Revenge of the Right-Wing Wackos If the political history of the United States corresponded to the six Star Wars films, we think the country would currently be at the conclusion of Revenge of the Sith, wherein the evil Sith Lords sweep into power, using treachery and brutality to pretty much eviscerate the forces of decency and good. The difference is, unlike in the Star Wars movies, there’s no guarantee that real-life counterparts to Luke, Leia, and Han will emerge in the years ahead, resulting in a roll-back of the evil Right-Wing Republican Empire. How does this relate to gay entertainment?

Let’s put it this way: the Republicans want to do to gay people what the Sith Lords did to the Jedi Knights--namely, eliminate all traces of us. Oh, they won’t mind if we live on deep in hiding, leading fearful existences, like Obi Wan and Yoda. But they don’t want any public acknowledgement that we exist.

And they are surprisingly close to their goal. Fundamentalist Christians call the shots in Washington, D.C., 2005. And from sex education, to health care, to PBS, virtually everything they’re doing is openly and virulently hostile to gay people. The laws they’re currently enacting could affect gay people for decades to come.

But how will this affect gay entertainment, you ask?

One proposed change currently gaining traction is to make the Federal Communications Commission start regulating cable television for “indecency.” Republicans, so shocked by the sight of Janet Jackson’s nipple a year ago, have already raised the FCC’s maximum indecency fine from $32,000 to $500,000.

Twelve months ago, the proposal to have the FCC regulate cable was considered pie-in-the-sky. But a lot has happened since George W. Bush was reelected by the votes of fundamentalist Christians. Now top Republicans are openly endorsing such a change in the FCC. Far-right federal judges like Pricilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown, who the Democrats have been valiantly trying to block, would be more than happy to uphold such changes in communications law.

It would be depressing to us if what it takes to finally wake the slumbering masses in this country isn’t an illegal, incompetently executed war based on lies, or the widespread torture and killing of innocent detainees, but the sudden lack of naked female breasts in the latest episode of Deadwood.

But by then, of course, it could be too late. With lifetime judicial appointments and Congressional gerrymandering, the Republicans are on the verge of changes that will take generations to reverse.

The Republicans know this, which is why they’ve been fighting so hard to eliminate the Senate filibuster–-the last paltry check on one-party Republican rule. It’s the sleepwalking masses that are in for a rough awakening.

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