Maddow: I’m Not on a Gay Crusade

Being a lesbian is not what drives her high-profile coverage of issues like the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Media columnist Howard Kurtz profiles the MSNBC host with great attention to how her sexual orientation impacts her treatment of guests like Lt. Dan Choi, who came out on The Rachel Maddow Show last March.

“As one of the few openly gay television anchors, Maddow has kept the spotlight trained on the contentious issue of whether service members known to be homosexual should face discharge proceedings, as Choi did after that interview,” writes Kurtz. “But she doesn’t view herself as mounting a crusade.”

“We don’t really treat gay issues differently than other issues,” Maddow tells Kurtz. “The controversy, she says, is just ‘a great story.’”

Not that Maddow wants to hide her identity, either.

“I can’t do the show as a non-gay person,” she tells Kurtz. “I don’t have that option.”

More at: The Advocate!

Teabaggers Attack Rachel Maddow On Twitter

Yesterday Rhodes News and a small contingent of follows attacked Rachel Maddow online. It seems that the Tea Bag party members object to Maddow using the term “Teabaggers” to describe them. It seems that they object to this term as it implies an explicit sexual act. I won’t get into the details, but go watch the episode of Sex and the City to see how this term launched into the American venacular. Maddow was not the first person to coin this term or to apply it to the rising conservative tea bag party. She is also not the only media figure who refers to them as Teabaggers.

More at: Lez Get Real!

Don’t Like the Food? Get in the Kitchen & Cook

Contributed by Lyndon Evans:

As we finally say goodbye to 2009 and look forward to a more hopeful 2010 (if dare iz uh God) I’d like to finish out the year with a commentary. As we also approach a full year of President Barack Obama and his administration, there’s a matter I need to address.

While 2009 has been a mix of gains, losses and stalemates for the LGBT community, one thing more than anything else has annoyed me to no end during this past year, the individuals, and more in particular LGBT blogs and websites which have found fault with President Obama and his administration when it has come to LGBT issues and causes.

In many cases the blog and website whiners have done nothing more than to find fault with Obama in self-serving promotion for their blogs and websites, thus appeasing their like minded readers, and yet offering no concrete solutions as how to accomplish the goals they feel the Commander-In-Chief has either lost sight of or dropped the ball without scoring a touchdown.

They conveniently blame NOM, the Christian-Right, Fox News and the like.

They blame NOM and it’s entities for it’s aggressive anti-gay and misinformation filled advertising campaigns, but in opposition to those campaigns, at best those who support same-sex marriage come up with “softball” ads “because we want to take the high road”.

I’ve addressed that notion previously here on this blog. If they get in the mud, you get in the mud too. It is after all politics, not just lifestyle versus lifestyle, as many would like to see the battle through lavender colored glasses.

There are very few, in my opinion, who have the right to speak up and find fault. Those who have more than earned a voice are of the likes of Larry Kramer, Peter Tatchell and David Mixner, who for what they have done other the years, have the right to find fault with where the LGBT community finds itself here in the United States, and indeed the world, as we close out 2009.

For individuals, yes you have the right to be upset and voice your disappointment with elected officials, presuming you voted for the politicians, or against them in the first place. But those who use their blog or website platform as a way for the condemnation of the Obama administration, without having, obviously, the slightest idea how politics work, well quite frankly as Archie Bunker would say, “Stifle yourself !”

Then we have those who have found “celebritay” this year such as Pam Spaulding and Lt. Dan Choi, who have received accolades, but also need to learn how to eat some humble pie. Those who have fallen into this category are enjoying their “fifteen minutes of fame”, but as with a candle, their momentary flame of glory will be extinguished, while the flame of the more gallant activists like the aforementioned Kramer, Tatchell and Mixner will continue to light the way long into the night.

Some bloggers this year have said Rachel Maddow should use her national broadcast platform on MSNBC to rally the cause of LGBTs. They say Anderson Cooper, if he is, should come out and be another face for LGBTs.

To wit I say, that’s not their job nor place to do so. They and others in high profiled positions are under no obligation to the LGBT community.

Those who feel that way should get their own national TV or radio program, become a national and internationally recognized member of the real media, not the “make believe” one of being a “citizen journalist” on a blog no matter how well read it is.

When blogs or websites are expounding opinion of what the collective “they” have or have not done, the biggest problem is you are singing to the choir and not to much of anyone else. I doubt very much folks in Middle America who are not LGBT are reading your blogs or websites, those the people who you might win over if they did become a reader, were it not for the continuous caustic rhetoric which after a while turns off even those in the LGBT community. Folks only take so much of being hit over the head with the same old, same old, before they tune out and change the channel.

So to those who have and will continue to find fault with local, state and national governments and politicians for what they have or not done, as the title of this post reads, if you ain’t happy with the food get in the kitchen and cook.

In other words, run for political office, win and then see how much change you can do.

Cross-posted at: Focus On The Rainbow

Maddow Invites Warren to Speak OUT

From USA Today:

The invite is official: Rachel Maddow wants Rev. Rick Warren, the nation’s most visible evangelical pastor right now, on her MSNBC show.

Night after night, Maddow, who is gay, has been hammering conservative U.S. evangelical leaders and politicians for failing to speak out promptly, loudly and clearly against a bill in Uganda that would criminalize homosexuality.

After days of being blasted by name, a few politicians have now issued statements against the bill, just recently toned down from a life imprisonment and death penalty provisions to mere jail time for being actively gay — or even knowing someone gay and failing to report them. (Imagine the chaos that would create for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, apart from legitimizing hate.)

More here!

Maddow Calling OUT Ex-Gay Crazies!

This is crazy! Can’t say anything more…this is CRAZY! This has to be stopped!

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