I am a big fan of the Confabulum blog over at Culture 11. I consider Conor Friedsdorf to be one of the leading lights in the post-oogedy-boogedy era of the conservative movement in America today. I’m not as familiar with some of the other writers there, including one Ericka Anderson, who recently wrote a post that quoted esteemed right-wing gay-hater Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Remember her?

To refesh your memory, this is a classic clip from the West Wing, in which Martin Sheen seriously dresses down a character that was based on Dr. Laura:

Ericka,

Whatever Dr. Laura means to you, she is a force for hateful fundamentalist rigidity and intolerance in this country. I don’t know if she’s toned down her inflammatory, hateful rhetoric since her time in the limelight earlier in the decade but here is a nice little sample of some of the venom she’s spewed over the years:

“When homosexuals adopt children, these children are intentionally robbed of a necessary mom and dad.” — Dr. Laura Schlessinger

“A huge portion of the male homosexual populace is predatory on young boys.” — Dr. Laura Schlessinger

“Her [Dr. Laura’s] perorations strongly suggest that many gays are predators, eager to convert new members to the faith. She urges parents to avoid bringing kids into the company of possibly gay relatives.” — Reuters/Variety on Dr. Laura, February 13, 2000

You see, it’s not just that Dr. Laura believes that homosexuality is a sin — a lot of people believe that, which is fine if that’s where the belief stops. It’s that she takes it to the next level and actively insults gay people by suggesting that they’re wildly predatory and denigrates the great work that gay parents do.

Dr. Laura and the rest of the fundamentalist sect of the Republican Party need to realize that the time for demonizing gay people is over — permanently. The Tories in England have a number of gay elected officials amongst their ranks. Could you imagine the same being true in today’s Republican Party? Nope. The gay-bashing continues unabated. In order to make the party relevant in the 21st Century, we conservatives need to get over our fear of teh gay and realize that even though it is perfectly fine for people to privately hold the belief that homosexuality is a sin, we can no longer try to bludgeon gay people over the head with misguided isolation and venom.