I'm not sure if conservative talk show host Michael Berry belongs here, but the situation of him being at a gay bar on drag night, as well as driving 70ft in reverse and slamming into a bouncer's car begs a mention.Michael Berry commits a hit-and-run at a gay barMaybe his heel got caught?

I think that you've really missed the point of this thread, CAPSLOCK notwithstanding.

I don't think anyone was impyling that people who are publicly homophobic are secretly gay. It *occasionaly* proves to be true, but so rarely that it does become something for sensationalists - on both sides of the coin - to latch onto. Also, I think about a third of the people posting in this thread are gay, though I may be wrong there.And, yeah, sometimes a homophobe is just a homophobe, and I wish them well crossing the street and not getting hit by that truck.[edit: damn you post faster than i can type]

I don't think that anyone is laughing at gay people here, we're laughing at people's hipocrisy. That that hipocrisy happens to involve their homosexuality - something rightwingers have an odd obsession with - makes for a kind of entertaining subject. And so they get called out on it.

RSMurphy wrote:Why do y'all need the most advanced forms of clothing to go buy free-range meat at Whole Foods?Sometimes I just want to feel pretty.

I think I'm labouring the point here, but we are talking about people who have willingly put themselves on a public platform with very definite opinions about how they feel about certain subjects. There is an irony when it's revealed, by one way or another, that these people have a private life that is the polar opposite of the public opinions they hold - public opinions that try to curtail the rights of others that they, in fact, practice in their private life. I have no moral problem with calling out this behaviour. Granted, it's an easy enough target with some gaybasher rightwinger that turns out to be gay. Then again, it's usually rightwingers that are doing their best to curtail the rights of others on a public platform. And again, the humour insn't usually derived from the person themselves, the humour is in their (usually clumsy) way of handling the situation, and the people around them generally making fools of themselves as they try 'damage control' and all those other media bullshit phrases that make the whole thing, well, funny.[edit: damn y'all quick at typing]

I think we're being wound up here.

jesus christ man what the fuck is happening with your punctuation

I honestly don't see how a person of healthy and developed sensibilities could not find this sort of hypocrisy entertaining. It's not like they're living ordinary lives consumed by repressed desire - that would just be sad. Instead, they're standing on a national stage and calling gays monsters and maniacs and sinners out to destroy marriage, before inevitably being unveiled by their own foolishness. Fuck 'em. Is it sad? Sure it's sad. Lots of hilarious things are sad.

Also, it occurs to me: Wouldn't it be good if basically everyone believed that outspoken homophobia was the result of repression, rather than being anything remotely resembling a coherent moral stance? Wouldn't that inspire more outreach from the left, and make the right less inclined to make such shows of bigotry?