Karen Handel, gay marriage and some ‘bring it on’ nonsense
July 17, 2009 at 12:35 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsLaura Douglas-Brown of the Southern Voice points our attention to Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s rather blunt stance on gay marriage, expressed several months ago in her “bring it on” campaign video.
Surprise! The GOP gubernatorial candidate opposes the idea and will fight efforts to show respect to gay men and women who’d like to enjoy the same legal rights as straight people! Including divorce!
From SoVo:
Actually, Handel used to agree on more than that with gay voters. In her campaign and tenure on the Fulton County Commission, she was quite open to meeting with gay groups and talking to Southern Voice.
That all changed when she ran for Secretary of State in 2006 and pandered to the far right of the GOP in a primary race that became a ridiculous contest to see who was the most anti-gay.
But despite our disappointment with Handel’s flip-flop, we could at least laugh at the hyperbole of her hypocrisy.
SoVo digs into its blog archives and revisits Handel’s 2006 Secretary of State race against Bill Stephens, in which one tried to outdo the other by showing how much they didn’t read the newspaper.
But gay marriage isn’t the only thing that Handel is challenging to “bring it on.” She has a number of other, similarly scripted video sound-bites posted for such issues as wasteful spending, women in politics, redroductive rights and Georgia’s shitty schools.
July 17th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
As much as I support gay marriage, I can’t stand the gay marriage movement.
“Roar! I live in Grant Park, wear skinny jeans, and have 7 gay friends! Fuck georgians who don’t support gay marriage! No, I really know any of them personally, but why would I? They live in Marietta and Macon, and fuck the suburbs. I mean, I do want to tell them what cars they can drive (for the enviornment, you know?!?) and spend my saturdays blogging how much I hate them, but they should respect our rights! Because they fucking should! I’m going to the Local….”
That all might be true, but its a crappy way to run a civil rights movement. Good luck with all that.
July 17th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Sigh… I remember the good ‘ole days. When Handel used to be a rational moderate. Now she’s trying to be Sadie Fields Jr.
To that, I say… bring it on. The hate stuff, intolerance rhetoric is an awfully big target. Who could miss?! (Other than DPG.)
July 17th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I am in total support of equality across the board. Whether we are talking about racial equality, sexual equality, etc – but the fact is marriage is a religious institution – instead of pushing for another area of our lives to infiltrated and our individuals rights to be usurped by the blurry lines that church and state have drawn why not push for civil unions for both gay and straight couples – we no longer allow the government to define what love and relationships are.
July 17th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
I love your generalities, Adam.
Handel is doing what she has to do to win, much like she did at the Fulton County office level: suck up to the constituency that will get her elected.
July 17th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
lol @ how adam has turned this from a “karen handel is a moron” monent to “adam is a moron with an ax to grind against skinny jeans” moment.
well done, sir!
July 17th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
rptrcub –
What you don’t get is that generalities matter. Generalities influence public opinion, and public opinion influences voters. You change public opinion, you change the voters for gay marriage.
Successful civil rights movements have recognized and utilized public opinion to their advantage. What made men like MLK so successful was his presentation of his movement as a sober, serious group, appealing to basic Christian sentiments.
In contrast, the contemporary “gay rights movement” has a serious public image problem. When your typical Georgian from Jonesboro thinks about homosexuals, he thinks of “sinful” acts like pride festival and what is projected in movies.
Is this fair? No. Does the GLBT community have the right to live how it wants? Absolutely. But they aren’t winning any votes by forming an extremely insular community in midtown, throwing a decadent festivals (repulsive to sensibilities of the rest of the state), and bitching about “rednecks.” That’s not the way to win GA’s hearts and minds.
That’s also why the judicial route to social change, as opposed to the legislative avenue, has been so attractive: The GLBT can let a court order win that battle for them.
July 17th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Midtown is not the end all and be all of the gay community in Atlanta, outside of an alleged ghetto which becomes straighter by the minute (and that’s not a bad thing in my opinion, either).
There are quite a number of gay couples living all over the metro area, some openly, some quietly, who live their lives in a way that shows just how normal and absolutely boring we can be. I can count couples in Douglasville, Kennesaw, Smyrna, Lawrenceville, Stockbridge, and yes, Jonesboro where everyone knows it but they’re not running around on rollerskates wearing tutus.
We don’t all bitch about rednecks. In fact, some of us ARE rednecks.
If you think we’re all insular, you’ve been around the wrong gays. I’m sorry you’ve had that experience.
The best PR campaign would be for those ordinary, boring, workaday gays to simply be who they are and to tell their story.
July 17th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
rptrcub –
I hope you’re right that there are gay individuals/couples sprinkled throughout the greater metro area. It’d be a shame if the neighbor you lent sugar or gave a ride home to would also vote against your right to marry.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Adam & rptrcub – The last 8 years my hubby and I lived in metro Atlanta we were near Northlake Mall, ITP but within listenin’ distance of the Perimeter. There was us at one end of our small street, and the lesbian couple at the other end. In fact, there were enough of “us” in the Tucker, Clarkston and Northlake areas to support The Stage Door in downtown Tucker, “The Little Gay Bar That Could”: http://www.thestagedoor.biz/