A Short, Pleasant, Commentary Interlude

Come now, you didn't think I could go TOO long without a Mike Rogers post, did you?

Over on GayPatriot, in a conversation with a fellow reader, he had the following to say to me.

I think I can say I respect what I know of you, NDT, from this site and your own, but we flat out disagree on Mike Rogers. I love what he's doing to political types who think they can live under the radar while hurting (or being a part of hurting) those of us who are just like them. As I've mentioned to you before, at 54 and with the same life mate for 34 years this August, I've seen us come from having to slink in the shadows and lie about ourselves, to the point of being able to live with respect among a growing number of people with open minds. That didn't happen because of gay conservatives or gay liberals hanging back watching it happen and criticizing them (I know -- I was one of them and I regret it); it happened because there were people with courage pushing this nation in small steps -- sometimes through apparently outrageous action (like Mike's), sometimes through sustained legal action (e.g., the Task Force). My mate and I wanted really only one thing through all this -- to live as boringly normal as possible, AND with legal protections that would allow us the same rights as everyone else. We're almost there. Because of gay people who took (and take) action.

While I appreciate what this individual has done and gone through, I'm not sure how that relates to what Mike Rogers is "doing", as shown by certain examples that I myself have blogged.

-- Berating Minnesota Log Cabin Republicans as incompetent one week, then praising them the next

-- The whole GayPatriot incident, which included harassing phone calls to Christian Grantham, a DEMOCRATIC activist with a proven record of advancing gay rights

-- Related to the GayPatriot incident, trying to shut down blogs supportive of GayPatriot

-- In a similar vein, making repeated phone calls to attempt to dig up personal information on a reporter who published a story about him that reported his refusal to comment on his own background or activities.

-- Publicly asserting that "gay interment camps" are operating

And, my personal favorite:

-- Protecting from outing the staffers of antigay Democrats while attacking Republicans with better records

To summarize, the commenter is right -- the reason gays have had the success that we have had is because of people of all political stripes taking courageous political and social action. However, none of these qualify as such, and quite honestly, smack of using "gay rights" as an excuse for behavior that is counterproductive to them.