Newt Makes a New Friend

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an open letter to my brother, Newt, following his bizarre attack on LGBT Americans. I thought he was reaching pretty deep into the GOP's bag of hateful tricks to come up with that one. But, he's got company.

Yesterday, Pat Boone outdid Newt in a post on the far right wing site, World Nut, er, Net Daily. Boone seems firmly entrenched in the glory days of the '70s. He's trying to morph himself into a modern-day Anita Bryant.

Boone's comments were beyond the pale even by the standards of most gay-haters. He equated the post Prop 8 rallies and protests taking place in the U.S. with the heinous terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Yes, you read that correctly. Pat Boone is long, long past his prime. He can seemingly only attract attention by either dancing around award shows in a leather outfit and a dog collar (and no, the irony of that image does not escape me...) or by launching desperate rants into the blogosphere (my apologies to Keith Olbermann for the use of the word "rant" to describe this drivel):

Have you not seen the awful similarity between what happened in Mumbai and what's happening right now in our cities?

What troubles me so deeply, and should trouble all thinking Americans, is that there is a real, unbroken line between the jihadist savagery in Mumbai and the hedonistic, irresponsible, blindly selfish goals and tactics of our homegrown sexual jihadists. Hate is hate, no matter where it erupts. And by its very nature, if it's not held in check, it will escalate into acts vile, violent and destructive.

In the former Mr. Nice Guy's world, Prop 8 protestors are the same as the Mumbai terrorists. That almost makes Newt's rant on Bill O'Reilly's show seem sane! Yes, hate is hate no matter where it erupts -- and it just did in Boone's column. If equating Prop 8 protesters with the forces responsible for nearly 200 deaths in India isn't hate, then Miriam-Webster needs an urgent update.

Fortunately, most Americans don't live in Pat Boone's distorted world where the gays are viewed as terrorists. America is changing and progressing every day. In fact, as polls have shown, if Prop 8 were held today, our side would win. That's because the very protests, which Pat Boone equates with vicious terrorists, have had a positive impact on our fellow citizens across the country.

America is heading in a new and better direction. We're choosing hope over hate and leaving behind the bitterness purposefully fomented by the likes of Pat Boone, Newt and their anti-gay heroine of yesteryear, Anita Bryant.

In my letter to Newt, I told him about Generation Equality, who are the most supportive of full LGBT equality than any American generation ever. They are leading the way for that full equality -- and it will happen. The numbers of young forward-thinking voters will only continue to grow. And, I bet most of them have no idea who Pat Boone is. They surely will have little interest in his outdated rhetoric of hate.

Yes, Boone's column was disgusting. But, in some ways it helps. There aren't many who would have the audacity to equate queer Americans with the Mumbai terrorists. And, not many of our fellow citizens want to associate with anyone who says that kind of hateful thing. As Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign, said in his statement about Boone, "In most places in America today it isn't acceptable to be an outright bigot. Obviously, Pat Boone hasn't got that memo."

In the end, I'd offer Boone the same advice I offered my brother: Being a hater is so tired. Just stop it. But, if you can't, keep pumping out the garbage that makes your latest column so foul. Your visible hate allows reasonable Americans to see the damage it does and consciously choose unity over division.

Comments

[JohnBisceglia]

Here's the problem: Pat Boone's misguided, misinformed, harmful ideas and beliefs are the backbone of most (all?) laws against the Q-community. So until these laws change and INCLUDE all of us, his notions about sexual orientation, gender identity, and common decency are the RULE OF THE LAND. And THAT is why I believe 100% in tax resistance until equal.

Talk is cheap - show me you are not EVIL, America, and CHANGE YOUR HATEFUL LAWS.

Until then, pay up.

[kevinlangendorf]

I can't believe we are all so worked up over some idiotic comments made by Pat Freakin Boone. Are we giving his words more power than they deserve?

His kind of opinion plays well in places like Branson, Missouri or anywhere in Dixie, but the rest of the world is moving on.

He is just a tired, old, irrelevant man and the best course of action we can take is to ignore him.

[juanjo]

Pat Boone?

[dnddays]

Pat Boone is responsible for real terrorism against Americans, the song 'You Light Up My Life'. After his daughter Debbie bombed my ears, I was never the same.

[webweaver]

Candace, thank you.

[Pippilin]

Candace's column stimulated my curiosity enough for me to search out Boone's words on "Mumbai terrorists = anti-proposition 8 protesters". On that website, it says that one of Pat's ancestors was Daniel Boone.
Well, whoop-dee, f......, la-te-da. I have some interesting genealogical connections too. One connection is both poignant and painful. It involves John Proctor, the big brother of my 8th great-grandmother, Abigail Proctor Varney. John died in August of 1692 -- hanged for witchcraft on Gallows Hill, Salem Massachusetts.
Along with others, the Puritans sailed to America to avoid religious persecution in Europe. One of the first things those buggers did was to start a witchhunt, investigating those who might be in league with satan, putting them on trial in SECULAR courts, and executing them on the village green. So much for freedom of religion in early America.
Fortunately, the Puritans had limited power and those who were less 'pure' gained the upper hand. Some of the less pure composed a document known as the Constitution of the United States
about one hundred years later and assured us that there would never be a state religion in this country. They gave us the freedom to believe as we wish, but not to impose our beliefs on others.
Pat Boone, get off your self-righteous high horse; come down to the level of ordinary humans.
Your form of pure-itanism is as unpalatable and dangerous as Cotton Mathers'.

[Collielady]

Religion (fear) rears its ugly head again.

[tomt]

Is Pat Boone still alive? He must be 120 years OLD by now! Earth to Pat: We're in the 21st Century, now, not the 19th.

[JiminNC]

I bet Newt has convulsions every time you get a headline Candace! Here's to many happy returns.

[Collielady]

He's likely frightened that he may have a bit of "gayness" too, and wants the world to know that he's really ALL MAN. The peer pressure must be overwhelming. He's adolescent and pathetic.

[MarionWatts]

'"In most places in America today it isn't acceptable to be an outright bigot. Obviously, Pat Boone hasn't got that memo." '

True, but there's a special dispensation, seemingly allowed from the God in which they believe, for the so-called Christian right to practice bigotry ... but in God's name and according to the Bible, you understand.

Pat Boone is a Christian. As was Anita Bryant. Enough said.

They are walking advertisements for the reason why any mention of God, faith or religion should be totally removed from any sphere of government. But the Republican party preached to the base and gave them power - and this is the result.

[MikeDu]

So, you're saying feeble-minded geriatric pop singer Pat Boone rhetorically slapped Dick Cheney's daughter and Newt Gingrich's sister across the face.

[Balancement]

But he slapped them in JAY-zus' name. So that makes it all right

[Voltage]

I'd bet that, in his career, Mr. Boone associated with homosexuals hundreds if not thousands of times. Think of the back-up singers, dancers, make-up and hair people, conductors, musicians, stagehands, etc. who helped him sell records and fill concert halls. You've gotta believe a large proportion of his creative teams were gay.

[Lionsden]

I think a big problem on the left is the misuse of the word hate. A websearch (and various hard copy dictionaries) shows that it basically means an "intense dislike". And doesn't Mr. Gingrich intensely dislike some things Mr. Boone says?

Leftists intensely dislike it when people oppose homosexual marriage. Isn't that, then, hatred according to the left's own definition it?

I think the thing to do is move away from the notion that intense disagreement is hate and that all hate is bad and mostly right-wingers do it.

I know the left vehemently, totally, and absolutely detests cigarette smoking and car pollution. Again, don't they hate it? By their own usage of the word hate, it appears that they do. And if they do, isn't it a good thing, in their opinion?

Hate, like most things, must be understood within its context in order to discern whether or not it is good or bad.

If Pat Boone and Newt can be labeled hateful for their mere opposition to homosexual marriage, cannot those who oppose heterosexual marriage ONLY be labeled hateful as well?

I don't think Boone or Newt HATE homosexuals, but I believe they oppose homosexual marriage. And I trust that supporters of homosexual marriage do not hate their opponents.

[Balancement]

I think the problem on the right is that they will go to *any* lengths to justify their bigotry. *Any* lengths.

[Lionsden]

That is exactly what Boone said about the left.

[mdmurphyla]

Uh . . . dude . . . I think comparing the Mumbai terrorists to gay people exercising their First Amendment right to protest discloses Pat Boone's hatred - yes HATRED - for the gay community. If it walks like a hateful duck, and talks like a hateful duck, it is, my friend, a hateful duck.

[Lionsden]

I don't think it discloses a hatred for the gay community, but I do think it discloses Boone's stupidity about it.

[jaystin]

I wondered how long it would be before I was compared to a ter r o rist. Several thousand gays marching in the streets asking for equal rights is far from anything that happened in Bombay. People are i d io ts.

[1murillo]

jaystin,

Good question. I've marched in the streets, sometimes to demonstrate for an issue, other times because there was a parade.

Does Boone mean to say that I've been a Mumbai terrorist for decades now?

[Anandas]

I feel sad for people who think an old book, written 400 years after
the alleged existence of one spiritual teacher, by people who were
distorting tolerant and loving spiritual teachings for their own political
ends, greed, and power, is still relevant in any way today, with all
the distortions it contains. And that they , pea-headedly, would think
that all other people should believe this book as they themselves
do, as translated by , generally , lying miscreant preachers on a power trip.

Humanity will look back on this time, when others presumed to tell
a group of people how to love and who to love, as a sick and embarrassing
time in our overall spiritual evolution, which did not halt 2,000 years ago,
but is meant to continue.