Best. Gay. Week. Ever. (November 13, 2009)

ASSHAT OF THE WEEK
A homophobic newspaper gets called out, a pretty-faced Marine is a homophobe and a racist, a wingnut columnist, and why hasn't Rhode Island recalled their asshat governor yet?

Before I actually get to this week's nominees, I wanted to take a moment to address a comment about last week's Asshat voting by one of my favorite AE readers, Dennis Mpls (you should "buddy" him and follow all his comments because he's so smart and thoughtful).

In a very thoughtful comment, Dennis disagreed with my calling all of those voters in Maine who supported repealing gay marriage in that state "bigots." I didn't have time to respond last week, but did want to say that while I think Dennis makes a lot of valid points, I don't regret my choice of words for several reasons.

First of all, that campaign was so nasty and such vicious lies were told about gay people, that I don't care how concerned and frightened about the changing world someone is, to allow yourself to support that kind of rhetoric and strip gay people of some of their fundamental rights, indicates a level of intolerance that I can only call bigotry.

Second, the "changing world rationale" world is an excuse that has been used since the first serf asked for the right to vote and I'm sick of it. I just don't think many folks look back at those white people who reacted negatively to African-Americans demanding their rights, and think they were anything other than bigots.

Finally, bigotry is something most people don't like to be associated with and by calling bigots by what they are, I think that forces some of them to take a long hard look at themselves. That being said, I'm glad there are folks like Dennis in the world because there is more than one way to approach the topic and I think a mixture of the two approaches is probably the best in the long run.

1) The Washington Times

Why? This week Media Matters called out wingut newspaper The Washington Times for that paper's long long history of gay-baiting, gay-bashing and every other anti-gay thing you can think of. Most recently, the Times has written eight editorials trying to smear GLSEN founder Kevin Jennings. Sounds pretty asshatty to me.

2) Michelle Malkin

WHY? Speaking of wingnutty, asshats who are supposedly journalists, Michelle Malkin has been one of the worst homophobes out there for quite a few years. Recently, Malkin was one of those beating the drums against gay marriage in Maine, and her big story recently was how gay rights activists are threatening those who opposed gay marriage. Yeah, 'cuz that's the real issue here.

3) Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri

Why? Governor Carcieri is no stranger to the Asshat page, having already won the crown once. He's back in the running this week because he revealed himself to either have no heart whatsoever, or to be a homophobe of such staggering proportions that it's hard to believe. So what did Carcieri do exactly? He vetoed a bill that would have allowed gay partners the right to bury their partners.

Said the squirming bag of worms some folks call Governor about his veto:

This bill represents a distributing trend over the past few years of the incremental erosion of the principles surrounding traditional marriage.

He then wrapped his coils around a rat and ate it whole.

4) Marine Reservist Jasen Bruce

Why? When a Greek Orthodox Priest got lost and asked Bruce for directions, Bruce grabbed a tire iron and started beating him. First he claimed the priest was from the Middle East and yelling"Allahu Akbar" which is Arabic for "God is Great." When that didn't hold up, Bruce claimed he was actually defending himself from being sexually assaulted. Incidentally, Bruce was recently featured as a pin-up for All American Guys (slightly NSFW) proving that in his case there is at least some correlation between physical beauty and abject stupidity.