Ann Coulter: The Right Wing's Judy Garland?

by Jordan Rubenstein · 2010-08-07 10:07:00 UTC

Ann Coulter isn’t the first person you’d expect to see at a gay event. In fact, she’s just about the last. In 2007, she called presidential candidate John Edwards a “faggot.” More recently, she’s rallied against “irritating lesbian” and 18-year-old Mississippi activist Constance McMillen, claiming that heterosexual-only proms aren’t civil rights violations.

So, I was surprised to see that Coulter was chosen as the keynote speaker for a gay event. She’ll be speaking at “Homocon 2010,” a party put on by GOProud, a 14-month-old gay conservative organization.

Why would a gay organization headline someone who uses anti-gay slurs and doesn’t view LGBT issues as civil rights issues?

Sure, identifying both as gay and conservative is one thing. But supporting someone who’s so blatantly anti-gay -- isn't that something entirely different?

As it turns out, this type of event is almost expected from GOProud, considering its history. In July, GOProud held a political fundraiser at Doug Manchester’s Grand Hyatt in San Diego. Manchester gave $125,000 in support of Proposition 8 and has been boycotted by many supporters of same-sex marriage ever since. (Not to mention a host of labor organizations and activists, too.)

According to Christopher Barron, Chairman of the Board of GOProud, “Homocon 2010 will be a hell of a lot more fun than chaining yourself to the White House fence.”

So what’s his idea of fun? Barron says: “The gay left has done their best to take all the fun out of politics, with their endless list of boycotts and protests. Homocon is going to be our annual effort to counter the no fun police on the left. I can’t think of any conservative more fun to headline our inaugural party then the self-professed ‘right-wing Judy Garland’ - Ann Coulter.”

But is GOProud too busy worrying about having "fun," and not worried enough about their own rights?

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Jordan Rubenstein is the former president of Carnegie Mellon University's LGBT student organization, ALLIES. Jordan lives in New York City.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Arnold Schwarzenegger … LGBT Hero?
NEXT STORY:
Bullied high schooler convinces MPAA to change ‘Bully’ rating to “PG-13”

COMMENTS (21)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.