Parties and Homophobes

It's unsettling to watch a nasty blogfight over gays from a safe distance. I feel left out. So here's my take. Glenn Reynolds is about as gay-friendly a Republican as you'll ever find. It doesn't exactly take a genius, however, to note that homophobia in general is far more widespread among Republicans than among Democrats, and almost a staple of the far right. Karl Rove uses it knowingly, cynically and deftly to win elections (and Reynolds has never criticized Rove or Bush for it). But it's also true that there's a very nasty streak of far-left homophobia that usually targets gay conservatives or Republicans (especially the closeted ones) for particularly vicious assaults that they would never countenance for any gay liberal or Democrat (closeted or otherwise). A few of these far left trolls actually join forces at times with the Christianist right to demonize and out some gay people. And some of these far left homophobes are also ... gay.

Is all that clear now?

I might add that, given the huge issues we are now dealing with, Glenn Reynolds' citation of this issue as one of two defining reasons he voted for Corker over Ford is, well  ...  absurd bordering on unhinged. In fact, Glenn's post about how he voted is one of the lamest pieces of rationalization I've read in a very long time. Here you have a "libertarian" who patently couldn't care less about habeas corpus, torture, and massive government spending and borrowing, but who takes a stand for the Republicans on the question of gay dignity! It would be funny if it weren't so bloody sad.