In Texas, a Gay Bar's Patrons Toast Hillary Clinton

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: In Texas, a Gay Bar's Patrons Toast Hillary Clinton
By Jose Antonio Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 5, 2008; C01

GUN BARREL CITY, Tex., March 4 -- "The thing is, Hillary's been a victim," says Leo Bartlett, taking a drag of his cigarette. "Hillary's a real fighter." She's been picked on, ridiculed, bullied. Those haircuts, that laugh, the clothes. Oh, and Monica. But she never gives up. She's got good policy positions. She bullies when she needs to. She's "a diva." And that about sums up why gays -- not all, of course, but many -- are such ardent, longtime and downright defensive backers of Sen. Hillary Clinton.

This historic primary race has turned the American electorate into a demographic pizza pie. Alongside white women and Hispanics, blue-collar folks and Catholics who currently form Clinton's core constituency, count gays and lesbians, too. Or, to use the more inclusive Bravo-TV-is-gay-TV term: the LGBT community. Hillary's their gal, that reliable, ubiquitous straight girl who hangs out with the gang, the Grace Adler to their Will Truman....

The Lone Star State has a sizable gay population, many of them concentrated in Austin, Houston and Dallas. The Stonewall Democrats of Dallas, the state's biggest chapter, endorsed Clinton last month. The group's president, Jesse Garcia, 36, recently penned a pro-Clinton op-ed piece in the Dallas Voice, the state's most-read gay newspaper....

***

Many patrons here recall an Obama rally in South Carolina last fall where one of the speakers was Donnie McClurkin, a conservative preacher who has said that homosexuality can be "cured" through prayer. Faced with criticism, Obama said he "strongly disagrees" with McClurkin.

(Jim) Gribben, 64, gives a short history lesson and names all of Clinton's contributions to the gay community. She was the first first lady to march in a gay pride parade. She's fought for more HIV funds. She wants to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," though it was her husband who signed the controversial military policy toward gays. She's for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and supports civil unions. Gribben wishes she were for gay marriage, but this being Texas, where gays have no domestic partnership rights and can't adopt children, Gribben and his partner of 34 years, also named Jim, will take what they can get....

(Gribben) continues: "Gays have a history with the Clintons -- and when I say the Clintons, that's because I think Hillary was as much a president as Bill was -- and most of it was good."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/04/AR2008030403145.html?nav=most_emailed

[Clintonista2]

1. great article thanks!

[stillrockin]

2. I guess I missed the day

that she legalized gay marriage, gays in the military. She "wants to do" a lot of stuff. What has she DONE? What did Bill do? Went back on his promises and signed the effin Defense of Marriage Act.

What I see is a triangulating, promise anything, deliver the minimum politician. A politician who has backed the war, medicare reform and the bankruptcy bill. She has one master: the corporation.

[msongs]

4. obama quotes scriptures to deny gay marriage - we must all live by his religion nt

[stillrockin]

9. That is not true. He has repeatedly urged tolerance.

Granted, that's not enough. We must see equal rights for ALL people, I agree. However, the Clintons promise all things, deliver little. On the other hand, they quietly make sure that their corporate pigs have plenty of room at the trough.

[Catherina]

7. Rec'd n/t

[TomClash]

3. Hillary: the latest incarnation of Joan Crawford nt

[Skwmom]

5. The victim card seems to work with more than women.

Manipulation at its finest.

"She wants to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," though it was her husband who signed the controversial military policy toward gays." Amazing how the Clintons get away with playing the good cop/bad cop routine.

[Catherina]

8. Rec'd. It's some of the sneakiest manipulation I've ever seen

As a feminist, it disgusts me.

[Corkey Mineola]

6. a proud HOMO for HILL thanks you n/t

:kick:

[Prism]

10. This is kind of . . . insultingly stereotypical.

Primped? Nice, objective reporting there.

This article rubs me the wrong way. I'm not sure why. Whenever anyone in the media seeks out gay opinions, they always seem to pop up at parades or bars and things. They never find, say, a gay auto-worker. It's always some guy smoking a cigarette, talking like he's straight off the Logo network, as stereotypically gay as possible. Maybe it's just laziness on their part. They need a gay - any gay - and a bar is the likeliest place to find one.

Then there's the obligatory Will and Grace mentions, Bravo, etc. etc. As if that's really all we have going on in American culture.

I don't know. I have a feeling if any other demographic was presented as consistently stereotypical as gay males, there'd be an outcry.

Primped. Good grief.