“Faggot” Facebooker Willow Palin is just “a 16 year old girl who, like all 16 year olds is going to make mistakes and say things she shouldn’t have,” insists GOProud, coming the defense of Sarah Palin’s daughter. Because the word “faggot” is “one you could hear on the streets of West Hollywood or Chelsea every day of the week,” it’s okay for Willow to use it, the group’s nauseating thinking goes. The attack on Willow’s language is “all about destroying Sarah Palin by any means necessary.” Conspiracy theories: Always more reasonable than documented actions.
the peanut faggery
GOPround Screams: Leave Willow Alone!, Let Her Call Kids ‘Faggots’ In Peace
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cubbie
So it’s ok for me to go around saying the “N” word, because I would be able to hear it all over the streets of NY city???? Give me a break…..
ScottinATL
From the many a gay republicans I’ve known (dated, befriended) I can tell you in most cases they come from very religious backgrounds and have always been told gay is wrong. No matter what they proclaim, a ontributing part of them does still believe that; add on the religious element MANY GOPproud latches on to and they tend to be very forgiving toward blatant homophobia. Gay republicans I’ve known, and again it’s not a blanket statement…I know MANY, usually have great disdain for gays period. So it comes as no surprise they’d much prefer to go in bed with the clear cut enemy here, and betray their loyalty to the real demographic that is being attacked (gays)
IonMusic
Did they really just completely excuse the word f*ggot being said by anyone at any time. I can’t believe what I just read. Unless my eyes are playing tricks on me, GOproud in so many words said “come one, come all SAY FAG as you wish” because a select few in some parts of the country (who are gay themselves) say it it’s perfectly appropriate for the entire country to say fag in their common vocab.
We all knew GOProud were deluded, now they are being inaccurate with their delusion. I’d like to hear ALL gay republicans with a spine stand against these ignorant claims.
dvlaries
“My mind continues to marvel at the lack of self-awareness combined with kaleidoscopically inaccurate self-image added to an ignorance of history so vast it echoes, all built upon a sandy foundation of psychological incomprehension sparkling with the pyrites of linguistic ineptitude, evidenced by the Palins and their followers. If I could crack the mathematical formula that underlies this phenomenon, I could rule the world.” – slappydaddy, wonkette
Michelle
sounds to me like before we go educate any “hater” we need to start in our own backyard.
faggot IS an insulting, offensive, ugly word with an ugly history every gay men should educate themselves on. to say otherwise, or brush it off makes you part of the problem and not solution.
gay conservatives, do us a favor and stop speaking on behalf of the community, you simply only represent your own bigotry.
sasha
A lot of republicans are kind of tortured because they masturbate which is a homosexual act and considered a sin, so they have to lash out any way they can to escape their guilt and hypocritical ways. It is sad.
Stephen Thorn
I emailed the following letter to [email protected]-Attn: Sarah Palin.
My name is Stephen Thorn, and I would like to express my viewpoint regarding Sarah Palin’s 16-year-old daughter Willow’s recent use of the phrase “You’re so gay” as well as her use of the word “faggot” in response to a peer’s criticism of her sister Bristol Palin’s appearance on the television show, Dancing with the Stars.
First, let me give you some personal and professional background information about myself. I am the parent of two grown sons. I also taught public school for more than 15 years. I have taught in a variety of socio-economic school climates, ranging from low-income to upper-middle class. One thing that never varied, though, in all of these schools was the constant bullying of LGBT students. These adolescents were tormented on a daily basis; however, I did the best job I could of maintaining a safe-space environment in my classroom, where every student was treated with respect. Sadly, this was not the case in the majority of these students’ other classes and definitely not the case in the halls between classes/periods or before/after school. At the schools I taught at, there were cases of bullying varying in extremity from one young lady having the word “Dyke” carved into her locker when she came out, to the most extreme case I witnessed– where a middle school student was pushed down a flight of stairs by a group of girls simply because they perceived her as lesbian; luckily, only her arm was broken. I have also been made personally aware of cases where students’ cars were vandalized simply because they were gay or lesbian. I have seen several cases where LGBT students were physically harassed, strictly because of their sexual orientation; I am not even going to list the cases of continual verbal harassment these kids were subjected to constantly–accounts of that would fill this entire page and then some.
I read Willow Palin’s recent Facebook attack on her peer. Reading her words was like hearing the hateful homophobic taunts I personally witnessed over the 15 and a half years I taught school. One obvious fact that the GOP people who are defending Willow’s Facebook homophobic tirade don’t comprehend is that when a heterosexual 16-year-old makes these kinds of anti-gay statements, it is not the same as hearing some gay men call each other the “F- word”, in a completely different context, in areas like West Hollywood or Chelsea. That would be equivalent to claiming it’s perfectly fine for a 16-year-old Caucasian to use the “N-word” because some people of color use this word when conversing with each other, in predominantly African-American areas like Harlem or the Southside of Chicago. It’s ludicrous and shameful to make such an obviously inaccurate comparison or analogy.
As Willow’s mother, Sarah Palin has a responsibility to discipline her daughter and demand that Willow publicly apologize for her extremely hurtful and homophobic tirade (while on Facebook). Everyone is entitled to hold & express his or her own personal views, no matter how harmful they are to a specific group of people–even (LGBT) teens ; however, when Willow crossed the line and did so on a public forum like Facebook, that’s where it became a horse of a different color. My personal advice to Willow, as both a parent and former teacher is “Next time, choose your words very carefully when you are using a public forum like Facebook. Afterall, you don’t want to look as ignorant as your mother did, when she coined the word refudiate…
Sincerely,
Stephen Thorn
Dollie
Oh, GOProud! You silly, silly folks! Thanks for yet another hearty chuckle! Lord knows how quick you would jump on the child of a Dem (and the Dem, themselves) for making a similar comment. Who are you really fighting for, my dears? Additionally, I do believe a 16 year-old can be conscious of their words. My god, look at Graeme Taylor! At 14, the child is eloquent and mindful of his language. Don’t excuse her! Educate her! (Not that it is guaranteed to take- those comments imply that she chose to shut out education after grade 5 or 6.)
Mr. Enemabag Jones
Funny that the press release came from lesbian Tammy Bruce, and not any of the homosexual men at GOProud. To try and excuse away their own anti-gay bias, they use anti-feminist Bruce, to paint this as misogyny. And they wonder why no one takes them seriously.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
@Dollie:
My god, look at Graeme Taylor! At 14, the child is eloquent and mindful of his language.
Exactly! Their side has Willow Palin, and our side has Graeme Taylor. Do they wonder why they’re such pathetic losers?
Alex
I know my mom would wash my mouth out with soap if I used a slur in that manner. Hope Palin actually takes the time to teach her kids that this is wrong more than just because it makes *her* look bad, but I’m not holding my breath.
TomM
Well, GoProud can suck my fucking nutsack. (Ontologically speaking, of course.)
Benjamin
I’ve hated a couple of gay Republicans have have had gay Republican friends, and every one of them has been screwed up in odd ways. They’re just…. unique, let’s say.
Benjamin
I’ve dated a couple of gay Republicans have have had gay Republican friends, and every one of them has been screwed up in odd ways. They’re just…. unique, let’s say.
Kieran
If Willow had called somebody a “nigger” or a “kike” on twitter you know this story would be a huge scandal in the newsmedia. But she called somebody a “faggot”, so its excused as a “kids will be kids” moment.
JR
Figures GOProud would come to the Willow Palin’s defense. Lord know’s they have been kissing her mother’s ass and getting nothing in return execpt for crappy breath. I don’t care who you are, use of that word is totally unappropiate under any circumstance. If it had been anyone else, GOProud would be allover them demanding an apology. Talk about being two faced.
Dynex
The sooner our community realizes that there is a correlation between commonly accepted anti gay speech (“faggot”…”dyke”…”that’s SOOO gay”) and our rights, the more progress can be made, especially with the next generation. How do you expect the coming generation to be forward thinking if it has been bolted in their head (in this case, by gay men themselves in GOProud) that equating wrong with gay is okay? If kids are not educated on why equating “ick” and lame with gay slurs, they will never grow out of it, and some will sadly not grow out of believing gay period is wrong. It falls on our shoulders as adult LGBT to realize that language dictates thought process and has for every civil rights group. I don’t know a single Jewish friend who says “Japs” is acceptable, a single black friend who would find it acceptable for someone she knows to say the horrific N word, or a Latin friend who would excuse “spic” being said, yet all too often gay people have somehow bought into the notion that their name being attached to derogatory terms is acceptable. It’s not. Grow a spine.
Cam
So by their logic, because Chris Rock used the “N” word in his routines we should all go around screaming that?
If you read all of the facebook exchangs, both she and her sister Bristole come off sounding like major hillbillies. Calling people fat, faggot, etc…
Hey, Willow is 16 years old and a Palin, isn’t it about time for her to get drunk and knocked up in the back of a pick-up? Keep that family tradition alive and well.
Daez
Words are words. Unless this was actually directed at a gay person in a derogatory way then its insane to be so up in arms about it. The same goes for all words including those that insult other minorities.
j
@Stephen Thorn: Very eloquent, thanks for taking the time to write this and for doing so much to ensure your classes are safe. Here’s hoping fox news listens..
randy
Exactly. Words mean something.
It’s also the reason I refuse to use the word “junk” to refer to my genetalia or anyone else’s. It isn’t junk, but a wonderful part of the human anatomy and should be celebrated, not insulted.
Brian Miller
Don’t care much either way, but I do find the reflexive defense of Willow’s trailer-trash rant to be amusing.
If a teenage boy called her a “toothless slutty cunt,” the entire establishment defending her “youthful use of the word ‘faggot'” would be scrambling to condemn the sexist misogynist attacks on poor Willow.
I’m so tired of selective outrage. So, so tired.
hf2hvit
GAY REPUBLICANS: “CAN I PLEASE JOIN YOUR CLUB SO YOU CAN HATE ME AND TORMENT ME AND MAKE ME FEEL WORTHLESS??? PLEASE?!?!?”
Timothy
She’s wrong. You don’t hear “faggot” on the streets of West Hollywood.
Some terms, yes, but not that one.
Ronbo
Gosh! She is as fierce as Pres. Obama. Put that minority at the top of my wish-list.
Benjamin
I mean yes, that’s a really horrible thing to say, and it’s wildly offensive, and certainly doesn’t speak well to her character at this point in her life, but I still feel uncomfortable attacking a sixteen year old.
Clearly she was brought up in a homophobic environment, and probably just doesn’t know any better. That doesn’t excuse her behavior, but I’m not sure that demonizing this little girl is really the best move. Is she an idiot? Yes. But so were most people at sixteen. Should she be informed by the more enlightened members of our society that her behavior is unacceptable, hurtful, and abhorrent? Yes. Clearly. That’s how people learn. But it’s important to be careful. The entire planet ganging up on her at the same time, with at least some percentage calling her pretty vile things themselves, can cross the line from reasonable outrage, to something near abuse. She’s just ignorant, and has no idea what the realities are of the world that she lives in.
This is an opportunity to open people’s minds, including hers, and I just don’t want to see this become either a proxy war against her mother, which just isn’t fair, or a series of personal attacks, which yield nothing in the end, and will only serve to further entrench what seeds of hatred exist in her, and people like her. People fear and hate their attackers. But they come to love and revere a good teacher, even if the lessons were hard to learn.
Steve
So saying “faggot”, which is offensive, is normal and just childhood naivity, but a satirical television show referincing (excuse me, “mocking”) the fact that Sarah Pailin has a child with down syndrome is being, ahem… “heartless jerks” or “cruel, cold-hearted people.”
These guys. With the exception of leaving his child and, Levi’s departure seems pretty smart.
TGC
“I’m so tired of selective outrage. So, so tired.”
Indeed. Doesn’t Dan Savage prefer to be called “faggot”? Wasn’t there silence on the left wen Bill Richardson call a guy “maricón” (faggot) on the Imus show? When Pete Stark called a fellow congressman “little fruitcake”, the left made excuses that it was not a gay slur.
Evidently Queerty has several articles about the Palins, but I can’t seem to find anything about the plight of gays escaping Iran
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/890453–gay-refugees-in-limbo-in-turkey?bn=1
And little if anything about the executions of Muslim gays.
Selective outrage indeed.
TGC
@Timothy: “She’s wrong. You don’t hear “faggot” on the streets of West Hollywood. ”
Dunno about WeHo, but I used to hear it frequently in the Montrose.
Nick
This shows she’s been well brought up. Her mom is making lots of noises about running for prez (and might win). Looks like the Mayans were right after all…2012 is when the world ends.
Kev C
“Make no mistake; this is all about destroying Sarah Palin by any means necessary.”
Wait..what? People have been laughing at Sarah Palin for 2 years non-stop because she’s a hot mess of snowbilly trashness. She has no real influence in politics despite her popularity. Don’t blame Sarah’s poor mothering skills on her critics. Willow is a callous foul mouth and should apologize.
MickW
Will GoProud stand up for a black rapper artist that uses the word?
Uppity1
You know what’s depressing? That Willow’s sister Bristol may well win Dancing With The Stars because Sarah Palin’s supporters are voting in such huge numbers. This family is ghastly and there’s no escaping them!
Jeffree
Sarah P. is a public figure, a previous VP candidate & possibly a pres candidate in 2012—perhaps she should consider keeping track of the messages her offspring leave on social media?
Mama Grizzly aint lookin’ too attentive just now…..
joE
@Dollie:
YOUR ARE A FA**OT. AND BY FA**OT, YES I MEAN CIGARETTES. GOD, WHAT A LOSER. AND BY LOSER, I MEAN YOU! YOUR WASTING OXYGEN. SOMEONE STUPID ENOUGH TO CARE ABOUT A 16 YEAR-OLD’S USE OF THE WORD FA**OT?!?!? JESUS, BREATHING SHOULD BE ILLEGAL FOR YOU — YOUR IQ IS UNDER 65!!!! AT LEAST MY IQ IS 82. AND FROM WHERE MY STUPID BRAIN IS, IT IS OBVIOUS YOU ARE DUMBER THAT A BOX OF ROCKS. IF YOU CARE ONE SECOND ABOUT HOW GOOD OF A PARENT SARA PALIN IS, BASED ON IF WILLOW USEs THE WORD FAGGOT. THAT IS AS SMART AS JUDGING OBAMA BASED ON THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE. EVERYONE KNOWS HE GAVE THE BANKS A TRILLION DOLLARS SO THEY WOULD MAKE JOBS.
I KNOW WHAT WHAT YOUR THINKING… WHAT WOULD BANKS KNOW ABOUT MAKING JOBS? AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHY YOU CAN’T JUDGE OBAMA ON JOBS. BANKS DON’T KNOW THE FIRST THING ABOUT MAKING JOBS. JEEZE, IT’S NOT OBAMA’S FAULT THE BANKS CAN’T MAKE JOBS.
OH, BTW LOSER FA**OT. YOUR AN IDIOT.
LARRY CRAIG (NOT THAT ONE)
@joE: Your comments are incoherent, hateful, and indicative of a very disturbed personality. I would love to condescendingly point out what a loser you are, but nothing I could possibly say could humiliate or degrade you more than your own words already have. Please do all of us a favor and slink back under the rock you crawled out from. I just can’t imagine what your parents must have been like to have produced a child like you: you’ve probably brought shame on them your whole life long, just as you’ve brought shame on yourself.
JoeyO'H
It’s unacceptable whether you here the word in West Hollywood or Chelsea (two places where I’ve never heard it used!), it’s okay for Willow Palin to use it? NO! Willow is a product of her ennviorment, which says lot for Palin and her husband.
And all this is to “destroy Palin?” Seriously? I’m laughing my ass off over that quote. That’s the Conservative response to everything when the heat is on the GOP. Typical.
Look, Palin could be handed the keys to the kingdom and given a rope, she’d still hang herself.
Palin’s = Losers.
justiceontherocks
JOE – please don’t drink and type. You make a fool of yourself.
ronbo
Yes, bigotry and hate are to be forgiven – if the person is a conservative. Everyone else must be held responsible.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree; I think we know where the clan came up with their bigotry. I wouldn’t be suprised if the unmarried mother quit DWTS. It seems to be a characteristic of this mindset.
“I’m so proud of my girls. They are just like me.” What brand of evil would be proud of calling others “faggot”?
Aaron
@Stephen Thorn: Excellent post Stephen.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
GOPathetic: Can you be any more delusional???? Scarah Pallin cried like a bitch when David Letterman made a joke about Bristol and her and the rest of the rightwing lunatics made deliberate attmpts to accuse Letterman of directing the joke at Willow. They cried out that Letterman was “picking on” 14 year old Willow. (Instead of his actual target, her 19 year old slut of a daughter.) They cried about how “fragile” Willow was and she should be left alone “to be a kid”
Looks to me like Willow isn’t so damm fragile after all and if she had called a Black kid a nigger you can be damm sure there would be a whole different dialouge………..
rjp
@Benjamin: Narcissitic Personality Disorder – and generic ELITISM are never a pretty mix.
ArtNYC
@joE: Congratulations. You just humiliated yourself BIG TIME.
tazz602
Why does being a Republican mean you are going to jump on every bandwagon with an Elephant on it and ride to the end, no matter what, even if you get shit on and pissed on by the elephant who never wanted you on the train in the first place?
GOProud – GROW SOME BALLS and be realistic. Willow is not too young to learn what is and isn’t acceptable behavior in public (and Facebook is public) Obviously her mother isn’t going to teach her manners, but you don’t have to excuse it.
ousslander
Was she wrong to use the word? Yes. Other than that I ain’t getting my panties in a twist over a sixteen year old on facebook. HOw many kids stupidly use faggot or gay to attack someone then mature and change their ways?
I’m sure nobody on here every used a deragatory word about any other religion, race or what have you when they were teenagers.
mark
FCK G.O.Proud self loathing Vichy queers, go buy some self esteem
Cam
GOPround needs to figure one thing out.
Are they a group that is advocating gay acceptance by the GOP or are they a group that is there to prevent the GOP from ever having to deal with gay issues, by giving them cover.
tjr101
The asshats at GOProud are defending a family that believes they are an abomination? They should change their name to GOPunks!
bluedavid
definition of a gay republican: oxyMORON
Syl
I hate that entire vile clan. They’re as vile and tacky as Paris Hilton and those neanderthals from “Jersey Shore”, but white, middle-aged Republican women love them. Palin represents to them their avatar, a sexy, “smart”, “powerful”, and “outspoken” conservative woman with fame, money, a hunky husband, and the ability to nag and “fight against the evil librul agenda” on the national stage. As hateful as it is to say it, I wish them the tragic and ignominious ending they deserve.
Avenger
@Kieran:
The 2 extremes are no where near similar. Can’t compare race to sexuality!!!
dizzle
Avenger: go fuck yourself. I’m gay, and I will tell you, yes, it is EXTREMELY offensive to be called a faggot. On what planet do you reside? Fag=pile of sticks they used to burn people at the stake with = gay humans
Hi - its me
What Palin said is totally unacceptable but I don’t think it is national news. The only reason it is national news is because of the desire to attack Sarah Palin. As if the very words coming out of Palin’s mouth wasn’t enough ammunition, people seem to think it is reasonable to use a stupid, probably disturbed 16 yr old girls words to attack the mother.
Hi - its me
Remember when Palin got in an uproar over Obama making a joke about Special Olympics bowling?
Yes, I know Obama is an adult and the president but it was also a lighthearted attempt at a joke. Nothing Obama said compared to the vitriol of Willow’s rant.
I stick by my position that what a 16yr old former politician’
s daughter says on facebook should not be on national news, but I also can’t help but see the hypocrasy.