Here’s the link. I take back what I said about him being more appealing than his supporters. When Joe asks Sanchez if he’s gay, Sanchez gives a non-denial denial:
JMG: Do you consider yourself gay?
SANCHEZ: Boyfriends: 0 Fiance: 2 Wife: 1. I’d say I’m pretty bad at being gay.
Uh huh.
And he laughs off his buddy Ann Coulter’s inflammatory comments.
JMG: What do you think of Ann Coulter, especially regarding her “faggot” remark at CPAC? What did Ann say to you?
SANCHEZ: I, personally wouldn’t have used the word faggot in public like that. That said, Ann made a joke and that’s just what she does. I wouldn’t want her right to speak breeched in any way. The complaints from all these pissed off people is hilarious. I know Ann gets a kick out of being a provocateur, and these hissyfits will probably figure in her next article.
Yeah, that Ann. What a joker. Showing off her intelligence and maturity with her “schoolyard taunts”, advocating mass murder, encouraging “someone” to poison a Supreme Court justice. She’s a real hoot.
Then this former porn star/”escort” trashes gays in general:
There’s something about the beleaguered gay psyche that wants to prove to the world that everyone is just as messed up as they are. So, they start off with the term hypocrite and work their way backwards looking for signs of deviant behavior in hopes of discovering some type of bastard kinship. That’s why I’ve had the term self-loathing thrown at me so often. The gay community eats its own in a frenzied hope of self-serving fulfillment.
Charming. Cpl. Sanchez, you can’t have it both ways, although that’s clearly what you want. It’s telling that you accuse the gay community of “eat[ing] its own” when at the same time you want to pretend that being married to a woman makes you straight.
I guess Don’t Ask Don’t Tell doesn’t technically apply to Cpl. Sanchez, since apparently no one asked, and he isn’t the one who told. And, anyway, he’s not gay. Really.
But I have to wonder how many gay and lesbian servicepeople have been booted under DADT after being outed by others. They probably didn’t have prominent conservative supporters to protect them. (Ironically, as John Aravosis points out, it’s the evil liberals so despised by Sanchez who support the right of gays and lesbians to serve their country in the military.)
Either way, Sanchez shouldn’t worry; I’m sure he has a job waiting at a right-wing “think” tank.
You should watch Dennis Miller’s comments on Coulter during his talk with Bill O’Reilly. Not only was he quite funny, but he had some really good comments on her. I particularly like his Pavlov dog comment.
I’m going to get flamed here, but…although I can’t imagine why this man is trying to pretend he isn’t gay—has there ever been more cinematographic evidence to the contrary, against ANYONE?— I have read web postings that to me seem to bear out his comments, from some members of the gay community at least. (I am really starting to hate the word “community.” You’re gay? black? Here, let me affix this permanent membership badge to your forehead. There, that’s all we need to know about you.)
He was wrong to apply his quasi-psychological speculations to all gays, of course. But I admit I am made just as uncomfortable, if not more so, by the hate-filled rhetoric on the far left as on the far right, spewed forth anonymously on blogs for the whole world to read.
There, flame away.
I won’t flame you, Del. I certainly don’t read every blog out there, but it’s been my experience that the nastiness on the left comes mostly from commenters rather than the bloggers themselves. I’ve also noticed a tendency, at least on the sites I visit, to expect commenters to refrain from really hateful language — for instance, making it clear that Ann Coulter should be criticized based on her words and actions, not on her appearance. That doesn’t stop some people from speculating about her gender/orientation, but it does put them on notice that it’s not appreciated.
I can understand the frustration with someone like Sanchez, who not only wants to deny that he’s gay but is also perfectly happy hanging out with people who demonize gays. You’re correct that I was unhappy with his generalization about gay people, and I guess it’s just as inaccurate to refer to the gay community (as a homogenous group) in a positive light as it is to refer to the gay lifestyle (as if there’s only one) in a negative way. You’re the language whiz — help me out here.
Sorry I didn’t post earlier – seemed like your server was down all day yesterday? At least, I couldn’t get the site to load. So I saved what I wrote, and here it is:
I agree that it’s usually the posters being really nasty. Just yesterday on Americablog, “AlberquerqueKen” tells the world, “I will stop being public about my sexual orientation when you and other straights (assuming you are one) stop sending me wedding invites, publishing wedding announcements in the paper, being seen together in public as a couple, and especially stop insisting I pay for the education of the products of their sexual activies.” [italics mine] I’d say that’s a little over the top. (I will admit he was provoked by another poster who asked “you gays” to “leave your sexual preferences where they belong and stop shoving them in everybody’s face.”)
I’m disturbed by the hateful language coming from the left in general. It’s not as crude as, for instance, the truly frightening white supremacist stuff, but a lot of it is so childish. There is, or was (haven’t been there in a while) an entire thread on Salon’s “Table Talk” devoted to criticizing Laura Bush’s clothes. Sure, that catty kind of stuff is fine when you’re dishing with your girlfriends, and I guess cyber-girlfriends are as good as any. But iirc this thing went on for years. It reminds me making fun of the “popular people” back in junior high. I guess it’s too much to expect measured, reasoned political discourse from every left-leaning internet site, but still. You can tell from the way these people write that they are well-educated. Just look how frequently they criticize dissenters’ spelling!
As far as “community,” I am mostly irritated with hearing the word uttered every ten minutes, usually by someone trying to get money and/or votes out of somebody else. In many cases it’s a useful term: when somebody says “arts community” or “downtown business community” it means people whose conscious choice of activity or investment links their interests. But the “gay community” is supposed to be everybody who likes sexual activity with his/her own gender. I know that the common interest linking them is the continuing fight for anti-discrimination laws. But it still seems a bit much to expect anybody to identify himself chiefly, if not solely, by his sexual orientation. Especially when gays are as diverse as, well, as the rest of the human race. And I think maybe throwing this “community” business around perpetuates negative gay stereotypes among the straights who have a tendency to homophobia anyway—who are exactly the straights the “movement” wants to reach.
I guess I have the Booker T. Washington approach to activism.
About Ann Coulter’s offensive comments about people who happen to share membership in a particular group, Sanchez says, “I wouldn’t want her right to speak breeched in any way.” And yet this is a man who is famous/notorious BECAUSE he took so much offense at the speech of others on his campus regarding people who are members of the military.
Which is it? You either believe in the first amendment for all, or you believe in it for none. I’ve always felt that the most admirable thing about military service is the idealistic defense of the principles enshrined in our constitution, the right to free speech chief among them. But hell, I’m not a conservative porn star soldier whore, so what right do I have to an opinion?