When you invite a lioness into your den, don’t be shocked when she makes a meal of you.
That was the substance of my prediction back in August about what Ann Coulter would do to the gay Republicans at GOProud when they invited her to headline their soiree they so self-deprecatingly called “Homocon.” Over the weekend, Coulter put on her bib and sharpened her knife and dove into a plate full of tender gay Republicans.
TPM reported on Coulter’s appearance:
After a series of jokes about conservative that sounded — and were received — more like a stand-up act then a political speech, Coulter told the assembled (and predominantly wealthy) conservative gay crowd why they should oppose same sex marriage, adding, “I should warn you: I’ve never failed to talk gays out of gay marriage.”
And then she did.
She told the crowd she opposed same sex marriage because she believes marriage should only be for procreation. (No word on whether she opposed the marriage of infertile couples, but those are niggling details for small minds to ponder, I’m sure.)
She sunk her teeth into the crowd though by telling them, “Marriage is not a civil right. You’re not black.”
Ah, because civil rights apparently only apply to black people and no one else, as TPM reported:
It was part of a larger argument on which she later elaborated, telling the crowd that the 14th Amendment only applies to African-Americans and that it does not, in fact, apply to women, LGBT people or other minorities.
I guess Coulter could be right — if she were not so wrong. As the Supreme Court ruled in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia case, marriage is, indeed, a civil right, and procreation has nothing to do with it:
These statutes also deprive the Lovings of liberty without due process of law in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.
Marriage is one of the “basic civil rights of man,” fundamental to our very existence and survival. Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U.S. 535, 541 (1942). See also Maynard v. Hill, 125 U.S. 190 (1888).
Coulter also perpetuated the myth that gay people are wealthier than the general population when she said, “Blacks must be looking at the gays saying, ‘Why can’t we be oppressed like that?’”
Anti-gay factions would like people to believe that all gays and lesbians are well heeled and rolling in dough. While those at GOProud certainly represent the wealthy minority of gay people, the gay money machine must have stopped before it got to my street. In fact, a study released last year “by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law show that gay, lesbian, and bisexual Americans are as likely, or even more likely, than heterosexuals to live in poverty.” Why? The answer lies in what Coulter would deny gays and lesbians: marriage. The study showed that “same-sex partners are more likely to be poor than their heterosexual counterparts because they lack access to safety nets such as a spouse’s health insurance coverage and Social Security survivor benefits.”
TPM reports that GOProud members grilled Coulter on her views in a Q and A session, but the fact that they would invite her in to eat them for dinner speaks ill of the judgment of GOProud’s leaders. Coulter, however, should be happy, because she’s again earned the respect of at least one conservative who wrote her off after she agreed to speak at Homocon. Bryan Fischer — in an insult to Xena — said she reclaimed her “Warrior Princess” badge by really sticking it to the gays with the appearance:
And Ann, all is forgiven. Humble pie has never tasted so sweet. You are no longer the “Joan of Arc of homosexuality,” as I described you last month, you are now Daniella of the Lion’s Den. Good on ya, lass.
GOProud’s executive director, Jimmy LaSalvia, obviously not noticing how completely Coulter had devoured him and his group, told TPM that their organization isn’t about securing rights like marriage for gays and lesbians and instead “seeks to redefine what are ‘gay’ issues and push for issues of the largest importance to the LGBT community.”
Apparently, that redefinition means denying economic equality and opportunity to the LGBT community at large and continuing to deepen the political and religious divide between LGBT people and the community at large by inviting people to come and insult and belittle you.
Which makes this comment from LaSalvia all the more sad: “I don’t agree with Ann Coulter about gay marriage, but there was a real conversation here. That’s what we’re trying to start.” He added, “We want people to see that it isn’t ‘us versus them.’”
If that was the goal, Jimmy, then Homocon was a miserable failure.
