If you are a legacy Philadelphia homo and not a recent NYC transplant, I hope you cancelled your 12th Street Gym membership when you found out their co-owner made large campaign donations to Douchebag Santorum.
If you don't read Towleroad (which you should. bad homo. bad.) then wrap your mouth around this before you log on again:
McCain Takes $2300 Contribution from Owner of Gay Sex Site Manhunt
It appears John McCain has accepted the maximum individual campaign donation from the owner of America's largest gay sex hook-up website.
Swallow that, Right Now!
37 minutes ago
3 comments:
First, if you were kneejerk enough to cancel the 12th Street membership before the other owners got rid of the Santorum supporter, you kind of screwed yourself over. As I recall, that whole thing got resolved pretty quickly.
Second, THE OWNER OF MANHUNT IS ALLOWED TO BE A REPUBLICAN. As he himself pointed out, neither McCain nor Obama supports gay marriage. And it's not like Mr. Manhunt gave money to Romney or Huckabee, who are both unambiguous gay-haters.
I think what this whole situation illustrates is that what bothers some of us gays more than anything else is the mere existence of Log Cabin Republicans in the first place. For most of us, they are an elusive species, rarely seen in the wild, even though there are plenty of non-liberal gays out there.
When we find out that a successful, wealthy, sex-site owning gay is a member of the GOP, on top of our normal why-would-you-be-a-Republican-if-you're-gay reaction, there is this irrational but real sense of betrayal. "How could HE of all people give money to THEM?" we wonder. But I don't think it's all that shocking, and I don't think it, on its own, merits canceling a membership. The fact that Manhunt totally sucks and is destroying gay culture is a far more compelling reason to cancel one's membership.
The effects of a good PR campaign never cease to amaze me. Piper was well aware of Guzzardi's support of Rick Santorum's campaign through donations - just because he bought him out doesn't mean it solved the wrongs of the previous owner.
Further, I'm not telling anyone to cancel their Manhunt accounts - Just to consider where their membership is going. I think it's quite short sighted to assume that what I'm feeling here is betrayed - I read the Out article on Manhunt destroying gay culture, took one look at the photo of the owners, and smelled the Republican. It's good business sense for them.
However, Log Cabin Republicans are offensive not so much for their political agenda, but for the fact that they have yet to produce an effect that has allowed a viable fiscally conservative candidate that doesn't turn his or her nose up at their personal lives.
I'm all for thinking about where your money is going, and I didn't mean to imply that you personally suggested we should delete our Manhunt accounts. But some of the gay bloggers seem to want people to do that, and that's just stupid to me. It's like, hello, people! This guy is a businessman first, and he's exploiting the oldest, most powerful impulse we have: sex! What could be more capitalistic than that? Of course he's a Republican!
As for the LCRs in general, I agree. They haven't had much success, at least not on the national level. But at least they're staying in the party they feel best (or least bad) about and fighting to change it. When you're a tiny minority fighting against Jerry Falwell, Karl Rove, and the like for the soul of the Republican Party for twenty years, you may be excused for having been less than successful, in my book. That said, do I think conservative gays are misguided for supporting McCain? Absofuckinlutely. But I also think it's a sign of progress that we're not all in the same political party.
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