I have long maintained that calling people by their preferred names and/or labels is an important step in promoting civil, respectful dialogue. It's a small concession that one can make at little or no cost to oneself. However, some anti-gay groups stubbornly insist upon calling gay people "homosexuals." I have explained before why many gay men and lesbians find the term "homosexual" offensive- namely because it invokes pathology.
Yet, we often find the most staunch anti-gay and marriage defense groups using the term anyway. For instance, OneNewsNow, which claims to bring us a news from a "Christian perspective," automatically replaces the word "gay" with the word "homosexual" in any of the Associated Press articles it runs.
In a priceless piece, Right Wing Watch has captured something that has become the laughingstock of the internets:
"In addition to blocking traffic from websites they don’t like, it looks like the web-geniuses behind the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow site have a few other tricks up their sleeves, such as automatically replacing any use of the word 'gay' with the word 'homosexual' in any of the AP stories they run … leading to instances in which proper names are reformatted to meet their ridiculous standard, such as this article about sprinter Tyson Gay winning the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in which he is renamed 'Tyson Homosexual.'"
Check out Right Wing Watch's screen shot of this tiny error. The original article is here. Obviously, OneNewsNow has since edited the piece.
2. Oh, the Irony!
In one of the more ironic argumentum ad naziums I've seen, anti-gay blogger "On Lawn" warns us that John, a gay rights advocate he likes to argue with, is a little too much like "someone from 20th century history" whose name rhymes with Gaydolf Titler. After first saying that his article is "tongue in cheek" yet paradoxically also "gravely serious"(!) Lawn even goes so far as quoting the "First they came for the Jews" poem.
Oh dear! Leftist Gender Warrior, (wo)man your battle-station!
Seriously though, if "Lawn" were more credible I'd be offended on my friend John's behalf. But alas, I can only laugh and say, "mkay 'Lawn' if you say so." This "Lawn" character, after all, regularly vilifies the gay community, mis-uses virtually every study he reads to support his anti-gay opinions, and falsely accuses his adversaries of a wide range of evil and grossly exaggerated motives. Why is all this ironic? It means that under "Lawn's" criteria as to what makes a person similar to Hitler, he pretty much embodies those very characteristics.
That being said, I have to ultimately disagree with "Lawn's" criteria as to what makes a person Hitler-esque (a-der). The main reason being that I think the key traits that make a person resemble Hitler are being a totalitarian dictator and acting out a belief that millions of minorities and other "undesirables" should be exterminated. I mean seriously, get a grip.
Besides, it's sort of a fact that a Hitler/Nazi analogy sort of cues you to stop taking a person seriously.
3. Hitler Again?!
"Lawn" also recently compared me to Hitler. Why? Because I believe the preposterous notion that gay people have historically been victimized. Hitler, too, believed that he was victimized. Therefore, I am like Hitler. Obvi.
"Lawn's" tactics remind me of the example in my grade school logic book in which a propagandist accused a vegetarian of being evil because, dun-dun-dun, Hitler was a vegetarian too!
What is most funny, ironic, and sorta sad is that our Master of Projection fits, once again, his own Hitler criteria. For, he firmly believes that heterosexuals are really the ones who are oppressed at the hands of oppressive homosexuals. Again, I don't agree with his Hitler criteria, I just think it's funny that "Lawn" meets his own definition of what makes a person like Hitler.
4. More Hyperbole!
Speaking of Hitler analogies, remember this gem of a Pat Robertson also (in)famous Nazi allusion:
"Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It's no different. It is the same thing. It is happening all over again. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. Wholesale abuse and discrimination and the worst bigotry directed toward any group in America today. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history."--Pat Robertson, 1993 interview with Molly Ivins
It really is too bad that evangelical Christians these days have to go to gas chambers, "showers," and concentration camps. What is happening to them now is totally not in the least bit different at all compared to what happened during the Holocaust.
But seriously. Unless you're describing something that is genuinely horrible and close to equivalent, does everyone get how ridiculous Nazi/Hitler analogies are?
Take it down a notch. I mean, someone really needs to do a study on why some anti-gays are so prone to exaggeration.
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