I came across this video and it got me thinking...



Some of you may know the old saying, "Only Nixon could go to China". The premise of that statement is that since Nixon spent so many years as an avowed anti-communist... So many years fighting the evil "Reds", that his credentials were ironclad and there was no way he would be too "soft" on those damn commies. Leaving aside the fact that the entire purpose of the trip was to draw attention away from the Vietnam war and the scandals that were starting to smother his administration seemed to be irrelevant to the press at the time though.

Perhaps the same premise applies here however. I'm a 34 year old, heterosexual male. I have no close relatives that are gay. Hell I don't even know of any cousins or second cousins that are gay. I have a few friends here and there who are gay but other than that I haven't been around the culture much, short of growing up near San Francisco. So when I sit back and ponder this, I have difficulty understanding why it seems the rest of the American male 'hetero community' (if there is such a thing) seems to harbor so much fear and loathing for the gay community. Forgetting the natural cowardice of the Reich-wing American Taliban (Fundamental Christianity), why is it that so many people fear homosexuality to such a degree?

Since according to Soul-less O'Brien, Jay Leno mocks everyone equally and it's all in good fun, I started to wonder... Would it have been ok for Leno to say that white people should watch their wallets when they're in a Church's chicken in Watts? How would that have been any different from implying in a "joke" that with gay people you have to watch out behind you because they might try and sneak up and have anal sex with you. Some will probably say that's a stretch but I see no difference.




I have to give a little bit of respect to Jay Leno on this one because according to the video, Leno spent half an hour on the phone with this gentleman discussing and/or debating the issue. It doesn't sound like he felt it was wrong of him to say it but I give him respect for at least having the sack to talk it out.

Now as a fan of Carlos Mencia, it may seem strange that I'm singling out Jay Leno and this video but absent from Mencia's humor is the rampant hypocrisy I find in the jokes addressed here. Jay Leno is just a symptom of the greater problem however. Namely that the gay community is now, and has been for some time, the new "uppity niggras" in American culture. They're the easiest target for derision and dark humor and the object of the vast majority of government sponsored discrimination.

I'll have a lot more to say about this because it looks to be obvious that this election, just as last, the Rovian game plan appears to be "get out the vote" by convincing the Republican base, AKA Christian Fundamentalist wack-jobs that their very existence is in jeopardy because gay people might be given the same rights as American citizens.

Quick rally the bingo-brigade and mobilize the bible thumpers... Queers are about to storm the local Justice of the Peace demanding equal rights. God Save Us All!

-Nate

[UPDATE] A quick FYI for the Americablog guests to this post, I have the full version of the new movie, Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room available on my front page if you're interested.

Tags:
Gay, Lesbian, Leno, Comedy, Jeff Whitty, Sellouts