Is it easier for us to love America’s bigots than to rip them to shreds? The Washington Post already apologized for fawning over NOM’s “smiling bigot” Brian Brown. New York magazine produced a glowing profile of New York Archbishop and leading faith-based terror Timothy Dolan. And now the Sacramento Bee has fallen head over heels for gay marriage opponent Frank Schubert.
In a profile that ran over the weekend, the Bee notes Schubert — who, as campaign director for Stand for Marriage Maine and ProtectMarriage.com, helped mastermind the discriminatory outcomes in California and Maine — is “a genuinely nice man who is fantastic at what he does – a true believer with mad communication skills. He does feel compassion for the unfortunates in his path, but not mercy.” Does he also donate to the poor and help feed the homeless?
It’s great to hear Schubert is cordial in public. Maybe he even holds the door for people he views as second class! But hatemongers like Schubert need to be identified as such. The Bee‘s Marcos Breton, however, substitutes the reasonable branding Schubert as a bigot with this rationalization: “Schubert is so hard to beat because he embodies the deeply held intolerance for gay marriage in America. His beliefs are rooted in a Catholic faith and biblical passages condemning gay sex.”
Why does the media have such a hard time, then, identifying bigotry when they see it? Frank Schubert is the guy who, along with Jeff Flint of the firm Schubert Flint Public Affairs, is literally profiting from tearing up your marriage rights.
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.
We understand: Journalists must remain “objective.” But no journalist would refrain from identifying the Westboro Baptist Church as racist homophobes. No journalist would divorce the name “David Duke” from “white supremacist.” So why can’t we call out endorsers of discrimination, who advocate hatred and fear, for what they are?
And we refuse to associate the phrase “genuinely nice” with hatred and its proponents. Because really, oxy moron much?
We’ll leave you, then, with this:
He also realizes that with success comes a price: That this issue obscures everything else in his thriving public affairs practice.
Being Mr. Anti-Gay Marriage could stick forever, though he hopes not.
“I hope,” he said, “that (people) will look at my body of work and not this one issue.”
(In case you want to reach the Bee‘s Breton, he lists his phone number: 916-321-1096.)
Kamikapse
Wow Queerty are such douchebags… that’s the second time I see you use the word “rape” or “rapist” to describe what happened in Maine…
Abusing the word rape is not edgy, sorry.
(Assholes)
Keith Kimmel
What they are doing to us is a form of rape. Rape doesn’t just apply to sex, you know.
Cam
So if a member of the Klan is nice to his kids and is a member of his local church that makes up for it according to the papers.
terrwill
Hey God, if there is someone on your list tonite to suffer a massive devastating, incapicating stroke, you know where the person is left in a state where they can no longer move any muscle in their entire body for life but they still retain 100% cognitive functions so they will sit there for decades and realize just how fucked they are, can you please somehow instead of hitting some nice old gentleman please bump this scumbag onto the top of the list??? pretty please…………….
YellowRanger
Most serial killers seem like pretty charming guys. According to these media outlets, I guess that excuses all of the, y’know, killing people.
Brad
I agree with Kamikapse. I think overusing the word “rape” is crude and insensitive to rape victims. It’s also hyperbolic and just plain tacky.
A little more class, please.
Gay Human Rights
[email protected], for those who don’t want to speak personally with this collaborator in our oppression.
and to Kamikapse and Brad…completely disagree…it’s nice that you guys are (apparently) upper-middle class gays for whom this is all parlor sport, but many many gay-lesbian people are impoverished, abused, oppressed, and raped metaphorically and literally by the web of people and insitutions who hold us down. Frank Schubert has been a key leader in this.
Rape in fact may be too weak a word, because that happens on an individual basis, while what we’re seeing is an entire segment of humanity gets fucked and beaten repeatedly by the majority.
Can we agree to call it fucked and beaten?
Flex
He is a bible thumping, jesus fearing lunatic, and he is trying to dodge his deposition request in the discovery process of the Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial. It is tentatively scheduled for 1-11-2010 @ 8:30 AM. We are on the cusp of exposing the Mormon corporation, Catholic Enterprise, and Evangelical Mega franchise direct role in facilitating the passage of proposition 8.
These religious bastards deserve every ounce of negativity that they have coming to them. They deserve to reap the seeds that they’ve sewn! We must destroy religion!
Roy Pyatt
The word rape itself originates from the Latin verb rapere: to seize or take by force. The word originally had no sexual connotation and is still used generically in English.
Kamikapse
No it is not used generically in English…
Brian NJ
Straight people often misinterpret religious bigotry as courage, and miss the fact that evil people are attracted to the mask that religion provides them. But their desire to use their faith to rob rights and rape principles should be seen for what it is: A sick, feted, snarling, raping bigot-creature.
And rape is an act of violence, and we have been attacked. If you need to cleanse your brain from cultural brainwashing, just read the passage below thirty times, for a good understanding of what happens to the American and State Constitutions when gays are written out of it:
Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!Rape!
Bruno
I worry that Frank Schubert WON’T be remembered for his magnum opus: the persistent and vicious denigration of the LGBT community in the United States. The only way he will be remembered for what he’s done is if we as a community remember it. And I plan on never forgetting.
Daniel
The Inquisition was Roman Catholic. Franco the brutal Spanish dictator was Roman Catholic – just ask the Roman Catholics he mass murdered. Being a Roman Catholic “leader” and being moral are often distinctly different things – ask any Roman Catholic non-leader. Do we get to vote on his rights, now?
Lance Rockland
Freaking slimebag. He will go down in history as a horrible man who worked to oppress gays and lesbians.
I HATE this man!
Attmay
I have more regard for actual sexual rapists who support gay rights 100% than this “genuinely nice man.”
Vo Dong Cung
To people around the world,
From now on, any time US Goverment talking about democracy and freedom of religion, please show them the democracy and religion raping the constitution in California and Maine. This is the time to shut US Goverment mouth off.
Veronica
I also agree with Kamikapse & Brad that the use of the word “rapist” in the title of this article was not offensive to rape victims but also just plain misleading to readers. Yes, I can acknowledge that the word “rape” has many definitions, not all of which are direct references to sexual crime that has scarred millions of women & men.
I am a Latina lesbian married to another woman living in the state of CA…. I suppose I can say I’ve been “fucked & beaten” by different societal systems to understand what it feels like to be utterly disappointed & taken advantage of & ignored. I’ve been on the receiving end of spiteful language & actions because of my sexual orientation but I don’t go around saying I was “raped” by someone because they called me “immoral” or tell me I’m going to Hell.
I haven’t read this blog Queerty that often, so I’m not sure if this type of melodramatic language is used on a regular basis, but now I will hesitate to read more posts on this blog.
There’s also more than 1 definition for “jackass”.
B
Roy Pyatt wrote, “The word rape itself originates from the Latin verb rapere: to seize or take by force. The word originally had no sexual connotation and is still used generically in English.”
Unfortunately, QUEERTY used the word “rapist”, which has a sexual connotation and nowhere near as many meanings as “rape”. It is simply bad word usage. They should have just called him a
demagogue.
Keith Kimmel
“Unfortunately, QUEERTY used the word “rapist”, which has a sexual connotation and nowhere near as many meanings as “rape”. It is simply bad word usage. They should have just called him a
demagogue.”
No, it doesn’t have a sexual connotation. Are you, by any chance, on the Oklahoma Tax Commission? Because they think that ‘IM Gay” has a sexual connotation too, which it doesn’t. Need we be reminded that there are EIGHT strips on the [real] rainbow flag and only one of them stands represents sexuality. A rapist is one who rapes, just like murder is one who murders.
Brian NJ
I like Queerty’s use of the the word rape. It is so applicable to the HRC strategy as well, as in “Please rape us now, democratic party! Pay us later, maybe!”
We need to start acting like vengeful raped prostitutes. “You used me, ravished me, got elected, and refused to pay! You paid out to AIG and Big Bank, and Health Care Charlie, but you didn’t pay me, rapist! All I wanted to be paid were two simple repeals, and you couldn’t even come up with that!” “I feel like I was raped a second time!” “When will the raping end?”
L
Sorry, no. Schubert is not a rapist, and calling him one serves only to diminish and dismiss the experiences of survivors of actual sexual assault/violence. I absolutely agree that he is a bad man who cannot be bothered to acknowledge the humanity of people who are different from him. But that does not make him a rapist. I am appalled that a supposedly progressive site like this would allow such divisive and, frankly, wrong language to be published.
Yuki
It definitely seems possible that people can be nice… but still bigoted. Hell, I know people who genuinely care, but think that gay marriage is wrong. I wouldn’t call Schubert nice at first, no; I’d point out that he is a religiously-motivated intolerant ass who happens to be nice about just about everything else. And yes, I realize how stupid that sounds.
Brian NJ
People who are concerned about the well being of gay families, and helping adopted children are nice. The smiles and polite conversation of someone who wants to harm another is concealment.
Disgusted American
well one bit of revenege will be..these pictures that accompany this article….eventually, hopefully in my lifetime – these pictures will be right up thier with the ones George Wallace 50yrs ago…
B
Keith Kimmel, wrote (regarding the definition of “rapist”, “No, it doesn’t have a sexual connotation. Are you, by any chance, on the Oklahoma Tax Commission?”
Keith is apparently too lazy to check even an on-line dictionary before writing such rubbish:
rapist
n : someone who forces another to have sexual intercourse
[syn: raper]
— From WordNet (r) 2.0
Hint guys – a sure way to look like a fool is to post condescending personal remarks when you in fact do not know what you are talking about.
Robert
I doubt the Sacramento Bee does much business. Most newspapers are dying. Evidently the Sacramento Bee is desperate for any kind of readership.
Schubert is a hate filled psychotic who worships an outdated dead religion. He has more in common with the klu klux klan than with god. His death will be seen as a holiday among gay people.
jOHN
MY LIFE WAS RAPED BY SCHUBERT.
Sapphocrat
I hear Hitler loved his dog, too.
Oh, wait, Hitler poisoned his dog, didn’t he?
Meh. Love, poison… both the same to the Schuberts and Gallaghers of the world.
SoylentDIva
I’m sure Ghengis Khan was a real sweetheart when you got to know him.
Attmay
Why the hell is every last fucking word we use to describe our plight an insult to someone?
schlukitz
@ Kamikapse and Brad:
Tell me; how is the rarefied air up there in the 40th floor of your ivory tower?
Down here, on the battlefield of gay rights, the rape of LGBT civil-rights (without lube, I might ad) has an odoriferous emanation that is hard to bear.
Attmay
Besides, sexual rape has nothing to do with sexual attraction. It’s all about exercising power over the victim. Queerty’s analogy is valid.
Keith Kimmel
No. 30 · Attmay
“Why the hell is every last fucking word we use to describe our plight an insult to someone?”
If it wasn’t, what would they cry about then? I don’t get the whole outrage at QUEERTY using the word rape. Silly.
B
Keith Kimmel wrote, “I don’t get the whole outrage at QUEERTY using the word rape.”
It wasn’t the use of the word “rape” but calling someone a “rapist”. Read the title. The word “rape” has a broader meaning than the word “rapist”, which refers to a person who committed a sex crime. It’s sloppy editing/writing.