Salon.com > gay bashing

Harvard professor issues “an unqualified apology” for anti-gay comments

Sun, 05 May 2013 17:09:00 +0000

Harvard professor and historian Niall Ferguson has issued "an unqualified apology" for bigoted comments he made on Thursday when he suggested that the supposed shortcomings of John Maynard Keynes' economic philosophy was a result of Keynes being gay.

Speaking to a group of 500 financial advisers and investors on Thursday, Ferguson explained that the problem with Keynes' famous worldview, "In the long run we are all dead," is that we are survived by future generations who must deal with the consequences of our actions. In an off-the-cuff remark, Ferguson added that Keynes adopted this philosophy because he was a homosexual who could not reproduce.

From Financial Advisor's Tim Kostigen:

Ferguson asked the audience how many children Keynes had. He explained that Keynes had none because he was a homosexual and was married to a ballerina, with whom he likely talked of "poetry" rather than procreated.

Kostigen wrote, "The audience went quiet at the remark. Some attendees later said they found the remarks offensive."

No wedding invite for creep

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 01:00:00 +0000

Dear Cary,

My fiancé and I are planning on getting married next year. We are a left-leaning, open-minded heterosexual couple and we plan on having a nontraditional ceremony with our queer friend conducting the ceremony.

My fiancé comes from a very conservative family whom he has butted head with for decades. His cousin is particularly homophobic and they have disliked one another since they were teenagers. A few years ago my fiancé was pressured into attending a bachelor party for his uncle in Las Vegas. The party eventually ended up in a strip club. Noticing that my fiancé was clearly uncomfortable and unhappy, his cousin purchased a series of lap dances for my fiancé, which he refused. His cousin got extremely drunk and aggressive calling my fiancé a "fag" and other homophobic slurs. My fiancé left the club. At the wedding a few weeks later, the cousin approached my fiancé and asked if he was "still mad" but offered no apologies for his behavior. My fiancé calmly told his cousin that it was obvious they were coming from different places, that they didn't have to be friends but that they should try to coexist during family functions. His cousin was drunk and got very upset. He called my fiancé more homophobic slurs and threatened to "kick his ass" and challenged him to a fight. My fiancé walked away. None of his family intervened, dismissing it as a "boys will be boys" type of situation (cringe).

“Thirtysomething” writer Richard Kramer: “Family isn’t something you make”

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 19:39:00 +0000

“These Things Happen,” the stunning debut novel from Richard Kramer, the Emmy and Peabody award–winning writer, director and producer of such praised TV classics as "Thirtysomething" and "My So-Called Life," is the kind of book that defies easy categorization. Published this month by Unbridled Books and written from multiple points of view, on its surface "These Things Happen" is the story of Wesley Bowman, a thoroughly fascinating and preternaturally — but never preciously — intelligent New York kid whose beating at the hands of gay-bashing bullies in the basement of his schmancy Manhattan prep school (the sort of place where “these things” are not supposed to “happen”) at once brings his family together and pushes them apart in unexpected ways.

Will Chick-fil-A stop funding anti-gay groups?

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 19:41:00 +0000

Chicago advocacy group the Civil Rights Agenda claims that Chick-fil-A, the fast-food chain that recently became better known for its politics than its sandwiches, has promised to stop funding anti-gay organizations. The organization wrote via press release that Chicago Alderman Proco Moreno has finalized negotiations with Chick-fil-A and "has confirmed that Chick-fil-A will no longer give money to anti-gay organizations" and that the company "will treat every person equally, regardless of sexual orientation." The press release continues:

In a letter addressed to Alderman Moreno and signed by Chick-fil-A’s Senior Director of Real Estate, it states, “The WinShape Foundations is now taking a much closer look at the organizations it considers helping, and in that process will remain true to its stated philosophy of not supporting organizations with political agendas.” Winshape, a non-profit funded by Chick-fil-a, has donated millions of dollars to anti-LGBT groups, including some classified as hate groups. In meetings the company executives clarified that they will no longer give to anti-gay organizations.