THE BASHER AND HER SODOMITE: Laura and Curtis Ingraham
Laura Ingraham is “an articulate and telegenic” conservative political commentator, the most listened-to nationally-syndicated female talk show host, and author of the books
The Hillary Trap,
Shut Up & Sing: How the Elites in Hollywood, Politics…and the UN are Subverting America and
Power to the People, a book about the “pornification” of America (released on September 11, 2007).
She began her illustrious career as the first female editor-in-chief of Darmouth University’s independent conservative newspaper
The Dartmouth Review.
According to her faculty adviser Jeffrey Hart she held “the most extreme anti-homosexual views imaginable,” even going so far as to avoid a local restaurant for fear that its gay waiters might touch her silverware or spit in her food and give her AIDS. During her tenure as EIC, she sent an unannounced reporter to gay student meetings and published a transcript with names of attendees in the paper. She characterized a campus gay rights group as “cheerleaders for latent campus Sodomites.”
GLAAD has called Ingraham
one of the most Anti-Gay Voices of 2008 for using transgender people “as punching bags.” She questioned how parents of a transgender youth “
aren’t embarrassed” by their child, alluded that being gay is a “bad choice”, and said that the Transgender Leadership Summit is
“killing the culture” (something military veteran and trans-blogger Autumn Sandeen
took great offense at). Even Bill O’Reilly has referred to Ingraham as a “blind ideologue” and a “Kool-Aid drinker.”
In 1997 Ingraham experienced a barely registrable change of heart when her estranged brother Curtis came out. In a 1994 essay in the
Washington Post,
Ingraham said:
In the ten years since I learned my brother Curtis was gay, my views and rhetoric about homosexuality have been tempered—not because Curtis proselytizes on gay rights, but because I have seen him and his companion, Richard, lead their lives with dignity, fidelity and courage. … Knowing what they had been through together made it sound antiseptic, almost an insult.
Nonetheless, she still says that
she will always be against gay marriage, even though actual marriage would have made it easier for her brother to visit his dying lover.
Ingraham said that until her brother’s ordeal she didn’t understand the urgency for AIDS funding, the problems gay couples face with insurance and the emotional strain of continuing discrimination. But doesn’t a commentator have a responsibility to find out about such things before venturing an opinion, even if it means looking outside your own tribe?
Responding to
a column written by pro-gay RINO, Meghan McCain, Ingraham called McCain, “just another Valley Girl gone awry” and “plus-sized.” Meghan retorted by telling
Ingraham to “kiss my fat ass,” something that makes me want to kiss Meghan McCain’s fat ass.
Bonus bitchy story!: In his book
Blinded by the Right–the Conscience of an Ex-Conservative, gay “right wing hitman” David Brock
said that he used to be BFFs with Ms. Ingraham. Together they snorted what they thought was cocaine but was actually cat tranquilizer. Drugged-up Igraham crawled on all fours through a crowded dance floor to where Brock had passed out in the men’s bathroom. Later, she set him up on a blind date with
gay journalist Matt Drudge. Drudge showed up in a sporty red compact car with a dozen roses (yawn), stepped on the feet of someone Brock found attractive and told that person to “back off.” Brock called Drudge “a scary date.”
It was hard not to get misty as Colin Farrell‘s recently expressed love and admiration for his gay older brother, Eamon. Of the bullies that used to regularly beat and taunt Eamon, Colin said, “They missed out because they saw him as a threat – not as a testament to the kaleidoscope and diversity of this beautiful world.” Awww (no really, awww)! Farrell has always been tight with his bro, but how many of our own family members would go so far as to issue a press release praising us in support of an anti-homophobia campaign? (How many of our own family members even know how to issue a press release?) So we started searching for other celebrities who support their gay siblings and found just as many bad pairs as we found good. Let the love and hate begin!
On the surface, it might seem that Fantastic 4 actor Chris Evans might have an uneven relationship with the gays. After all, he 
One would expect that The Queen of Pop (who The Advocate once called “the biggest gay icon of all time”) would have a fabulous relationship with her ‘mo bro, Christopher Ciccone. After all, she’s always loved her gay fans, has regularly spoken against AIDS in her album and public life, has encouraged gay love between Jews and Muslims, and has spoken out against Prop 8 and Romanian homophobia in her recent concerts. Plus, she was one of the the first celebrities to openly flirt with lesbianism herself in her coffeetable book Sex.
But they got off to a questionable start: Madonna gave her brother, his first joint, ecstasy pill, and visit to a gay bar. They both lost their virginity in the backseats of cars to guys named Russell and 
Anne Hathaway, the beautiful Audrey Hepburn-esque starlet, appeared in a handful of gay film favorites like 
Tart-tounged TV talk show hostess Rosie has given over $100 million in charity to early childhood education, child victims of Hurricane Katrina, and Broadway musical education. She left her Emmy-award winning talk show two months after coming out in 2002 and returned to TV in 2006 as a member of the all-female daytime talk show The View. In just one year on The View, she managed to piss off 
james p. p.
off topic, but wasn’t Jack Kerouac’s bisexuality only rumour and speculation? it seems if there were ‘experiences’ they were drunken nights or maybe he being an opportunist at best…
i mean he married 3 times though that doesn’t mean anything really….
anyway, just asking…
Sam
I’m pretty sure you mixed up Chris and Scott’s names in the last two paragraphs.
Daniel
@Sam: Thanks Sam. It’s been fixed.
Sam
And you accidentally called Mary Cheney “Lizzy.”
Tylertime
Anne Hathaway has the cutest gay sibling.
Daniel
@Sam: Thanks, I fixed that one too before I saw your comment. I’ve been staring at the computer screen too long. 😛
Timothy
“Mary, her partner Heather Poe, and their son Samuel David Cheney live in Great Falls Virginia, enjoying a life that her father promised to make unconstitutional.”
Sigh… hate really is blinding, isn’t it.
Dick Cheney has never “promised to make” gay marriage unconstitutional. In fact, he has repeatedly spoken out against the FMA, exactly the opposite of what you claim.
And you probably also aren’t aware that Cheney was one of the first high profile politician to criticize the gay military ban when he was Secretary of Defense. Or that his chief aide in the Defense Department was gay, along with the Department’s spokesman.
You can hate Cheney for being a Republican or a conservative all you like. But you look foolish when you don’t bother to know the fact… something that is becoming all too common on Queerty.
John from England(used to be just John but there are other John's)
@james p. p.:
Yeah, there’s proof. I can’t be arsed but there is a tonne of stuff re the beat generation boys.
Daniel
@Timothy: You’re right. I should have been more specific. By “her father” I meant “the Bush/Cheney 2004 re-election campaign.” So you got me there.
But he is just as culpable by running 2nd on a ticket of hate and it’s no better that he openly preferred letting states vote on whether or not to deny his daughter basic legal protections enjoyed by committed (and uncomitted) straight couples—that’s not commendable, that’s reprehensible.
As is the fact that during the campaign, he and his wife repeatedly said that asking about Mary and the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was somehow inappropriate. It’s all offensive, disingenuous and gross.
So while he may not have explicitly “promised” to eradicate gay marriage (which as I said, is my mistake), he was quite happy to let the states do the dirty work for him. How politically savvy.
Jeff
@Timothy: The alleged factual errors you criticize do not diminish the fact that our former Vice President aligned himself with a party, a platform and a ticket that has fostered and thrived on homophobia and racism. If he had any moral fibre and any principals he would have disassociated himself from the party’s platform and withdrawn from the ticket. He would have become a voice for compassion, equality and reason within the party. He didn’t. As such, he and his daughters, especially the lesbian, are no better than the “good Germans” who opted forwhat was perceived to be economic and political stability over the mass murders of the Jews, the Gays, the Gypsies, the mentally and physically challanged, or the Southerners who accepted racial discrimination and the KKK, etc. Some people do take a stand. A heroic stand. Cheney didn’t. By defending him and lauding the fact that he employed lgbt individuals in addition to having a lesbian daughter I believe that you are being an apologist for him. It’s not a question of being conservative, liberal or centrist. it’s a question of equality for all.
Right before the initial election I had lunch with a man who I believe is one of his gay proteges that you mention to discuss helping a local LBGT charity and during the course of the conversation he discussed the probability of the Republican ticket winning and the prospect of his future in Washington. The conversation was all about loyalty to Cheney and the power that would come with the same, but not about using that power to advance LGBT rights or fostering the principals which this country was allegedly founded upon. I was told that I was naive to expect anything different – it was politics – “the time wasn’t right,” etc. Please do some research and look into the horrendous judicial appointments of said administration – we’re talking centrist, not liberal or conservative. I believe that most of the kapos in the camps were Jewish so at least they had the excuse that their survival depended upon them selling their souls. What’s Cheney’s excuse. His gay proteges’ excuses? His daughters’? Power? Shame on them and shame on you for defending them. Perhaps you should send the Pope a letter congratulating him on his anti-lgbt campaigns and another to the idiots in Africa who want to execute lgbt individuals. Why stop with defending the Cheneys?
@Daniel: Good article.
Best,
Jeff
Keith
Chris Ciccone is a drug abusing loser and thankfully Her Madgesty dropped his sorry ass from her life. Cutting the “fat” is probably why she’s been able to maintain an incredible career and have 4 seemingly normal and happy kids.
Totakikay
Dick Cheney supported the rights of U.S. States to decide the matter of same-sex marriage, because as a conservative, its not the responsibility of the Federal Government. Having American citizens decide on the issue of same-sex marriage actually strengthens the civil rights cause. Because as time passes by Americans will be more accepting of LGBT people.
By the way, in my humble opinion, Dick Cheney is the most pro-LGBT American vice president. Not only does he care about his lesbian daughter, he also cares about the welfare of a lot of LGBT people across the world. Why? He helped fight AGAINST Islamic extremists and terrorists—who happen to be hell-bent on persecuting and killing LGBT people whenever they get their hands on them. And you thought Republicans, Christians and Jews were the most evil “enemies” of LGBT people. Stop listening to liberal talking points, Islamists are the worst religious extremists out there.
Jeff
@Totakikay
I wouldn’t describe your opinion as “humble” but rather “delusional.” If the States were left to decide issues of equality we might very well still have slavery, Blacks being denied the right to vote, racial discrimination in full force in some states, rampant anti-Semitism and racial discrimination, interracial marriages prohibited, etc. That would be fine with you, no? We’re supposed to wait for our constitutionally guaranteed rights to be afforded to us until such time as an overwhelming majority of Americans decide that it’s time to allow us our to enjoy our birthright which is currently being denied to us because we’re lgbt?!? I don’t understand why you hate Islamic radicals as it appears that you’d fit right in with the mix.
As far as Cheney being an LGBT rights activists, what facts do you base your delusional position on? Has he actively campaigned for the same now or in the past with the same vigor that he’s made public appearances criticizing the current administration or defending his record? No!
It’s not about his being conservative – there are plenty of hypocritical liberals and centrists, including, in my opinion, the current administration – it’s about equality and the right of all Americans to be equal under the Constitution. With all due respect to your right to your own opinions, your suggestion that the lgbt community and other oppressed minorities wait until it becomes popular for them to be afforded their constitutional rights comes across as both delusional and self-loathing. FYI, the Islamic fundamentalists and terrorists that you so rightly abhor also discriminate against women, non Muslims, etc. How can you criticize them as homophobes and our enemies – shouldn’t we just wait until a majority of them decide that their positions and beliefs are wrong – when you’re suggesting that a wait and see policy is what we need to follow vis a vis lgbt rights at home?
How pathetic!
Jeff
dvd
Could Laura Ingrahm be any more vile? Her complete lack of empathy (until it directly affects her via a family member), says more about her soul than anything. It must suck to live in her head and be filled with that much judgement.
Maarten Holst
It’s Dartmouth College not Dartmouth University.
D'oh, The Magnificent
@Totakikay: Except marriage rights are a combination of federal, state and interstate right. Have you ever owned property in one state, while living another? My advice is don’t do so as a gay person in which one of those states is anti marriage while another is pro marriage since your ownership rights will be called into question as a couple.
D'oh, The Magnificent
@Jeff: @Totakikay: I always stunned by the level of ignorance that many gay people have about the nature of the legal issues involved in the battle for their equality. I mean- what do they think it means when one speaks of 1200 federal rights, down to how you fill out your taxes and address inheritancy by the way as a gay person to getting a divorce to adoption to setting up forms of property ownership, etc. Marriage is HUGE in this society on some many legal fronts that anyone claiming that it is a state rights issue alone is either lying to you or so ignorant as to not be worth the time of listening to them.
Jeff
Dear D’oh,
I agree with you. I suggested that Totakikay was delusional. I certainly wasn’t defending his ignorant comment.
Best,
Jeff
Bill H
To all the Cheney haters out there, what has THIS administration done for the GLBT community in the 15 months HE’s been in office? Oh, he sent a memo to HHS that partners should be allowed in hospital rooms. I remember hearing all my friends say that once HE was in, there would be gay marriage, full equal rights, service in the military, etc. As to gay marriage, HE has stated on many occasions that he is AGAINST gay marriage, I haven’t seen any evidence of equal rights legislation being signed, and DADT is still part of the military’s rulebook. Whenever I ask my friends about this they say “HE was dealing with bigger things first.” Always an excuse! The fact is that most gay equality rights could easily be gained by Executive Order, especially ending DADT. It’s not a lot of work to pen an Executive Order. I wish the gay community would stop drinking the Democratic Kool-Aid and realize that party is not much different than the GOP when it comes to gay issues, and history proves it.
princess.johnsonXIV
@james p. p.:
allen ginsberg says he and kerouac “blew” each other and in “palimpsest” gore vidal admits to frottage and more with kerouac.
he also says kerouac was hustling w/ a “famous playwrite”.
if a guy identifies as “hetero” i don’t care.
it’s how he sucks my d*ck that’s really important!
Jason
You forgot Cyndi Lauper and her brother. She has been one of the most outspoken and active straight allies to the gay community organizing the concert series True Colors to raise money for GLBT issues.
cate rina
clandestine life of gays of Uganda
Country of Africa should vote Bill rigorous against homosexuals.
If approved, will promote life imprisonment and the death penalty to gays.
site:
http://g1.globo.com/mundo/noticia/2010/04/g1-mostra-vida-clandestina-dos-gays-de-uganda.html
R L Pete Housman
Now is our time to put and end to some of the major issues that divide us……LAST NAME BEGINING WITH AN “A” OR “B” LGBT OR FRIEND OF JUSTICE. 4-26 IS YOUR DAY TO CALL/CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSMAN AND YOUR SENATOR TO REGISTER SUPPORT TO REPEAL DADT AND PASS ENDA. If you have a $10 send it to Your State LGBT Org or the EQUALITY FEDERATION “1ofaMillion”Fund 4-27 “C” OR “D” ITS YOUR TURN.4-28 “E” or “F” on deck. Then Join Equality Fed on May 11 for the final push..
1 OF A MILLION Call for Action to R-DADT and P-ENDA