Here’s Clooney’s big stand.

It’s Oscar season, Clooney desperately wants and Oscar, and he’s taking part in a one-night play to support same-sex marriage.

In Hollywood, that’s about as much of a big stand as joining the most popular fraternity on campus.

Could these people be more full of themselves.

That was a rhetorical question.

After collaborating with gay associates for almost thirty years, I’ve reached the conclusion that most gay men hold a fundamentally center/right view on most economic and national security issues.  The over-riding feeling expressed to me from my gay friends is the deeply held desire to be left alone.  And after watching GOProud Chairman Christopher Barron take this obnoxious attack from non-entity Cenk Uyger for having the temerity to identify himself as a conservative, I’ve reached the greater conclusion that the conservative movement needs articulate and courageous voices like this as part of our team.

As Mr. Barron puts it: “I have an easier time being openly gay with conservatives than I do being a conservative with other gay people.”  So, if CPAC and the Republican Party can be accepting of gay conservatives who don’t hold exactly to every single position espoused by the party, why can’t Broadway do the same?

The chill wind of intolerance was most evident when the Broadway community “outed” Sacremento Music Theatre executive Scott Eckern as a financial supporter of California’s Proposition 8 campaign which defined marriage in the state as being between one man and one woman (you know, the definition we’ve lived with for thousands of years). Unlike Mr. Barron who does not equate opposition to same-sex marriage with bigotry, the tolerant voices of Broadway sang out at fortissimo against the shocking and intolerable position that Eckern shared with the majority of Americans, including President Obama.

Eckern, classy and dignified, stepped down from his position so as to save his board the difficult task of dealing with the controversy, and the authoritarian leftists who populate Broadway choruses, wardrobe departments and front offices had a very, high-profile scalp for their efforts.  And, the clear message was sent to anyone else in the industry who might dare to think that marriage should stay defined as being between a man and a woman: Keep your bigoted mouth shut.

In response to the Prop 8 victory, Broadway composer Marc Shaiman put together this video mocking religion and characterizing Prop. 8 supporters as stupid and hypocritical while depicting supporters as intelligent, cool and enlightened:

The sketch was also performed live at a fundraiser supporting same-sex marriage efforts called “Defying Inequality” that raised $400,000 for gay rights groups.

The strict adherence to the gay left dogma can be seen in the product put forth on Broadway’s stages as well. Last year’s “Next Fall” about a gay couple comprised of a Christian and an atheist portrayed Christian Southerners as backward, hypocritical dolts while the atheist, liberal New Yorker is enlightened and full of wit.  It was produced by no less than Elton John and it received nearly unanimous raves from New York’s liberal theatre critics.  Of course, “Next Fall” was rewarded with a Tony nomination for Best Play.  The Broadway audience was not as kind to “Next Fall” and it closed after only 132 performances.

Meanwhile, one is hard pressed to find any play on Broadway in the past two decades that deals with any contrary viewpoint of left-wing gay politics with anything but derision. Characters expressing any opposing position are depicted as stupid at best, evil at worst. From Tony Kushner to Terrance McNally to Eve Ensler, playwrights who promote the extreme gay political position are celebrated, even when their behavior is repulsive (like when Ensler asked a six-year-old girl what her vagina smelled like as part of her “research” for 10th anniversary edition of “The Vagina Monologues”). The closest thing one can find to a gay-themed play that features a Republican in a positive role is an Off-Broadway disaster called “Abraham Lincoln’s Big, Gay Dance Party” which “celebrates” the founder of the GOP as a bisexual.

The intolerance also affects the performers on Broadway. The “tolerant” left went crazy when Broadway diva Kristin Chenoweth appeared on the 700 Club to promote her album of Christian music.  Of course, Ms. Chenoweth has been nothing but supportive of the gay community and has spent exhaustive amounts of volunteer time on behalf of AIDS charities, but the fact that she would even appear on the “hate-filled” 700 Club inspired a “Boycott Kristin Chenoweth” movement that actually caused a bit of damage to her stellar reputation.  Ms. Chenoweth had to bend over backwards to accommodate the intolerant and close-minded gay-left who couldn’t see fit to allow her to promote her album to people who might not share their views.

So, as the Republican Party embarks on this very healthy and invigorating internal discussion over the inclusion of gay republicans who agree with so much of our political agenda, I yearn for a day when such an open and frank discussion could be had within the theatrical community populated by folks who pretend to be the most open-minded artists in the world but actually resemble the city council in “Footloose”.

Until Broadway opens its mind and starts including a diversity of opinion amongst its artistic ranks, how can true creativity thrive?

The San Francisco Chronicle: 

A $26,000 contribution to the initiative that banned same-sex marriage in California appears to have cost a 96-year-old former Mormon temple president his seat on the board that oversees Oakland’s historic Paramount Theatre.

Amid rising criticism from the gay community, Mayor Ron Dellums said Tuesday that he was putting on hold the reappointment of Lorenzo Hoopes, most likely signaling an end to Hoopes’ 30-plus years on the Paramount board.

“The community is asking us to reconsider, and that is what we are going to do,” mayoral spokesman Paul Rose said.

Read the full article here.

I know this to be true. Being a news junkie myself, I have found time after time as I was reading about a supposedly breaking subject, like ABC’s recent coverage of the targeted LGBT murders in Iraq, that it had already been on display for all to see in Big Hollywood posts for months.

Not to toot my own horn, but…well, okay, I’m tooting my own horn. And those of Andy Breitbart and John Nolte, who have given I, and so many other wonderful and insightful Hollywood right-wing fringe types, a magnificent bullhorn we otherwise would not have. We appear to be doing the dirty jobs our media just refuses to do. It’s a labor Hercules would completely sympathize with.

Here are some prime examples.

THE OBAMAMEDIA: The British press, the UK Telegraph in particular, are VERY unhappy with White House spokesman Robert Gibbs today. Seems Mr. Gibbs offended them beyond belief with this statement, in response to the British tabloids hammering the Obama Administration over the suppression of torture photos, a la the reviled BusHitler:

“Let’s just say if I wanted to look up, if I wanted to read a write-up of how Manchester United fared last night in the Champions League Cup, I’d might open up a British newspaper,” (Gibbs) continued. “If I was looking for something that bordered on truthful news, I’m not entirely sure it’d be the first pack of clips I’d pick up.”

The UK Telegraph found the irony of that statement delicious:

Can you imagine Gibbs making these remarks about The New York Times or The Washington Post, or NBC, ABC or CBS? This would never happen. The British press, especially the Telegraph, has been singled out because they frequently publish articles critical of the Obama administration and are not afraid to take on the status quo in Washington.

Increasingly, millions of Americans are turning to online UK news websites for cutting edge reports on American politics and U.S. foreign policy that the mainstream media refuses to cover in the States, especially if it is unflattering to the Obama White House.

Mates, you’re not telling Big Hollywood anything new. We reported that our Fourth Estate was now a Fourth Branch of Government a month ago. Of course, these UK complaints of Obamamedia malfeasance would hardly have been necessary were President Obama a Republican, which we here at BH also hypothesized in Alice In Wonderland fashion. Fact is, if Obama were a Michael Steele-like Republican POTUS, the US press would be all over him like white on rice. Can I say that?

Who’d a-thunk we and the British tabloids would ever be banding together and staging a revolt against the American government and its PRAVDA-like propaganda wing, the VSM? Strange days, indeed. I also find it incredibly ironic that, as President Obama goes out of his way to appease the Hilterite Islamist extremist regime in Iran, his administration lackeys, through pure idiocy, are marching us down the path to yet another war with the British. Not only that, just how bad is it when the British revolt against OUR tax policies? Sorry, but I’m with the Redcoats this time around.

OBAMA AND THE LEFT: On May 26th, US News and World Report opined on the dissatisfaction of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party with Obama’s Bush Lite policies. On May 24th, Gary LaMarche tried to quell the Leftie uprising against Obama with this HuffPo piece. However, if you read the comments, many Lefties aren’t biting. Sorry, Gary, the Kumbaya routine doesn’t work with tinfoils. Same at KOS, which is telling their readers to quit with the ‘Obama is a War Criminal’ crap.

Again, Big Hollywood beat all to the punch on May 23rd. We knew how much of a disappointment Obama was to the Left. It is, in fact, a complete train wreck of liberal politics, naive idealism and harsh realities. And we’re lovin’ it! Again, Big Hollywood is ahead of the curve.

OBAMA AND GAY RIGHTS: On May 23rd, the New York Times published Frank Rich’s OpEd ‘La Cage au Democrats’ in which he commiserated with gay rights advocates of how little support LGBTs were getting from the Obama White House. He closed it out with this stinging rebuke:

The gay civil rights movement has fewer obstacles in its path than did Dr. King’s Herculean mission to overthrow the singular legacy of slavery. That makes it all the more shameful that it has fewer courageous allies in Washington than King did. If “American Idol” can sing out for change on Fox in prime time, it ill becomes Obama, of all presidents, to remain mute in the White House.

Ouch! Dead Bullseye, Frank! Sorry to tell you, Mr. Rich, but you’re only splitting Big Hollywood’s arrow. BH contributor Charlie Winecoff covered this issue in-depth at Big Hollywood way back on March 19th in his ‘Love, War and Gay Marriage’ OpEd. He saw what was coming based on Obama’s own statements, positions and even associations with gay-haters like Farrakhan. On May 8th, we illustrated how even Ronald Reagan was a better friend to gays than Obama probably ever will be.

Double Ouch! Sorry, Frank. You guys at the Times have to keep pace better than that, or you just might find yourselves relegated to dinosaur status. Wait a minute…Oh, never mind.

LGBT MURDERS IN IRAQ: Yet another issue that is beginning to inflame American gay advocates, who are fast becoming infuriated at the brutal and systematic extermination of LGBTs in Iraq on our dime, sanctioned by both Supreme Leader Ali al-Sistani in his fatwa of death against Iraqi LGBTs and by the Iraqi government itself. Not only are LGBTs being slated for execution by al-Maliki’s government, the Interior Ministry police are raiding gay parties, hunting gays online, and either arresting them or killing them on the spot. Shiite gay death squads are now common in Baghdad.

News outlets such as ABC are finally beginning to cover this issue in-depth. Gay rights advocate Michael Petrelis of the Petrelis Files blog has long been on point on this issue, holding demonstrations and raising money for Iraqi gays. Though encouraged by the media attention this horrific plight of gays in Iraq is finally getting, he could not be more outraged by the willful ignorance of this issue by the White House, the State Department and his Congressional representative, none other than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Though Mr. Petrelis was not entirely enamored of my Reagan/Obama piece on gay rights here at Big Hollywood (he called me a right wing blowhard on his blog), he does credit BH for addressing the issue as he wished so many others in the gay community and politics would, and praises our calling it for what it is: a gay holocaust. What else do you call a targeted extermination program?

That said, the Reagan piece was not the first BH OpEd to address the burgeoning problem of targeted gay murders in Iraq. That was highlighted in my very first piece for Big Hollywood, entitled ‘One Critic’s Review of Mr. Ganis Goes to Tehran’ way back on March 9th. It was, in fact, Team Oscar’s trip to gay-butchering Iran at that time, not five days after the gay-infomercial Oscars, that sent me into fireball mode and led me directly to BH in the first place.

Not only did that piece describe the longstanding gay holocaust in Iran, a de facto genocide of Iranian LGBTs, it exposed for all the world to see what a human rights sham AMPAS and so-called Hollywood gay rights champs like Sean Penn and Dustin Lance Black really are. Team Oscar member Annette Bening went so far as to praise women’s rights in Iran (an oxymoron if ever there was one), even as fellow American Roxana Saberi was being held hostage as a political pawn right across town in Evin prison. Need more be said?

Again, Big Hollywood was way ahead of the curve.

Speaking of which, the targeted killings of Iraqi LGBTs poses a very curious question. If Prop 8 opponents are so infuriated and outraged at the perceived abysmal gay rights situation in California, as these Tweeting celebrities at afterellen.com seem to be, and in which model/actress Adrianne Curry sarcastically retorted, “treating gays like they aren’t human is wonderful!” then where is the outrage over the hunting, torturing and extermination of gays in Iran and Iraq?

Where is the fury over gay men in Iraq having their anuses glued shut, and being forced to drink diarrhea cocktails that induce horrible suffering before death? Sounds like way less than human treatment to me, Adrianne. Where, oh where, is the outrage?

Just goes to show. Hollywood celebrities may not be gays rights advocates, but they play them on TV. And where else, but for a few lone gay blogs like the Petrelis Files, will you find this pressing issue covered in as much depth as here at Big Hollywood? Hmm. Curious.

TEAM OSCAR IN IRAN: Who else was covering Team Oscar in Iran like Big Hollywood? No one in the entertainment industry I could find. A few outraged conservatives, that’s about it. And it looked like AMPAS shut down all PR coverage of Team Oscar after the punking episode (a story lead I broke to Drudge and Nikki Finke, hee hee!), I had to get all my scoops from the Tehran Times and the Middle East press! This, for the most historic mission in Academy history! How sad is that?

Do any of you remember their grand Red Carpet heroes’ welcome at LAX? Me neither. Hell, they were so quiet about the trip, I though the Iranians were holding them hostage! I thought maybe they had taken me up on my offer to trade the Nine Stooges for Roxana Saberi. No such luck.

And show me anyone else in the media or entertainment rags who was pointing out that Iran’s film industry, which Academy prez Sid Ganis is still praising, spits out the worst anti-Semitic propaganda since Goebbels’ Reichministry. They’re marketing and exporting child martrdom cartoons like Hollywood does SpongeBob! Doing a bang-up business too, if you’ll pardon the pun.

THAT’S A WRAP! As a contributor I will do my best, as many other fine folks here at BH are doing, to keep you all up to date on the goings-on in Hollywood and elsewhere,  that you just won’t see covered in all too many other so-called media outlets. Considering how many pressing subjects the Obamamedia is dodging to keep Dear Leader spotlessly clean, that won’t be hard to do. The real problem will be deciding on which subjects the media isn’t covering to choose from.

As a BH fan and reader, I look very much forward to reading more of the great Greg G. spilling his guts, Charlie Winecoff’s unique perspectives on the issues of our day, John Nolte’s insightful and unbiased reviews of Hollywood films and TV shows past, present and future (as well as his calling the biased reviewers out for their politically-motivated hit pieces), interviews with outstanding Hollywood filmmakers you just won’t see in HR and Variety, and many other great contributors like Robert Davi, Bert Prelutsky, Andy Breitbart too numerous to mention here.

You want the real Hollywood scoop? You know where to come! Peace, all. I hope

Not since the creation of the Huffington Post and the Daily Kos has something so useless entered American culture with such fanfare. Americans are all atwitter about Twitter. It was bad enough when people began chatting with total strangers online about their private lives. Then the blogosphere exploded and we all moved one step closer to becoming the nation of Narcissista. Then MySpace and Facebook came along, and everybody felt the need to make every aspect of their lives public.

Look, I admit to being a blogger, and one of the better ones. Yet my blog actually covers issues and events. The following paragraph is what my blog is not about:

I had a piece of toast today. It was yummy. I could not decide between butter and margarine, they both taste good. My sister is such a bizzatch. Social studies class sucks. I am so going to buy that new outfit at Benetton.

If anybody cares what teenage girls have to say, I have not met them. Giving them computers and I-Pods and I-Phones and I-everything else has turned them into the people of I, I, I, I, I. Yet, if MySpace is the beginning of the end of civilization, then Twitter is bringing the Apocalypse.

The way Twitter works is that people write short posts of no more than 140 words. A post is called a “tweet.” People tweet on Twitter. Shorter posts were designed for people to post but not convey their life story. You’re supposed to shut up and get to the point. Instead, people just engaged in round the clock, multiple posts.

8am: “I had a piece of toast. It was yummy. I could not decide between butter or margarine.”

8:02am: “My sister is such a bizzatch.”

8:05am: “Social studies class is too hard.”

8:07am: “I can’t wait to buy that new outfit at Benetton.”

Yet as awful as this mental masturbation is, it is harmless by itself. It truly becomes toxic when mixed with another kind of twit…the Hollywood Celebrity.

The California Supreme Court recently upheld the will of the people by affirming the constitutionality of Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage. The Hollywood twits twittered away. Alyssa Milano, the kid from “Who’s the Boss,” only gets attention because she’s young and hot asked, “How is it possible? Supreme Court Upheld Proposition 8?”

How is it possible? I could teach her how a bill becomes a law, and what voter initiatives are, but her head may explode. I could explain that appeals courts are supposed to follow the law, not make law.

Ellen DeGeneres said, “H8 Sucks!!!”

I despise acronyms, capital letters, and exclamation points in commentary. Ellen did all three. I should have yelled out, “H8…B3…O75…Bingo!!!!!!”

Is that the best Ellen can do? H8 Sucks? Who could possibly disagree with that? Hey Ellen, I dislike sanctimonious talk show hosts, but at least you’re eloquent at times. This is not one of those times.

Amber Benson, said, “The Supreme Court blows.” Miss Nicky Hilton found this whole thing, “disgusting,” which is ironic coming from anyone in the Hilton family. One person wrote, “I blame Miss California.”

It is times like this that I support reinstating a literacy test for voters, especially people in Hollywood or under 25 years of age.

The final straw came when I tried doing what had always been a normal activity, watching football. Five of us have been friends for 20 years, but I was totally unprepared for the biggest abuse of technology since fake tanning salons. Two of the guys checked each other’s Twitter page to see what the other one was doing. Both pages confirmed that both of them were currently watching the game with each other.

Finally I had had enough. “You are watching football with him. He is watching football with you. I am in the room with both of you. I don’t need to go to a computer to know this. We have been doing this 20 years. This is insanity.”

One of them asked, “Yeah, but if I don’t have my Twitter Page, how will I know the score of the game?”

I wanted to shoot them, but perhaps modern science can study them better if they live.

The solution to Twitter is the same as the solution to all Hollywood celebrities. Follow the example of Nancy Reagan, and “Just say no.” Even if somebody offers to spray your computer with non-Oxynol 9 to prevent computer viruses, decline to  screw around with this. Abstinence remains the only safe policy.

No more Hollywood Twit(terer)s.

eric aka the Tygrrrr Express

blacktygrrrr@earthlink.net

Turns out she was Miss California, Carrie Prejean, the reigning queen of the state in which I just happen to reside. Cavuto’s producers were able to nab the beauty for an early interview. My wife and I and two of our daughters watched from the green room as Miss Prejean very respectfully stated her belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman. Before seeing her interview, I was unaware that her response to a question posed to her on the subject during Sunday’s Miss USA competition had quite possibly cost her the Miss USA crown.

On the plane home that evening I read a piece in Newsday about the incident and learned that it was you, Mr. Perez Hilton, who posed the question about gay marriage to Miss Prejean. Apparently, you didn’t care for her response. “That’s not the kind of woman I want to be Miss USA,” you were quoted as saying. “Miss USA should represent all Americans and, with her answer she instantly alienated millions of gays and lesbians and their friends.” You further went on to say on your video blog that had Miss California won the crown, you would have “run onstage and ripped the tiara off Prejean’s head.” You followed that demonstration of courage by calling her a few choice names that even I, a former Caporegime in the Colombo organized crime family, would be too embarrassed to put in print.

For the record, Mr. Hilton, I would like to state that I, too, believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman. My wife also shares that belief and we have brought our four children up to believe the same. We have also brought them up to be tolerant of people who do not share our beliefs. In other words, we would not tolerate our children “ripping a tiara off of the head” of a person, had they been judging that contest and the winner was a lesbian. Nor would we tolerate their calling her disrespectful and shameful names. In fact, I wouldn’t even consider breaking your knee caps for disagreeing with my beliefs, Mr. Hilton, and I’m a former mobster.

Miss Prejean had every right to state her beliefs in the honest and respectful manner in which she did. She has as much right to respectfully disagree with same sex marriage as you do in advocating such a union. In my opinion, your response to a young lady who represented my home state with dignity and class brought shame to the very people in this country that you so poorly represented in your position as judge of the competition. My daughters are of college age and have brought their gay and lesbian friends into my home, where they are welcomed and treated with respect. My nephew is gay and even though we disagree on the subject of marriage, we are both die hard Yankee fans and enjoy watching the games together while downing a bowl of pasta. For the record, my nephew is a great cook. My wife and I have friends and associates who are both gay and lesbian. They have no problem what- so-ever with our belief in marriage being between a man and a woman. In other words, they tolerate our opposing beliefs.

I am quite sure that these fine people have been embarrassed by your disgraceful response to a person whose beliefs are in opposition to your own. It is you who have alienated these fine people and their friends, and not Miss Prejean, with your disgraceful display of intolerance to another person’s beliefs. We are blessed to live in a country where opposing views expressed in a respectful and civilized manner are to be tolerated. That’s the law of the land. If, in fact, Miss Prejean was deprived of an award she rightly deserved because of her honest and respectful expression of her beliefs, both you and the organizers of the Miss USA contest should be thoroughly ashamed.

Furthermore, if I were Donald Trump, rather than deciding whether Miss California will be allowed to keep her Miss USA crown, I would be holding a press conference to publicly admonish you for your disgraceful representation of a contest I owned. I am very surprised not to have heard the word’s “You’re fired,” directed at you from the Donald.

I would like to offer you the opportunity to publicly apologize to Miss Prejean and to the millions of Americans, — gay, lesbian and straight, that you have shamed with your childish behavior. It would be a good way to show all Americans that we have the right to respectfully disagree on this subject or any other and not suffer as a result. That’s an offer you should not refuse.

 –Michael Franzese

Michael Franzese was formerly a top-lieutenant in New York’s  infamous Colombo crime family, whom Fortune Magazine cited as  number #18 on its list of the “Fifty Most Wealthy and Powerful  Mafia Bosses” in America. He is the author of the best-selling  books, “Blood Covenant” and “Quitting the Mob“. Franzese’s most recent book, “I’ll Make You an Offer You Can’t Refuse: Business Tips from a Former Mob Boss,” was released in April.

He refused to accuse others, and lost his livelihood for a period of time, but went on to direct many TV shows including Star Trek, The Law and Mr. Jones, and I Spy.

Now Carrie Prejean, beauty queen and determined supporter of marriage between a man and a woman, finds herself smeared on the Internet, castigated in public, on TV, (Chelsea Handler on E! channel has taken aim with a vicious gleam in her vodka-stoked eyes) and her parents have been dragged through the mud as well.

So where are the free-speech warriors? How about Sean Penn and the rest of the Hollywood elitists who think the First Amendment was written solely for their benefit? Penn has made millions playing everything from a stoner in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” to gay Supervisor Harvey Milk, who was slain in a horrific attack in San Francisco that also resulted in the death of San Francisco mayor George Moscone.

Penn, who played Harvey Milk in the film “Milk,” for which he won an Oscar, is probably too biased to see that the Founding Fathers weren’t just thinking of him and his high-brow leftists when they stood for freedom of expression for EVERYBODY.

Yes, that means Penn has the right to demand California have a special holiday for Harvey Milk, no matter how silly that is. The First Amendment also allows the outrageous burning of the American flag – or at least that’s how the courts have interpreted the First Amendment, so we have to live with it for now.

Guess what, Sean. Because you have the right to rant and rave about your radical agenda, Ms. Prejean also gets to use words that are so offensive to you and Perez Hilton, whose mouth is filthier than a latrine in a high school locker room.

These leftists have gone so far as to compare Prejean, a beautiful and thoughtful Christian, to a Nazi. They have divulged that she had breast implants just prior to the pageant. So-called mainstream journalists have even gotten on the beat-Prejean-to-a-bloody-pulp bandwagon.

Her sin: Hilton asked her about gay marriage and she answered truthfully. She faced the loss of her crown and has faced unrelenting attacks from thoughtless, cruel and vile people.

Sean Penn and his ilk should stand up to those who are piling on with their high-tech lynching campaign of Ms. Prejean. Perhaps Penn has forgotten about the blacklisting of his own father because of his beliefs.

I do wonder what Daddy Penn would say… I suspect he would not be pleased.

First, the one of the main points of this fact-based opinion piece. And I know I’m going to catch hell from the Streisand and Brolin crowd on this one! Ronald Reagan was a hero to gays, and Obama has not been to date. I know, I know. The Evil Ronald Reagan, who practically invented AIDS? Reagan, the Adolf Eichmann of the Gay World? Not true. Not by a country mile!

In fact, Ronald Reagan was a better friend to gays and lesbians in his age than Barack Obama has been to gays in his. But don’t even go by what I say. I’m a right wing extremist, and very biased to what I believe. I admit it. Who isn’t these days? The press? LOL! But here are some irrefutable facts on The One and The Gipper I thought I’d throw out there. A gay buffet for thought, if you will. With swimming pools. And movie stars.

You may not know this, but like former presidential candidate Barack Obama, then-candidate Ronald Reagan faced a polarizing gay-related California ballot referendum of his own in 1978. It was called the Briggs Initiative, better known as Prop 6, and would have banned all gays and lesbians from teaching in California schools.

This, in an America not nearly as tolerant of homosexuals or gay issues back then as now. Just ask ‘em. I remember. I read the far left Boston Phoenix. It was free, why not? And I knew fag haters. Too many, actually. But I digress. Back to 1978 California, presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, gays and the Briggs Initiative, better known as Prop 6.

As Prop 6 appeared to be gaining steam as the vote neared, with State Senator John Briggs stoking fears of gay teachers in the classroom with the full backing of California’s right wing, gays and lesbians were terrified that Prop 6 might actually become law. In their darkest hour, they turned to a most unlikely hero and savior: former California governor and conservative Republican Ronald Reagan, then gearing up for his 1980 presidential run.

After hearing the group’s concerns, candidate Reagan not only agreed with them, but became the bill’s most public detractor, even penning a scathing op-ed against it in the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, in which he said the following:

“Whatever else it is, homosexuality is not a contagious disease like the measles. Prevailing scientific opinion is that an individual’s sexuality is determined at a very early age and that a child’s teachers do not really influence this.”

Ronnie also stated that the same laws regarding the safety of schoolchildren applied to ALL teachers in the state. How’s THAT for progressive thinking from a conservative Republican, in an America not eight years removed from the Stonewall Riots? With former two-time Governor Reagan’s stern and vocal opposition, Prop 6 lost by a million votes. And John Briggs lost his race for governor in the primaries.

In taking the bold stand he did, candidate Reagan completely alienated the right wing in California, which blamed him for both the Prop 6 defeat and John Briggs’ primary loss. It was an act of political courage on Reagan’s part that might not only have cost him electoral vote-rich California, but the Presidency itself.

As it turned out, Ronald Reagan took California by a handy seventeen points in his 1980 landslide pummeling of Jimmy Carter, sending the President back to his peanut farm in Georgia (if only he had stayed there). And you can bet a lot of grateful gays and lesbians remembered Ronnie’s championing their cause, and pulled the lever for The Gipper. But despite all that, Ronald Reagan was a conservative of his time. Tolerance did not mean acceptance.

Again, from the Independent Gay Forum:

Reagan: “My criticism is that [the gay movement] isn’t just asking for civil rights; it’s asking for recognition and acceptance of an alternative lifestyle which I do not believe society can condone, nor can I.”

Aside from his tolerant personal attitude, Reagan’s actual record on civil liberties for gays was surprisingly good. Cannon reports that Reagan was “repelled by the aggressive public crusades against homosexual life styles which became a staple of right wing politics in the late 1970s.

Though liberals may harangue Ronald Reagan as I’ve indicated, the fact remains. When gays and lesbians desperately needed him as they faced REAL institutionalized homophobia, Ronald Reagan was there for them, and in a major way that turned the tide completely in their favor. In fact, the openly gay Log Cabin Republicans were spawned from this huge political victory.

Now let us move on to candidate Barack Obama and his wishy-washy stand on Prop 8, the gay California ballot referendum of his time:

“I’ve stated my opposition to this. I think [Prop 8 is] unnecessary. I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them.”

The main point that seemed to escape candidate Obama at this time was that they WERE playing around with the California Constitution. I believe candidate Obama missed an opportunity here to take a bold stand on gay issues like Reagan did, and speak out against Prop 8 from the liberal Democrat POV. He was, and is, a very charming and charismatic candidate and President. No denying that. He could have used that charisma and charm to sway many minds over, and with a very simple statement that could have swung the Prop 8 vote the 3 points it needed to pass.

Example:

“Though I myself oppose gay marriage, I cannot let this Constitutional ban go unchallenged. Amendments that restrict rights instead of expanding them are un-American. Therefore, I oppose the passage of Proposition 8, and I hope you will, too. I will further state that I only support this measure as civil procedure.

“Churches and individuals that are morally opposed to gay marriage should not be compelled under legal threat or duress to participate. That is their right under freedom of religion. I would no more want gays invading the rights of churches, than I would want churches invading the rights of gays.”

But, no. What we got was candidate Obama wetting his finger and sticking it in the air. Just like Bill Clinton with his poll-driven morality, trying to have it both ways. Not much Hope For Change there with regard to Democratic presidents, it would seem. Even in office, the Obama Administration has been wishy-washy on pushing gay issues like Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. But I don’t really care about that. Obama and gay advocates can hammer out DADT, among many other issues.

But even as a straight man, I am VERY concerned about the officially-sanctioned extermination of LGBTs in Iraq on our dime, what I now call the Gay Holocaust in Iraq. What else do you call a specifically targeted pogrom, with the express goal of exterminating a segment of the population? If this were merely a death squad issue, that would be matter for the Iraqi government.

Unfortunately, the Iraqi government is neck-deep in the gay butchery themselves. Interior Ministry police hunt down gays in Baghdad, raid parties, hunt them online by using fake foreign IP addresses (as Iran does),  then tortures and exterminates them in the worst possible ways. Just as Iraqi Spiritual Leader Ali al-Sistani declared they should be, in his 2006 fatwa of death against Iraqi LGBTs. Though removed from his website after controversy, the fatwa is still in full effect.

Allow me at this point to question the spirituality of a religious leader favoring any pogrom, or stating that ANYONE should die in the ‘worst possible ways’.

Here is one former Mahdi Army member who now makes a career of being a gay death squad ’surgeon,’ cutting out the cancer of homosexuality the Americans brought with them to Iraq. His words, not mine. Also, one particularly subhuman technique of killing gays, now quite popular with Iraq’s most pious Shiite extremists, is to super-glue a gay man’s anus shut, pump him full of a diarrhea-inducing compound, and have a few laughs as the victim suffers unbelievable agony before dying. The Iraqi tribes also now have carte blanche to exterminate any Iraqi LGBTs they find.

Unfortunately, this Gay Holocaust of Iraqi LGBTs, which has already claimed nearly 500 innocent lives in the most gruesome of ways since the 2003 invasion, and is now ramping up in violence and horror by the day, enjoys wide public support in Islamic Iraq. Just take a look at this recent report, also from Common Ills:

This morning AFP is reporting that signs are going up around the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad threatening to kill a list of people alleged to be gay. The posters are put out by the Brigades of the Righteous and AFP translates the posters as stating, “We will punish you, perverts” and “We will get you, puppies” has been scrawled on some posters — “puppies” being slang for gay males in Iraq. The Australian carries the AFP report here. These posters are going up around Sadr City. Where is the United Nations condemnation? Where is the White House, where is the US State Dept?

Very good questions, to which you may not like the answers. I know I don’t. Here’s State’s response to this worsening gay horrorshow in Iraq, again from the Common Ills blog:

Noel Clay, a State Department spokesperson, said U.S. officials “condemn the persecution of LGBTs in Iraq,” but he couldn’t confirm whether the violence they’re facing in Iraq is because of their sexual orientation. Clay noted that while homosexuality is against the law in Iraq, the death penalty is not the punishment for homosexual acts.

Now I don’t know who Noel Clay is, but I do now know that Inspector Clouseau is Einstein by comparison. I’m finding too much evidence. I don’t even have to look! How dangerously stupid is Noel Clay, to be in that lofty position as State and be so ignorant of the facts? Is he just stupid? Or worse, is it willful ignorance?

To be fair, this gay horrorshow started on President Bush’s watch. He should have done far more to nip it in the bud in 2006 after Sistani’s fatwa. In my mind, that will remain a black mark on his record. He should have put a stop to it, instead of letting it fester to the point it is today. All that said, this issue is now fully the Obama Administration’s and Congress’ problem lock, stock and barrel.

So where is President Obama? Secretary Clinton? Madame SOS said she would stand with ALL the Iraqi people! Where is she on this issue, so near and dear to gay hearts? Nothing on State’s main or Iraq pages. Even Queerty, a major gay blog, is slamming Hillary on this issue. How bad is that? Where is our Gay Rights Hero President on our American tax dollars subsidizing a Gay Holocaust?

What are we fighting for there? Freedom? What are we defending Iraq from? Islamist extremism? Starting to look like a lost war to me! And I supported President Bush every step of the way on this war, even when he was getting hammered for it by everyone! I believed the Iraqi people deserved a shot. For the first time in six years, I’m not so sure anymore.

I look at it this way. Either the Iraqi government and people can put a stop to this Auschwitz-like Gay Holocaust in Iraq, or I say withdraw and let Al Qaeda in Iraq take over. Certainly wouldn’t make life any worse for Iraqi LGBTs. And they can ALL share in the terror they enjoy so much! Hell, I’d even be willing to help and support Al Qaeda do just that! But only this once. You know. Like a Christmas armistice. Wouldn’t be the first time we helped Al Qaeda fight terror.

A brilliant strategy on fighting the war on state-sponsored Islamist terror too, if you think about it. Not only would Iran lose its considerable Iraqi Shiite power base, a supreme Sunni Al Qaeda in Iraq would be a mortal foe, and would no doubt be plotting 9/11s for Tehran and elsewhere in the Islamic Republic. As a bonus, Iraq Shiite extremists like the ’surgeon’ and all his gay-butchering Islamist Nazi pals would be the first to be hunted down and exterminated by a supreme Al Qaeda in Iraq. They could ALL enjoy some open-air surgery and super-glue enemas!

How Joker-like blackly comic great would THAT be?

Considering Iran has now seemed to have successfully exported their own Gay Holocaust to Iraq, how Joker-like great would all that be, too! I say let a Sunni extremist Iraq and Shiite extremist Iran turn each others’ nations into bombed-out wastelands of terror. And without the loss of one American life or dime. It’s one idea, anyway. Another hor d’ouevre for thought. And it couldn’t happen to nicer guys. Unless, of course, the Iraqi people decide to refrain from their most-popular anti-gay pogrom and join the civilized. Otherwise, I see no point in defending them any longer.

It sure would be nice to see others speaking out against this taxpayer-funded gay horrorshow in Iraq. Like our Gay Hero President, for example. Knowing Ronnie as I do, I’m sure he wouldn’t stand for this kind of abomination in any nation being rebuilt with American taxpayer dollars, or protected by American soldiers.

Congress, State and The White House really need to hear about this LGBT horrorshow in Iraq, loudly and repeatedly. Short of war, there’s nothing we can do about Iran’s Himmler-like extermination of gays. War works for me, though. But Iraq is ours. We broke it, we fix it. And you could not have much more severe of a breakage in Iraq than a Gay Holocaust. This is 100% Obama’s and the current government’s problem now. Those gay anal super-glueings started on their watch.

Time to stop it. Like right now.

Also, since Hollywood pretty much propelled Obama into office, why don’t you get on the horn to the gay and human rights chumps at AMPAS? See if they can give their best bud and Gay Rights Hero Obamamessiah a shoutout. Then again, considering AMPAS’ and Hollywood’s own deafening silence on Roxana Saberi and Iran’s Gay Holocaust, maybe we’d better wait until the next Oscars for them to champion “gay rights for everyone” again, like Penn and Black so tearfully pleaded for.

That stuff looks SO good on TV, doesn’t it? Just like President Obama and his so-called championing of gay rights, which appears to be totally MIA on EVERY gay rights issue. Hell, I’m a Reagan Republican, and I have a better record on this issue than all of them combined! I don’t care that they’re gay! They’re innocent human beings, and they’re being horribly tortured and brutally exterminated! Do you have to be Jewish to be totally repulsed by Auschwitz?

Based on Reagan’s record, I believe The Gipper would have put a stop to that shite and ordered American troops to hunt down the death squads, as American GIs once hunted down the SS ‘werewolves’ in postwar Berlin. I also believe he would have pummeled al-Maliki’s Shiite government over the issue as well. Which only makes the silence by the Obama Administration and Congress on this issue more profoundly deafening. O Gay Rights Hero President, where ARE you?

Oh  and if any of you ObamaBots believe anything I’ve said here is fantastic or untrue, look it up yourselves. I’m tired of spending hours researching and linking stuff I already know inside out. Plenty out there on all this gay horrorshow stuff, in both Iran and Iraq. Too much, actually. The Internet’s glutted with it! You just have to look. And not the other way, as even the Invisible Press seems content to. Look at how few in the MSM are reporting on this abomination. Gay blogs, mostly, along with the BBC and some S.F. TV affiliates.

The rest I leave to you. And our Gay Hero President and Congressional gay rights champs. Ya, As if. Too busy saying Israel needs a tougher line. Um, excuse me?

Goddamn, I miss Ronald Reagan. He stood up even for those he totally disagreed with. This bunch won’t even stand up for those they profess to champion! I guess that part I must leave to you, Dear Readers. Won’t you speak up for those who can’t, to those who should be and aren’t?

Do it for Ronnie! This is the ULTIMATE in taxpayer issues!

And somebody wake up Perez Hilton. Bigger problem here than Miss California, methinks. See if she can’t get the Prop 8 crowd as rabid on the horrific slaughter of Iraqi and Iranian gays as they are with the Mormon Church and us! I’ve sent him a dozen emails on this stuff. Crickets! My Gay Hero.

And just to show I’m not partisan or picking on Perez here (which is just too easy to do), the Log Cabin Republicans linked above need a shoutout, too. I’ve been cc’ing them on all my Perez Hilton emails. None too pleased with their response, either. Time to step it up. Hell, they’re the gays here! Why do I and only a handful of REAL gay advocates have to be the ones screaming to the skies about all this gay horrorshow stuff?

Hmm. Interesting question, indeed.

The Match Up: 

• The Beauty Queen – Ms. Carrie Prejean – Miss California, now Miss USA 2009 Runner Up.
• The Drama Queen – Perez Hilton. He has a B.A. in drama, is a gay activist blogger, and co-opted his professional name from a celebrity with whom he has a personal fascination. He was a judge in the Miss USA pageant.

Ms. Prejean was the underdog. She’s not a slugger. She’s just a dumb blonde, right? 

Mr. Hilton, on the other hand is the notorious gay activist blogger – a verbal street brawler known for picking and winning fights by jumping victims in back alleys and clobbering them with whatever he can get his hands on  - pipes, tire irons, beer bottles.  

On the surface, the pageant appeared to be a well refereed event. Even Hilton looked freshly scrubbed and donned a toothy grin throughout the evening. But the fix was in. What we didn’t see was that Hilton had a horseshoe hidden in his right glove. This was one match he wasn’t going to lose – not on national television. He figured he had one punch and it had to be a knock out. 

There they stood, face to face – both representing different philosophies, opposing beliefs. The moment dripped with anticipation. Then Hilton threw his punch. Gay Marriage! Of course. What else from Hilton. Yes, the hotly debated issue of redefining marriage to include gay unions was supposed to be a knockout punch. But it only grazed her chin. She stumbled slightly, recovered and shot back her reply. According to her, the definition of marriage should remain as it has been defined throughout the history of our country – between a man and a woman. 

She knew it wasn’t PC. But she was, after all, Miss “California” -  a state that just voted (Prop Eight) to uphold the current definition of marriage. She is also a woman of faith – holding a belief consistent with the majority of the state of California (not to mention consistent with Pres. Obama and Hillary Clinton). But more importantly, her answer was authentically truthful to her own personal beliefs. 

The camera cut to Hilton in time to catch his jaw drop – his face crestfallen. If you listened closely enough you could even hear the horseshoe fall out of his glove.  This was clearly not the answer he expected. Who in this world has the temerity to proclaim a personal position so politically incorrect on national television? Apparently there’s one person – Ms. Prejean. Doesn’t she know that people like Hilton can destroy her? That she might never work in this town again? And even more tragic, she may never get invited to a Janeane Garofalo Oscar party?  

For Ms. Prejean, it was clearly a seminal moment in her life – with defining clarity and simplicity she expressed a personal belief. Standing for something, and telling the world doesn’t need to be complicated. I wonder if any of our politicians were watching? 

Now if Hilton had even a modicum of self respect he would have gone home and licked his wounds. But pathetically, Hilton couldn’t contain his rage. It’s as if he decided to continue his brawl in the parking lot where he caught up to Ms. Prejean and sucker punched her getting into her car. And while she was down, he continued to wail on her.   

You’ve all seen the clips by now. Hilton viciously berated Miss California on TV and YouTube, calling her a “bitc*” and reportedly a “cun*”. And where does this rage come from? Ms. Prejean shared her beliefs.  

As America struggles to reclaim its soul and find true leaders for the future, regardless of political philosophy, you have to admire any display of bravery, courage, or sacrifice made on behalf of “principle.” 

Miss California has transcended beauty queen status. She is now much more than a pinup girl for our soldiers. She is a soldier – and leading a charge. 

As for the pageant “judge”, he set aside any pretense of objectivity and egregiously used his position of power to advance his cause. When he ranted that if Miss California would have somehow won the crown, “I shi* you not, I would have gone up on that stage, I would have snatched that tiara off her head and run out the door!!!” – you have to ask.  Who at the pageant organization thought it was a good idea to make a bigoted heterophobe a pageant judge? 

Maybe that person is Keith Lewis- co executive director of the pageant – or maybe his boss Donald Trump? Trump ducked responsibility for Hilton’s assignment on Bill O’Reilly’s The Factor. Lewis stated (speaking of himself) that he “…is saddened and hurt  that Miss California believes that marriage belongs only to a man and a woman.” Well I’m saddened that Keith Lewis is saddened. 

Help me out here. The directors of the pageant are offended when a contestant expresses a belief contrary to theirs? – a viewpoint which by the way is mainstream – nothing radical about it. So, help me out here. Is being guilty of such an offense a de facto disqualifier for contestants? If so, disclose it to the contestants in advance. Flat out tell them what beliefs are acceptable to the committee, and which ones are not – which religions and churches can be attended and which ones can’t.   

Hey, why not issue a booklet to contestants containing all the acceptable answers and viewpoints of the committee. Give them time to consider the option ahead – when they’re in the spotlight and they may need to choose to abandon their core principles for the sake of receiving the tiara……. Tiara, or beliefs. 

In fact, just send out a mass email to the country with all the acceptable positions of the committee and forego the charade of running the pageant as a propaganda machine? 

Maybe the title of this piece should have been Beauty and the Beast. And the Beast isn’t confined to Perez Hilton. You decide.

Note: No “method acting” was used in the making of this video… Not that there’s anything wrong with that.