The Washington Post is very sorry it delivered a completely one-sided, sympathetic profile on Brian Brown, the National Organization for Marriage’s executive director. Especially because the reporter who wrote it is queer.
Writer Monica Hesse didn’t expect you’d get upset with her for lauding Mr. Brown’s “smiling” approach to hatred. In fact, she thought the criticism for this profile would come from anti-gay folks, who would call the piece “snide.”
Wrong. Hesse, who is currently in a relationship with a man, was with a woman for two years prior. The 28-year-old reporter “discussed health insurance, kids, houses and marriage” with her lady partner, she told readers who emailed her, as a means of explaining why she wasn’t NOM biggest cheerleader, as the piece might have suggested.
The Post‘s public editor, meanwhile, admits the article was way too fawning, and the approach to just let Brown tell his side of things misrepresented him, his organization, and their approach to bigotry. It is great to see this postmortem from the newspaper. What we did not see, however, was one of America’s most prestigious newspapers identify this man for what he is: a preacher of hatred. One day soon.
How about we take this to the next level?
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jason
I get so sick of evidently lesbian or even bisexual women who have relationships with women and then change to a man simply because they want to have a child. This is an abuse of one’s sexuality.
Remember, a woman doesn’t have to be aroused in order to have sex with a man. Therefore, she can convincingly use her sexuality for reasons that are unrelated to achieving sexual satisfaction. One of these reasons is having a child.
J.Lowrot
Please fix the typo in the headline. And re-read your Tila Tequila headline. It makes it sound like she was the assaulter, not the assaulted. kthnxbai.
dizzyspins
I didnt really have a problem with the Post article. I think the point was to show us how our enemies are not all fire-and-brimstone Rev. Fred Phelps types. I think Queerty and the flamers are assuming readers are too stupid to understand subtlety and need a writer to scream “hater! hater!” repeatedly to get the message across.
hyhybt
@dizzyspins: Indeed, and it needs to be pointed out now and then. Because the “nice,” “sane” ones are the ones there’s a danger of people believing.
@jason: If you’re bisexual, or straight for that matter, if you want to have a child the natural way, why shouldn’t that be a factor in choosing your mate?
Kropotkin
“I get so sick of evidently lesbian or even bisexual women who have relationships with women and then change to a man simply because they want to have a child. This is an abuse of one’s sexuality.
Remember, a woman doesn’t have to be aroused in order to have sex with a man. Therefore, she can convincingly use her sexuality for reasons that are unrelated to achieving sexual satisfaction. One of these reasons is having a child.”
WTF does this have to do with the story? It said nothing about her motivation about being married to a guy in the piece? Why do you leap to this conclusion? Why does a bi/queer woman have to offer a justification to being married to a guy? Why do you leap to this conclusion?
That being said, as having worked a little in the journalism biz myself, I’ve gotta say that this kind of story probably didn’t belong in the style section or written by a staff writer in the style section. And Mrs. Hesse needs to grow a thinker skin if she’s going to last in the business. God, I’ve received worse criticism over theater reviews and she’s dealing with something that is near and dear to people’s lives. Grow up Mrs. Hesse.
Andrew
Do you guys even look at your stories before you publish them? Beyond egregious spelling errors, the headline for this piece doesn’t even make sense.
It makes me feel like I’m reading text from a high school-level operation.
Andrew W.
The article also didn’t mention that Brian Brown was a CATHOLIC brand of Christian. Thus, the hatred and discrimination.
Religion made us “wrong” and we’ll never be Equal as long as we’re wrong. We are Not Wrong.
Cam
Ugh, more of the same spin as when Melissa Etheridge went about fawing over every hate preacher she spoke to. What do people expect, that these guys are all going to have devil horns and foam at the mouth? Of COURSE they are pleasent conversationalists, that is how they get promoted to their positions as the public faces of hate organizations. You need pleasent people out in front. If the Post’s reporter was too stupid to see that then she shouldn’t have that job. Then again, the Post, since it was taken over by the son of the publisher has become extreamly conservative in the editorial pages, my guess is she wrote the article in the way she was told to.