When you think of a “formerly closeted Republican,” Ken Mehlman’s name isn’t the only one you should have in your mind. There’s also David Brock (who came out of the closet as a liberal), the chief of of Media Matters of America, the Fox News watchdog that’s helping launch the new Equality Matters, which Richard Socarides is heading up. And both men played Hardball last night, where they took turns lambasting the GOP for continuing to force gay equality, like DADT, into being a partisan issue. (Well, Socarides wasn’t willing to go that far; he loves him some Republicans, apparently.) But it was Brock who called out anti-gay Republicans for continuing to make gays a “phony wedge culture war issue” to drum up support from their base. But how worried should we be that Socarides, the man supposed to be heading up the “gay equality war room,” is so willing to forgive bigots? “Everybody is on their own journey. You can’t judge people for what they did or their conduct.” Uh, that is exactly what you judge people for. THEIR ACTIONS. This man is unreal. He’s the guy who helped President Clinton manage the gay fallout from signing DADT into law, and then went on to criticize Obama for not moving swiftly enough to repeal the law. And yet here he is letting the GOP off the hook.
jerks
Richard Socarides, Head Of New ‘Gay War Room,’ Has No Plans To Hold Republicans Accountable
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whatever
that’s a clintonista for ya. can expect anything less.
Cam
Socarides Sounds like one of those people that still deep down thinks he needs to apologize for being gay, or who is embarassed about it. There should be a better requirement for heading up that organization than just having worked for somebody famous and coming out of the closet.
sonofloud
Considering it was the Log Cabin Republicans who filed the suit against the US Department of Defense which led to Judge Phillips ruling DADT unconstitutional (the real reason it was repealed)…maybe your blind loyalty to the so called democrats should come into question?
tony x
@sonofloud:
Ah the DADT lawsuit – f that !
It is smoke and mirrors like all Republcan SCAMS.
FACT – Log Cabin Republican endorsed John McCain for PRESIDENT, urging gay men and women to vote for a man who HATES them.
FACT – If John McCain was President he would VETO te DADT LAW and in fact would have worked against it an it would not have passed.
Log Cabin like ALL Real Republicans (not the suburban Christianist PEASANTS who follow them blindly) are just elitist social climbers who want into the elitist party.
Log Cabin worked against DADT Repeal by endorsing John McCain for President. They can NOT have it both ways. But being the privilage scum that they are they think they can and should.
tony x
@sonofloud:
Ah the DADT lawsuit – f that !
It is smoke and mirrors like all Republcan SCAMS.
FACT – Log Cabin Republican endorsed John McCain for PRESIDENT, urging gay men and women to vote for a man who HATES them.
FACT – If John McCain was President he would VETO te DADT LAW and in fact would have worked against it and it would not have passed.
Log Cabin like ALL Real Republicans (not the suburban Christianist PEASANTS who follow them blindly) are just elitist social climbers who want into the elitist party.
Log Cabin worked against DADT Repeal by endorsing John McCain for President. They can NOT have it both ways. But being the privilage scum that they are they think they can and should.
Cam
@sonofloud:
You’re right…HOWEVER, it was a different Log Cabin Republican group. The former head, Patrick Guarino, refused to endorse Bush because of the anti-gay tone of the election. THAT Log cabin group was a gay group full of people that said they had traditional financial ideals etc… that were in line with what the GOP claimed was their plank.
The more recent Log Cabin is a group of GOP wannabees looking for jobs that are GOP first and gays somewhere far down the list. THIS Log Cabin is happy to take credit for the lawsuit but they never would have filed it. The current head of log cabin was recently moced on TV for trying to minimize an anti-gay GOP politicians words and the previous president, tried to lie about McCains anti-gay past….
During the election they sent out a blast that said that McCain was not and had never opposed gays adopting, and that he had never voted for an AZ law preventing them.
What they left out is the fact that since McCain wasn’t an AZ state politician he COULDN’T vote on that bill, AND they also left out that he ran ads in support of banning gays from adopting.
So yes, the previous Log Cabin incarnations made sense, they were guys that were gay, and had less liberal ideals than the DEMS, but THIS Log Cabin are merely shills for the party who think it’s their job to minimize or hide it’s anti-gay side from us rather than getting them to change in my opinion.
Obama = Clinton
I have to give credit to this Richard guy…I watched the interview last night and it was the first time he didn’t gleefully pounce on Obama.
Afer all, for the last two years, every political reporter has had “Socarides” in their rolodex under the tab “gay guy who has bad things to say about Obama” Other people under that tab are Dan Savage and Michaelangelo Signorile, both of whom I respect a lot more than Bill Clinton’s paid gay community damage controller.
Melanie N
Socarides is an asshole. He helped start GetEqual and then through them under the bus when they ran out of money.
People should be supporting Robin McGehee, not this political whore Socarides. Robin is our MLK and Socarides is just a younger, thinner David Mixner. This guy also screwed over Dan Choi when he was doing his hunger strike because he had promised to pay his medical expenses and when Dan got hunger pains Socarides was no where to be found.
We need real activism and a real GLB hero. That person is Robin McGehee. Send your money to Robin and bet on her to win our equality. Obama is already afraid of her and will give her anything she wants. we need to make sure she has enough money to travel and hold people accountable.
Go Robin!
justiceontherocks
@TonyX – hate to wake you from your coma – but that lawsuit, which caused gates’ lawyers to conclude DADT was unconstitutional, is EXACTLY what led to the DADT repeal.
As for Socarides – he can get back to us when he makes up for the mess he made in the White House. Until then he has no right to criticize Obama or anyone else.
Kenny
Given who his father was (who, interestingly, died on Christmas Day), how can you help being any different? I hope he’s received extensive psychotherapy from someone far more competent than his father. I can’t imagine the demons that could exist if you were gay & had his dad for a father.
Tony X
@justiceontherocks:
Sorry it was theater – planned to give the GOP some cred for backing gay rights.
Not so dumb to think that was not the plan.
IT was an insider game – and again this group backed McCain for PRESIDENT.
They are not to be given credit for anything as they came around the last moments when they knew progressive, liberals and Democrats
had already turned the tides.
Now go back to YOUR coma.@Obama = Clinton:
Yeah except the reality is Obama just overturned DADT.
Dolt.
Daez
@tony x: Your reasoning is failed. John McCain the presidential candidate was for DADT repeal. He most likely would have allowed it to happen.
John McCain the desperate to be Senator was against it because is garnished his base in a very conservative district.
Bruno
@Daez:
We all have our own opinions on McCain’s strange flip-flops. Mine is that all McCain would need to hear is the opposition from homophobes like Amos and he’d be against the repeal of DADT, regardless of whether or not he’s president. I believe he easily falls into the category of cynical GOP asshats that will use the rampant homophobia of the conservative base in any way possible to get what they want.
tjr101
Republicans have always been on the wrong side of history since the great LBJ signed the civil rights act and the Dixecrats started moving in their direction.
I would wager a lot of gay Republicans are not happy this DADT repeal passed simply because they were hoping to be seen as the heroes by having it repealed through the courts and making Obama look like a failure.
@Daez: Your reasoning is failed. Because McCain was for repeal of DADT as presidential candidate doesn’t mean that he would have repealed it. He’s flip flopped so many times I’ve lost count. Also there’s no way in hell the GOP base would have allowed DADT repeal to pass under a President McCain.
Someone
You have to remember where Richard Socarides comes from. His father was a leading homophobe. He continued his homophobic ways until his death in 2005, long after Richard was a gay activist!
This is as bad as being the gay son of Randall Terry or Phyllis Schlafly. Incidentally, both of these really do have gay sons!
Note also that Dick Cheney and Ehud Olmert have lesbian diughters.
Jim Hlavac
Poor Richard should go chat with his father Charles, who as the dean of Harvard’s psychology school kept maintaining that being gay is “caused” by a strong mother and an absent or weak father. Long after gayness was removed from the diagnostic manual. And all the while dad was a good father, I’m sure, to Richard. Not sure where the dad is employment wise or gay theory wise today, but still, this family is a doozy of floozies. Maybe the whole bunch is evolving to something or other relative to my existence.
Kenny
@Jim Hlavac:
He died on 12/25/2005. He was a founding member of NARTH & worked with the group until his death.
Obama DID say DADT would happen on his watch... (John From England)
@Kenny:
Wow, if he was why are people taking this guy seriously??? Why is he a gay spokesperson?? Oh, man! Why hasn’t this been mentioned? No wonder he created Get Equal because he wanted Clinton and hated Obama. Plus he hates gays as well as himself.
Some twisted sh*t this is. It’s like letting some black guy who’s father worked against MLK and felt blacks should stay at the back of the bus, be a leading spokesperson on black identity! WTF??
Jeff
At this point, political support for gay causes has to run a Kinsey scale as well. The Log Cabins did file suit but have supported anti-gay politicians. Give them a 2 on the 6 point scale. Obama used to believe in gay marriage, now he doesn’t; he signed DADT’s repeal, but barely lifted a finger to get it through Congress. Give him a 3.5.
Most politicians are tainted by prior comments or voting records. I doubt that we’ll find a pure 6 in politics these days.
Feather
Socarides owes GetEqual $120,000. They are about to shut down for a lack of contribution, but Richard pledged the $120,000 in November. Now he his his own org and will probably be a weasel.
Tyler
@Feather: What a douchebag. Where’s GetEQUAL’s money Richard? Robin McGehee gave up her life to start GetEQUAL and you promised she would make a good living? Now you just take care of your self?
Tell us about your $400,000 salary and why you are ending GetEQUAL? Tell us douchebag. You rich white guys piss me off and that’s why I am a proud queer. Queers and Trans untie at Bilerico.com where we support each other against the oppression of white gay men and their orgs.
Take to the streets and stop Socarides. He screwed Robin and Kip and all of the queer/trans community. Stop him!
Jeffree
@Tyler:
You don’t post at Bilerico. Your comrade/alter-ego AndrewW did until they booted him off the site.
This obsession with GetEqual is troublesome.
“Untie” somewhere else.
Tyler
@Jeffree: Dude, what is your problem? Are you hating on GetEQUAL, too? They got DADT repealed and the establishment is screwing them over. I post at Bilerico because it is the Trans website. Does that bother you Jeffree? Sit on your fat ass and type your trollish remarks.
Unless you give money to GetEQUAL you are an idiot. Do you think HRC has done anything useful? Robin got us DADT repealed. We need her to be our MLK. We don’t need YOU. Fat, lazy fool.
Jeffree
@Tyler.
Nice try! I support GetEqual, too.
BTW, Bilerico is an inclusive LGBT site, not a Trans site, but it’s much more trans-friendly than this site which is def. transphobic.
I hope you’ll read my upcoming article on sockpuppetry. It might help you and your pal AndrewW.
Lost in LA
Socarides did screw GetEqual. I know Robin and Kip are pissed. I think he just used them to get DADT repealed and now his organization has the money. Robin is left out in the cold.
Melanie Nathan
@Melanie N: m