Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Good News, Bad News: South Carolina Has Its First Openly Gay Legislator

Last week, while driving home from Columbia, a car pulled in front of us, forcing me to hit the brakes to avoid a collision and forcing me to unleash a torrent of foul language … and something about lesbians not knowing how to drive. See, it was a woman who nearly caused the wreck and there was a wee rainbow flag bumpersticker on her car so … yeah, Lesbian’s are bad drivers and F-bomb, F-bomb, F-bomb.

Carlos asked why I was picking on my LGBT sister and I said something to the effect of ‘Just because you’re gay doesn’t mean you’re not an asshat.’

There are gay asshats and straight asshats; black asshats and white asshats; male and female asshats. Republican and Democrat asshats, though that number seems to skew a bit more to the right. But your sexual orientation doesn’t preclude you from asshattery, which leads me to the Good News and Bad News …

Next January, Greenville attorney Jason Elliott will become South Carolina’s first openly gay lawmaker, representing a portion of Greenville that includes conservative and virulently homophobic Bob Jones University.

Elliott is taking his win over incumbent Wendy Nanney — who recently authored the state’s new highly restriction abortion law — as a sign that the GOP … oh, yeah, he’s a Republican … is a more inclusive party.

Still, Good News, right? South Carolina’s first gay representative! I instantly began re-writing a song from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas — the tune ‘Texas Has a Whorehouse in It’ — into ‘The Statehouse Has a Homo In it.’ And I was also kinda pleased that Elliott wasn’t playing the ‘I’m a gay congressman card,’ but instead was saying:
“I am a Republican and proud to be one. I’m also proud of the fact that I’m a white male, 6 foot, 2 inches with too much gray hair for 45 — and also happen to be gay.”
I mean, does gay have to be our main identifier? Am I a gay man or a man who happens to be gay? Am I that one thing or am I many things? I tend to prefer the latter, myself, starting with the big picture, and working inward … human being, male, white, gay, though I like to think sarcastic and hysterically funny fit in there, too, before The Gay.

Anyway. I liked that we have an openly gay man in the House until …

He is an anti-choice, gun-loving, [t]Rump supporter:
“Trump speaks to the frustration of the American people. I understand that frustration.”
And so maybe I do more readily identify with The Gay part of me because any self-respecting gay man, whether he starts with the gay or ends with it, who will support a man who’s formed an evangelical team of anti-LGBT leaders, doesn’t know from The Gay.

Cue a slew of F-bombs about gay asshats. 

3 comments:

  1. Oh well, slowly but surely!

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  2. HOW can he live with himself? rump supporter, gun freak, pro-life...inconsistent with every gay person I know. he needs to turn in his gay card and give back the toaster oven!

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  3. An asshat is still an asshat.

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