In August, Donald Trump brought on Steve Bannon as his new champaign manager, and oh how we winced. Bannon, as chairman of Breitbart Media — the self-described “platform for the alt-right” — helmed Breitbart.com, a populist outlet that regularly dips into anti-immigrant, anti-feminist, antigay rhetoric, all with a casual relationship to facts and evidence.
Well lucky us — as newly appointed “top advisor,” Bannon will soon share the title of “second most powerful person in the Trump administration” with chief of staff Reince Priebus.
This is not small potatoes. Aside from the likely list of left-leaning organizations blasting Bannon, even some Republicans are raising a red flag.
“The racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office,” said John Weaver, a Republican strategist who ran the presidential campaign of Gov. John Kasich of Ohio and previously advised Senator John McCain of Arizona. “Be very vigilant, America.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
How information gets to a president is tricky business. Trump has selected two clear gatekeepers — right-hand men with a proven antigay track record. Let’s not forget that as chairman of the RNC, Priebus oversaw the most antigay platform the Republican party has ever adopted.
And as a reminder of where Bannon comes down on LGBTQ issues, let’s revisit the 10 most antigay headlines from his brainchild, Breitbart.com:
1. “Dear Straight People: I’m Officially Giving You Permission To Say Gay, Faggot And Queer”
From resident self-hating gay “writer” slash intern wrangler and credit taker Milo Yiannopoulos, come every hate filled bigots wildest dreams: My gay “friend” said it was okay to use slurs, so there!
One imagines Yiannopoulos spending great swaths of his day looking at himself in a mirror repeating these words while he desperately wishes there was some validity to conversion therapy, so it is no surprise that he wouldn’t mind being called this by anyone else. Why he thinks he is in a position to speak for all gay people is another matter. Then again, there’s a decent chance he had an intern write this piece for him.
Dramatic reenactment (we can only guess):
“Milo, cool if we tell people they can use homophobic slurs and sign your name to it?”
“Huh? Yeah, whatever, I’m too busy totally not stealing money from the idiots dumb enough to contribute to my white male privilege fund. Write whatever.”
This made a recent Clinton campaign ad where people read some of Breitbart’s most offensive headlines.
2. “Gay Rights Have Made Us Dumber, It’s Time To Get Back In The Closet”
In which Yiannopoulos argues that gay men are smarter than straight men and so we should be procreating and getting our MSM kicks on the side, covertly. Because nothing says good husband and father like lying and leading a double life.
While we could do with seeing a lot less of Yiannopoulos in the world, shoving gay people back in the closet is such a lame brained idea that we can only imagine he is not one of the supposedly genius gay men who are destroying the world by not passing on their genes.
Not to mention, is he unaware that there are ways to procreate outside of the old “penis goes inside the vagina” method?
There’s also some vague mention of opposite sex parents being better parents, despite the preponderance of evidence showing that to be incorrect.
Watch Joe Rogan call Yiannopoulos to task for his antigay views below.
3. “Kids Raised By Same-Sex Couples Twice As Likely To Be Depressed, Fat Adults”
This is a model case of looking at research and trying your best to get it to match your conclusions. This article, written by anti-LGBTQ hate group leader Austin Ruse, relies on a paper by a Catholic priest from a Catholic University, which used as its source a decades old study with a small sample size of 20 children published by an open access, single blind journal out of Egypt.
It ignores all of the research done that shows the exact opposite to be true: that same-sex parents are just as successful as their heterosexual counterparts. You don’t have to be one of Yiannopoulos’s genius gays to smell that this is pure bullshit.
The article quotes sociologist Mark Regnerus, who has authored his own bogus study on the topic, discussed below.
4. “How Donald Trump Made It Cool To Be Gay Again”
Another from Yiannopoulos, who talks up the so-called “Twinks For Trump” movement, which consisted of little more than a single event at the 2016 RNC, which they called a party. I’m pretty sure my dead grandmother could throw a better party than that sad affair.
Nothing says cool like a bunch of self-hating gays in a room surrounded by photos of twinks in “Make America Great Again” hats unaware that everyone, including most Trump supporters, are laughing at what fools you are making of yourselves.
You’re not edgy, you’re just pathetic.
And if you’re going to wear a “We Shoot Back” shirt and talk tough, maybe don’t cancel your tough guy pride march because you’re scared you might get hurt. Guess things got too dangerous and real for Mr. Dangerous.
And to quote Larry David, “Only two kinds of people wear sunglasses indoors, blind people and assholes.”
5. “Phil Robertson Champions Marriage, Left Has Another Meltdown”
Too on-its-face stupid to require much additional comment. This is another article from professional hatemonger Ruse.
One thing that’s too good to not point out, though, and that is Ruse claiming Robertson’s use of scripture as proof of what marriage should look like. Seriously, does anyone actually read the Bible before trotting it as proof of their marriage arguments?
6. “Milo & Ann: Milo Gives Ann A Fag Pass”
In an apparent effort to somehow make Ann Coulter an even more loathsome individual, Yiannopoulos graciously extends his “fag pass” to Ms. Coulter specifically. He even says she is retroactively forgiven for ever having said it in the past.
He also would like us all to go back to using the word “gay” divisively.
“Gay as we mean it in the playground. Like lame, crap, rubbish, Hillary-supporting, Immigrant-loving, gay,” said Yiannopoulos.
You don’t need to give Coulter permission to be awful in a desperate bid to get her to like you, Milo, she’s going to do that anyway. It is her whole shtick. As you well know, you dutiful little student you.
How thoroughly do you think she scrubbed that shoulder after leaving his presence to make sure she got all the gay cooties off?
7. “I’ve Worked It Out: Isis Is A Gay Death Cult”
Our friend Yiannopoulos strikes again.
A key component of shock journalism is that it doesn’t need to be accurate or logical, it just needs to surprise and cause upset.
His “proof” of this assertion? They dress well – if you say so – like attention and hate gay people. Brilliant.
Not content simply to insult those who share his same sexual orientation, Yiannopoulos decides to go after those who share his Greek heritage as well.
“I can tell you as a Greek: whether it’s your neighbour’s wife, your brother or a medium-sized farmyard animal, men are a lot less discriminating about where they put themselves in hotter, poorer countries,” he writes, presuming it was actually him and not an intern.
Consult this video, Yiannopoulos. Maybe it will help.
8. “Day Of Silence: How The LGBT Agenda Is Hijacking America’s Youth”
Coming from a publication so addicted to verbal diarrhea, it is no wonder they are against anything to do with silence.
“Many parents, family, and religious organizations, however, are pushing back against government-sponsored infiltration of schools with the sex-and gender-centered social and political philosophy. A national Day of Silence Walkout has been organized; parents are urged to keep their children home from schools if those schools allow students and/or teachers to refuse to speak during instructional time on the Day of Silence,” writes Dr. Susan Berry, the article’s author.
How is the Day of Silence government-sponsored? It isn’t.
Her issue is with the fact that the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), the group behind the day meant to raise awareness of anti-LGBTQ bullying, lies with the fact that its founder, Kevin Jennings, was the Assistant Deputy Secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education during the Obama Administration.
So that makes it a government-sponsored event? Of course not, but why let facts get in the way of a good alt-right scare tactic?
9. “In Wake Of Chattanooga Terror Attack, Provocative Gay Hate-Flag Must Come Down”
Another example of facts taking a backseat at Breitbart, John Nolte’s article argues that perhaps the rainbow pride flag is what caused Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez to kill four members of the U.S. military.
He shot up an armed forces recruiting center, followed by a U.S. Navy Reserve center.
Doubling down on the crazy conspiracy theories, Nolte suggests that the shooting at a free speech event in Texas, part of Draw Muhammad Cartoon Contest controversy, might also have been caused by people elsewhere in the country flying the gay pride flag.
One imagines if they were upset at gay people they could have found better targets. But again, why let logic, reason and facts get in the way of a good antigay story?
“It is time to shame and marginalize the gay rainbow flag — this offensive, provocative symbol of hate and oppression must be tossed on the ash bin of history…Before it kills again,” Nolte cartoonishly argues.
10. “Georgia Governor Caves To Big Gay Hate Machine, Vetoes Religious Freedom Bill”
Don’t like being hated? That makes you a hater?
So goes the logic behind another one of antigay Ruse’s pieces for the site.
Gov. Nathan Deal is quoted as saying, “character of our state and the character of our people. Georgia is a welcoming state. It is full of loving, kind and generous people. And that is what we should want. They choose to worship God in the way they see fit, in a myriad of ways, in a variety of settings.”
In Ruse’s eyes this type of acceptance is nothing more than caving to hate. Talk about an upside down worldview.
Heywood Jablowme
3. “Kids Raised By Same-Sex Couples Twice As Likely To Be Depressed, Fat Adults”
Steve Bannon was raised by a same-sex couple?
NateOcean
Breitbart, Breitbart… Where do I know that name? Oh, yeah, Andrew Breitbart, the founder of Breitbart News. The guy that dropped dead on his front lawn from from a heart attack brought on from cocaine abuse. Fits perfectly with the right wing Republican family values agenda.
NateOcean
Correction: probably meth. Hell, probably both.
Kieran
The election is over queerty. Your team lost and is now powerless in Washington for 2 years. So what are you going to do mope for the next couple years and cry about having no voice in DC? This is exactly why the gay community should have friends and outreach in all parties. Donald Trump has extended his hand of friendship to gay Americans. You slapped it away because you thought it was going to be Hillary in a landslide. Well you were WRONG. Deal with the new reality.
Brian
Steve Bannon knows how to destroy the Leftist coalition.
He and Milo Yiannopoulos have succeeded in demonstrating that the Left actually hates male homosexual desire.
Feminists hate it because it represents male power.
dwes09
@Brian: “He and Milo Yiannopoulos have succeeded in demonstrating that the Left actually hates male homosexual desire.”
Please using references to actual reality how this is so. Which party pushed for marriage equality? Which party pushed for employment non-discrimination? Which party opposed the bogus “religious freedom” laws? You are so blinded by self-hatred and hatred for women, you are delusional. Bannon likely sees Yiannopoulos as his little dancing monkey, and Yiannopolous probably likes the money, “fame” and gets his masochistic self hatred hard on.
CaliKyle
@Alistair Wiseman: Ill take care of that for you, luv: Bannon exactly resembles the sort of excessively bloated, unkempt, red faced creepster slob who spends much of his time lurking about highway rest stops, staring at children, except for the days he pays hookers to take a giant messy dump on his flabby bare man boobs. You’re welcome.
CaliKyle
@Brian: Where does the preposterous word puke you spew come from? Is there a bad daddy at home who keeps you gagged so often that you come here to vent your foul frustration? Give me your master’s contacts. I want to instruct him to also frequently bind your hands so you cant type so much wrongheaded nonsense here.
dwes09
@Alistair Wiseman: “THE SKY IS FALLING!!! THE SKY IS FALLING!!!”
Citing actual headlines and even handed interpretations of their meaning is hardly playing Chicken Little. Drinking the Trump coolaid and assuming that the (mostly) women and children seeking refuge from the war in Syria are coming to massacre gays in clubs IS.
We worry based on facts and actual events. You shake in your boots (probably penny loafers or topsiders in your case) based on the paranoid fantasies spun by your overlords. Kind of funny how you all screamed about immigrants from the south taking jobs despite the REALITY that the net movement of illegals has been back to Mexico over the past few years. That lie was one of the ways Trump manipulated you, and now he is slowly walking back his “big, beautiful wall” to keep those nasty brown folks out.
And don’t forget that Clinton won the popular vote with 61,039,676 votes to Trump’s 60,371,193. He has no mandate at all and little political capital, and given the ability of Electors to cast votes according to conscience there is a very tiny but real chance for an upset on December 19th. Unless he shows real results with his administration (which is pretty unlikely as most analysts feel he will undo what little prosperity we have achieved as well as stripping 12,000,000 people of medical coverage) he will be a one term president.
dwes09
@dwes09: Hit reply too soon…The right has the chance now (with control of both houses) to demonstrate clearly how poor their understanding of the modern world is. I am sure they will do that amazingly well as their tired old trickle down fails again, and the rest of the world turns away from their 19th century isolationism and bizarre notion of “american exceptionalism”.
Folks like you Alistair should really take a look at research regarding our standard of living and quality of life when compared to the rest of the developed world. Through the efforts of the right we have fallen way behind. We were catching up, but sadly now have a four year glitch.
Invert
@Alistair Wiseman: POT MEET KETTLE.
1EqualityUSA
Queertiers, A classmate of mine, said that Google images had pornography pictures with Ivanka and Melania. I confirmed it tonight and was so nauseated to find our President’s family doing all of these photos. I’m so not into porn. Our First Family (elect) is the absolute opposite of the Obama family. Mr. Obama and his beautiful, articulate, respectable family are a diametrical opposite of the Trump brood. I’m just sick! I’m so embarrassed that he represents us. C’mon Faithless electors!!! If ever there was a time to use it, it is this year. I’m so grossed out. And that slob he has as an advisor is atrocious. I’m done. I’m just going to walk dogs, paint, take my frustration out on the gym, focus on our house, and try to get through the next four god damned years without vomiting. What a sick man. 4,359,504 is the number of supporters signing the petition to have electors pull the rug out from under this travesty. Why didn’t we hear about this? Were you aware? Maybe if the rustbelt was aware of it, Trump may have been hindered. What a damned nightmare. I rarely cuss, but this is beyond what I can imagine. It just went up 200 more in less than a minute. #NOT MY PRESIDENT.
1EqualityUSA
Omit the comma, please, after, “mine.” I was writing while grossed out. I don’t watch t.v. so I know nothing about the reality shows the Trumps did. The daughter seemed business-like and stuck in a weird family, so it never occurred to me to dig around looking the children up. Prudish me. I’m done with Trump. I don’t read magazines with his face on it. I don’t watch interviews with him on 60 minutes. I’m going to pretend he doesn’t exist and hope he ruins the Republican Party for a century. They own him. He theirs.
Rob91316
@dwes09: Marry Me!
1EqualityUSA
https://www.change.org/p/electoral-college-electors-electoral-college-make-hillary-clinton-president-on-december-19
Alistair Wiseman
TRUMP MAY CHOOSE OPENLY GAY MAN:
President-elect Trump is considering openly gay man Richard Grenell as a United States ambassador to the United Nations.
“If picked and ultimately confirmed by the Senate, he would be the first openly gay person to fill a Cabinet-level foreign policy post.”
http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/presidentelect-trump-considering-openly-gay-man-as-un-ambassador/news-story/824e2a1571d64bfef057239ad1aa5765
Brian
Steve Bannon is clever. He knows that bringing gays on board the conservative cause is one of the crucial ways of weakening liberalism. Turning gay against feminists is another important element of the strategy.
Milo Yiannopoulos, a self-declared gay man, has been fighting feminism under the banner of “feminism is cancer” on Breitbart. It has worked spectacularly well.
This exploits what I’ve been saying all along – ie that women (especially liberal women) are terrified of male homosexual desire if it exists in men who are also attracted to women. It destroys female privilege, which is one of the tenets of modern feminism.
1EqualityUSA
Alistair’s red herring will not detract from the fact that the First Family-elect does porn, as seen in Google images. (Oh, and James Hormel, the first openly gay male was Ambassador to Luxembourg, Bill Clinton’s appointee.) The First Family has penetration pictures on Google images. I wish the rust belt had known this sooner, as it may have hindered Trump’s rise. Evangelicals should hang their hypocritical heads in shame. I’m so thankful that Mr. Obama was elegant, articulate, scandal-free, and his beautiful family was above reproach. President Obama represented our country with grace. President Obama was blessed. The GOP will be saddled with Trump forever; no longer to be seen as the party of Reagan, but rather, the party who allowed this nefarious fox into our highest office. 2018, if faithless elector fails to remove this stain from our White House. The petition grew by 9,095 overnight. Should faithless electors fail to correct this injustice, 2018 is a chance to turn things around, as the new census is coming out. (Redistricting every decade.) If we cannot excise this malignancy from our White House, 2018 will set us up for future success. THE GOP cannot survive a Trump disaster. #NOT MY PRESIDENT. Republicans out there, please sign the petition. We all need to intervene. Thank you.
https://www.change.org/p/electoral-college-electors-electoral-college-make-hillary-clinton-president-on-december-19
MediaGuy
@CaliKyle: You said: “Bannon exactly resembles the sort of excessively bloated, unkempt, red faced creepster slob who spends much of his time lurking about highway rest stops, staring at children, except for the days he pays hookers to take a giant messy dump on his flabby bare man boobs”. THIS IS SO WELL PUT. Wow, “creepster slob” no less !!! Apparently you know a lot about it. ahahahahahaa.
GayEGO
Well if Trump does not remove Steve Bannon, he will suffer the consequences.
CaliKyle
@MediaGuy: What’s this you’re nattering on about, MG? Ah, I see. An attempt at sarcasm via the ol’ backhanded compliment. #Missed&Failed. You know what I do know about? For starters, I know that a morbidly obese, prematurely aged, homely af blowhard who has the gall to claim that – while he might helm a wildly bigoted, reductive website he himself is not either of those things – is not only as offensively repulsive on the inside as he is the outside but also a slobbering coward. That’s what I know.
cholo
Another bad decision.
cholo
Why does he always appear intoxicated, medicated or severely hungover?