Thought of the Day: Jeremy Hooper

6a00d8341c503453ef010536a3175c970c-pi“Here’s the thing: Donations are public record. When donations come to light, people have a right to react any way that they wish. You can’t police that sort of thing. It’s very easy to throw stones at the boycotters — but like many of Mr. Kirchick’s arguments, I reject this notion as convenient conservatism. It seems he is looking at many of these matters and acting as if GayCo Industries™ acted in a certain matter. However, as one who was intimately involved in the Eckern situation (being one of the first to make note of the donation, which I posted without initial comment), I know that reactions to these sorts of things are organic. Some get angry. Some write it off as typical. Some pledge to never again support the business, yet don’t attempt to sway others’ opinions. That’s what happens in these sorts of situations.

Are there some sites and outfits who have taken on the boycott cause? Yes. That’s another organic offshoot of the post-Prop 8 annoyance. They have the right to do so, just as Mr. Kirchick has the right to criticize gay liberals. But it’s totally unfair to put the “ruining careers” burden on those gays who have note of the public record and acted accordingly. After all, we all knew (or should have known) that our donations, pro- or anti-, were going to be entered into the record. If you are confident in your actions and confident that public opinion is on your side, then you should not fear that people are going to bring those contributions to light. In fact, you should welcome the attention. We know we would.” — Good As You blogger Jeremy Hooper, responding to an Advocate op-ed by James Kirchick titled, ‘Play Nice Folks’.

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