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Media Matters - It's time for MSNBC to address Carlson's comments
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by angryindian | September 1, 2007 at 01:59 pm
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It seems the neo-conservative/republican minded amongst us find Gay-bashing something to laugh at. Evidently, Tucker Carlson had no problem admitting to coming back to the scene of an alleging "bothering" of his person with another individual to assault this "bothering homosexual" because he felt that the man in question attempted to solicit sex from him a restroom.
As his co-hosts laughed at this, the American public was served yet another reason to use violence as a means of intimidationg and often killing homosexuals or people they believe to be homosexual. After Senator Craig and the race-baiting state rep. Bob Allen outings, conservatives need to come to terms with their issues sourrounding sexual orientation. Especially since the Cheney family has contradicted itself by fighting against Gay rights while expressing their condonement for the lesbain relationship and test-tube baby of their openly Gay daughter. - The Angryindian
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Media Matters - It's time for MSNBC to address Carlson's comments During a discussion Tuesday night on MSNBC Live with Dan Abrams about Sen. Larry Craig's (R-ID) arrest for "lewd conduct" and eventual guilty plea, Tucker Carlson described to fellow MSNBC hosts Dan Abrams and Joe Scarborough his assault on a man who he said "bothered" him in a Washington, D.C., public restroom.Carlson said, "Having sex in a public men's room is outrageous. It's also really common. I've been bothered in men's rooms." Carlson continued, "I've been bothered in Georgetown Park," in Washington, D.C., "when I was in high school." When Abrams asked how Carlson responded to being "bothered," as Abrams and Scarborough laughed, Carlson asserted, "I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the -- you know, and grabbed him, and ... hit him against the stall with his head, actually." The laughter continued.
Carlson's comments, coupled with laughter from Abrams and Scarborough, suggested to viewers that physical violence is an appropriate response to an unwelcome overture. This is dangerous and wrong.
MSNBC has yet to acknowledge Carlson's comments or address why Abrams and Scarborough laughed while Carlson recounted his actions. Instead, MSNBC has treated Carlson's comments as a laughing matter, re-airing the portion in which Carlson claimed to have been "bothered," but omitting the portion in which he seemed to boast of physical assault.
Organizations such as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) have called on Carlson to apologize for his grossly inappropriate remarks. Carlson has issued a statement completely revising his account of the alleged incident, but he has yet to apologize or to condemn acts of violence against gays and lesbians. And Carlson's revised account does nothing to mitigate the damage of his on-air comments. Meanwhile, MSNBC has remained silent about the incident.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (10)
at 16:11 on September 1st, 2007
angry maybe you would like to see how your hero Dr. Fidel treats Homosexuals with AIDS in Cuba since you are so concerned about the treatment of Gays with all do respect of course.
Castro's admiring description of rural life in Cuba ("in the country, there are no homosexuals"[12]) echoed the traditional socialist conception of homosexuality as bourgeois decadence, and he denounced "maricones" (faggots) as "agents of imperialism".[22] Castro explained his reasoning in a 1965 interview:
allowed in positions where they are able to exert influence upon young
people. In the conditions under which we live, because of the problems
which our country is facing, we must inculcate your youth with the
spirit of discipline, of struggle, of work... [W]e would never come to
believe that a homosexual could embody the conditions and requirements
of conduct that would enable us to consider him a true Revolutionary, a
true Communist militant. A deviation of that nature clashes with the
concept we have of what a militant Communist must be.[23]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_rights_in_Cuba#Recent_crackdowns
The right to question a defect or problem or to receive additional
information or to send information or to openly ask for donated
medications may result in consequences. Cubans with AIDS are,
apparently, receiving generally good medical attention, but the concept
of AIDS as a disease that is related to "human rights" does not exist
for them.
Cheo told me that in the AIDS clinics he is well treated and
there is no discrimination. "But in other government institutions, once
they know you are HIV-positive, they treat you in a degrading manner
and you just have to accept it," he said. "I think Cuba does have one
of lowest rates of AIDS in all of Latin America," he added, "but if
that weren't true, you would never find out about it. The government
will 'decide' how much HIV there is. And not necessarily by counting
cases."
In Cuba, there are no gay organizations, and no gay bars and
discos, although apparently gays and lesbians are not harassed, as
such, by the government. But they are also not allowed to organize
formally or open a safe, public meeting place. Much gay life seems to
take place in the streets surrounding the huge Havana Libre Hotel,
where dozens of men appear after 10 p.m., but almost all of the action
in this area seems to revolve around sexual tourism.
at 16:31 on September 1st, 2007
That was 1965. In 1993 he had reversed his position and declared to the world press that homosexuality is a “Natural aspect and tendency of human beings.” He admitted to the zealous notion that everything that was an ideological factor of the revolution was therefore counter-revolutionary and summarily persecuted. As Wikipedia explains quoting openly gay author Ian Lumsden
when he notes that since 1986 there exists "Little evidence to support the
contention that the persecution of homosexuals remains a matter of
state policy". That's better than any American head of state has done. The fact that anti-homosexual bias still exists does not prove that the government is directly behind the maintenence of such bigotries. This is the very same argument, or excuse, European American society gives to dismiss institutional racism, so that alone gives this perspective comparable veracity.
In the United States during the same period of the revolution, homosexuals were fired once outed or found to be Gay, sodomy was illegal in most states, (as it still in many jurisdictions) and aggressively prosecuted by municipal vice squads such as the one that caused the Stonewall riots. Gay men and women are still the subjects of randomised and often planned attacks and such victimisation has only increased over the years. And when one adds on the blatantly biased movement to prevent Gay couples from marrying or serving in the military, (The only nation in NATO that still continues this ban) The U.S. has no moral ground here.
I really don't know where you get this idea that I am a personal friend of Dr. Castro. I just question the resentment towards someone who has never done anything to the United States other than topple it imperialist control over the island. And after more than 22 different asassination attemps on his life with help from the Italian Mafia as openly admitted by the CIA in the recent "Family Jewels" documents, its a wonder most Cubans on general principle harbour any goodwill towards the U.S. at all.
at 17:04 on September 1st, 2007
I don't think Cuba was really the point of this post, though.
(Though you remind me, did you ever read anything by Reinaldo Arenas? He was rather badly treated by both Cuba and the US in the middle of the 1980's AIDS scare; his The Ill-Fated Peregrinations of Fray Servando is a magical-realist classic, though my Spanish was not good enough to read it in its original language)
at 19:24 on September 1st, 2007
I know of Arenas because of his background as a Gay activist that was mistreated by the Cuban government. His books were required reading for the NYC Gay community especially once the film version of 'Before Night Falls' had its premere there. And yeah, he was rooked by both countries primarily for the same reason.
at 17:55 on September 1st, 2007
I Am the last person who will defend the US actions toward Gays. We will always disagree about cuba I guess it hits home with me but I respect your reply Angry.
at 18:09 on September 1st, 2007
Yes Jordan He was a sad story on Cubas treatment towards writers till this day. not to mention his treatment for being gay.
Arenas was born in the countryside, in the northern part of the Province of Oriente, Cuba, and later moved to the city of Holguín. In 1963, he moved to Havana to enroll in the School of Planification and, later, in the Faculty of Letters at the Universidad de La Habana,
where he studied philosophy and literature without completing a degree.
The following year, he began working at the Biblioteca Nacional José
Martí. [1]
While there, his talent was noticed and he was awarded prizes at Cirilo
Villaverde National Competition held by UNEAC (National Union of Cuban
Writers and Artists). (Soto 1998) Interestingly, his Hallucinations
was awarded “first Honorable Mention” in 1966 although, as the judges
could find no better entry, no First Prize was awarded that year.
(Colchie 2001)
His writings and openly gay lifestyle were, by 1967, bringing him
into conflict with the Communist government. He left the Biblioteca
Nacional and became an editor for the Cuban Book Institute until 1968.
From 1968 to 1974 he was a journalist and editor for the literary
magazine La Gaceta de Cuba. In 1973, he was sent to prison
after being charged and convicted of 'ideological deviation' and for
publishing abroad without official consent. He escaped from prison and
tried to leave Cuba by launching himself from the shore on a tire inner
tube. The attempt failed and he was rearrested near Lenin Park and
imprisoned at the notorious El Morro Castle alongside murderers and
rapists. He survived by helping the inmates to write letters to wives
and lovers. He was able to collect enough paper this way to continue
his writing. However, his attempts to smuggle his work out of prison
were discovered and he was severely punished. Threatened with death, he
was forced to renounce his work and was released in 1976. [2] In 1980, as part of the Mariel Boatlift, he fled to the United States. [3]
Despite his short life and the hardships imposed during his imprisonment, Arenas produced a significant body of work. His Pentagonia is a set of five novels that comprise a “secret history” of post revolutionary Cuba. It includes the poetical Farewell to the Sea, Palace of the White Skunks and the Rabelaisian Color of Summer.
In these novels Arenas’ style ranges from a stark realist narrative to
absurd satiric humor. He traces his own life story in what to him is
the absurd world of Castro’s Cuba. In each of the novels Arenas himself
is a major character, going by a number of pseudonyms. His
autobiography, Before Night Falls was on the New York Times list of the ten best books of the year in 1993. In 2000 this work was made into a film, directed by Julian Schnabel, in which Arenas was played by Javier Bardem.
[ Death
In 1987, Arenas was diagnosed with AIDS,
but he continued to write and speak out against the Cuban government.
He mentored many Cuban Exile writers, including John O'Donnell-Rosales.
After battling AIDS, Arenas committed suicide by taking an overdose of
drugs and alcohol on December 7, 1990, in New York. In a suicide letter written for publication, Arenas wrote:
Due to my delicate state of health and to the terrible depression it
causes me not to be able to continue writing and struggling for the
freedom of Cuba, I am ending my life. . . . I want to encourage the
Cuban people out of the country as well as on the Island to continue
fighting for freedom. . . Cuba will be free. I already am.
This is how writers and gay writers musicians and artists are treated in Cuba.
at 21:23 on September 1st, 2007
angryindian, I like this story. It's good stuff.
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your
brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How
can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your eye,"
when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite,
first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly
to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
JESUS OF NAZARETH Matthew 7:3-5
Guess Jesus said it best. There is no place for hypocrites in leadership. I don't care where they are!
Angry your point is correct, but more importantly the exchange of discussion was excellent.
at 03:50 on September 2nd, 2007
Angry he suffered not because of the US. he suffered because his people live on a prison Island that many use as a playgraound to idolize a madman that has destroyed that island thank you very much. Urbano411 well said. before throwing stones we must check ourselves that is what happened to Larry Craig.
at 12:28 on September 2nd, 2007
You are wrong. Read his autobiograpical work about his life in the U.S. He still faced discrimination as an Latino immigrant that was part of the Mariel Boatlift and he still faced bias from fellow Cubans as well as Americans due to his open homosexuality. The organised right-wing anti-Castro theologists had no use for him. Arenas described his new freedom in Miami as "purgatory" and moving to NYC learned how American society treats people with HIV/AIDS without medical insurance. He became homeless and lived a hand-to-mouth existence until his suicide in 1990.
This article is not about Dr. Fidel Castro, please re-read Jordan's note above.
at 12:06 on September 3rd, 2007
Absolutely.