe]

In the wake of the mass shooting at Pulse, an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida, both Republican and Democratic politicians took to Twitter to express their condolences. Because the massacre appears to have targeted sexual minorities, this created a somewhat surreal effect: The sight of GOP politicians—some of the same ones who have devoted much of their careers fighting to deprive gays of their civil rights—sympathizing with the very people whom they have long bashed in a bid for conservative votes. Consider Sen. Marco Rubio:

Our prayers are with those injured and killed early this morning in horrifying act of terror in Orlando.

Rubio is a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage and would like to overturn the Supreme Court's ruling affirming gay people's constitutional right to wed. Worse, when Rubio served as Florida's House majority leader, the state's foster care system was in a crisis: Due to a severe lack of foster parents, children were essentially being imprisoned in inhumane conditions. One possible solution would be to lift Florida's ban on allowing gay people to foster children. Rubio rejected the idea. "Some of these kids are the most disadvantaged in the state," he explained. "They shouldn't be forced to be part of a social experiment."

Even more surreally, see former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee:

Please join Janet and me in praying for the victims of the Orlando attack and their families.

But if it were up to Huckabee, gay people would not be legally permitted to start their own families. Huckabee staunchly opposes same-sex marriage, civil unions, and gay adoption. In explaining his opposition to gay adoption in particular, he declared, "Children are not puppies. This is not a time to see if we can experiment and find out, how does this work?" At various points in his career, Huckabee has also said that AIDS patients should be quarantined; that homosexuality is a "lifestyle" similar to drinking alcohol; and that legalizing same-sex marriage is analogous to legalizing incest and drug use. When the Supreme Court invalidated a federal same-sex marriage ban, Huckabee tweeted: "Jesus wept."

There are many more examples of aggressively anti-gay politicians tweeting about the Pulse shooting, but one common thread ties them together: None of them mention that the shooting targeted, or even involved, the LGBTQ community. Indeed, not a single congressional Republican who tweeted about the shooting mentioned LGBTQ people. That stands in stark contrast to President Barack Obama's clear assertion that "shooter targeted a nightclub" where "lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people ... came together to be with friends, to dance, sing, and live," and "to raise awareness and speak their minds and advocate for their civil rights."

Republicans' silence is actually quite apt. As a party, after all, the GOP has spent decades attempting to degrade sexual minorities and even drive them out of public life. It is altogether fitting, then, that conservative politicians are erasing LGBTQ people from their own tragedy. The gesture of support, I suppose, is basically benevolent. But let's be clear about this: The 50 victims of Orlando's LGBTQ nightclub massacre died as full and equal citizens under the law in spite of the Republican party's best efforts to relegate them to second-class citizenship.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/06/12/republican_are_erasing_lgbtq_people_from_their_own_tragedy.html

[spuwho]

Short sighted posting.

Just because one doesn't promote something they don't believe in, doesn't mean they don't have sympathy for those who have been murdered.

You can still show sympathy for those who died without making a judgement or pushing an agenda.

Since when do we start becoming a gatekeeper for sympathy?  Have we become that cynical?

[southsider1015]

Typical Slate crap.  Do liberals really enjoy this stuff?  That and Salon...

[finehoe]

Typical Slate crap.  Do liberals really enjoy this stuff?  That and Salon...

Republicans are in a quandary on which should take precedence, their hatred of muslims or their hatred of gays.

[The_Choose_1]

Typical Slate crap.  Do liberals really enjoy this stuff?  That and Salon...

Republicans are in a quandary on which should take precedence, their hatred of muslims or their hatred of gays.

To be honest most Republicans Hate everybody that are not like themselves.

[Jimmy]

I was very upset yesterday by additional public statements of sympathy.  It's like talking about the shooting of African Americans Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston without reference to race or religion.  So I wrote, as concisely as I could, why the statements were upsetting me:

It was a bias-motivated attack against a gay bar to kill LGBT people. When leaders neuter expressions of sympathy of that fact - the fact that the shooter went to kill the people he hated - it is feckless and dehumanizing. It continues the work of the shooter to silence our voices and to leave us fearful and alone in the dark.  Why is that so hard to understand?

Then I saw this in the New York Times, and it does a better job of making this point.  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/15/opinion/a-time-to-stand-with-gay-americans.html?_r=2

[marty904]

As long as we continue to make blanket statements like this, about an entire group of people (label) then we will remain an ignorant society. This statement claims that all republicans are somehow "erasing" another entire large group (label) of people.  How ignorant of a statement is that??

One minute I see articles of "when will we stop being hyphenated americans" and then I see where other groups are adding even more letters to their acronyms (labels). 

So many people in Jax are up in arms about the HRO issue and then some of those same people go and make statements like this one.  Do you think at all, that the republicans that love and support the gay community (or are gay themselves) are offended by this ignorant statement?

Seeing ignorant posts like this makes me sick because it just keeps telling me that I will likely never see our society stop being one of racist, hateful and discriminating, in my lifetime.

Racism and discrimination will never go away until the labels do.  So while you want to embrace your labels as "community" it is just reinforcing the very discrimination you fight against.  We are all humans and if you are American citizens, then you are an "American". Stop with the fucking labels!

There are amazing people that are republicans, there are amazing people that are democrats, there are amazing people that are straight and there are amazing people that are gay!

There are douchebags that are republicans, there are douchebags that are democrats, there are douchebags that are straight and there are douchebags that are gay!

Bottom line is that people do great or stupid things. Using labels to identify dumb ass people and their actions/ideas/comments is what keeps us labeled as an ignorant society!

[finehoe]

This statement claims that all republicans are somehow "erasing" another entire large group (label) of people.

No it doesn't.  Maybe you should work on your reading comprehension skills.

[peestandingup]

While I don't agree with it, its a pretty far reach to equate the right's position on same sex marriage being kept to a man & women to an Islamic extremist gunning down a hundred gay people while screaming "allahu akbar!". But you guys are doing your damnedest, while ignoring the elephant in the room. "Gosh oh gee, I dont wanna sound like a bigot...better blame the right!". :-/

I don't think anyone with a brain is trying to "erase" the LGBTQ angle from what happened. But many fail to realize that there's a HUGE laundry list of potential targets for these extremists (basically anyone who isn't them). Christians, Jews, women, etc, and they actually act on it in big big numbers. You name it they probably hate it & think it needs to either conform or die. That's what people are getting at. If it wasn't gays, it would've been some other group (which happens everyday). Bringing that sad fact up doesnt take away what happened to the people it happened to.

I just don't get what these threads are trying to accomplish. I don't know why everyone cant get together on this & not automatically turn it into a god damn left vs right issue. Their hate is non discriminatory.

[finehoe]

While I don't agree with it, its a pretty far reach to equate the right's position on same sex marriage being kept to a man & women to an Islamic extremist gunning down a hundred gay people while screaming "allahu akbar!".

Of course no one has done that, but don't let that stop you from setting up your straw man to knock down.

I don't think anyone with a brain is trying to "erase" the LGBTQ angle from what happened.

"Anyone with a brain" doesn't often include Republican members of Congress when it come to anything 'gay'.

But many fail to realize that there's a HUGE laundry list of potential targets for these extremists (basically anyone who isn't them). Christians, Jews, women, etc, and they actually act on it in big big numbers. You name it they probably hate it & think it needs to either conform or die. That's what people are getting at. If it wasn't gays, it would've been some other group (which happens everyday).

Which one of these extremists are you referring to?

[peestandingup]

^Nice cherry picked little cartoon you got there. And from Politico no doubt (not biased at all). If you wanna have a pissing match, Islamic terrorists win by a landslide. They're responsible for literally thousands upon thousands of deaths & dismemberment in just the last few years, and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from their homelands.

I notice you didn't include the Paris massacre in your little comic strip (which is more than all of them put together). Some of the toughest gun restrictions in all of Europe, but I'm sure your mind is hard at work trying to somehow blame the right for that one too. Good luck!

[finehoe]

but I'm sure your mind is hard at work trying to somehow blame the right for that one too.

No one is "blaming the right" for terrorist attacks.  The subject of this thread is that a significant number of Republican politicians can't even put their homophobia aside long enough to acknowledge LGBTQ citizens.

So now go ahead and drag in some other bizarre straw man to "prove" how that's not true.

[southsider1015]

The ONLY purpose if the article and this post is to steal your attention.  It's not informative news, by any means, and only seeks to draw you in only to leave you angered .  Finehoe, you're no different here on MJ with the stuff you post.  You post these articles, then spend your time defending it when you get attacked from all angles.  Do you actually believe this crap?  Pathetic.

[southsider1015]

Which circles and churches are advocating terrorism and death?  Christians/Jews/Republicans?  You're kidding right? 

So divisive these days.  This piece is no different.

[Adam White]

I would suggest that, even if we accept that the videos Stephen has posted are anomalous, the bigoted, anti-gay rhetoric spewed by mainstream Christians (and others) creates a poisonous atmosphere which enables the commission of hate crimes.

You don't have to literally advocate the murder of homosexuals for your words to harm others. If people aren't going to be more tolerant, they need to at least be more responsible.