You know, the last time I typed out heteroSEXual, I seemed to have hit those same three keys when I typed homoSEXual, so I’m not sure why Texas Governor Good Hair Perry said this insanity to New York Times reporter Deborah Solomon when asked about his support for the ban on gays in the Boy Scouts, the subject of his book, On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts Are Worth Fighting For.
PERRY: …Scouting ought to be about building character, not about sex. Period. Precious few parents enroll their boys in the Scouts to get a crash course in sexual orientation.SOLOMON: Why do you think a homosexual would be more likely to bring the subject of sex into a conversation than a heterosexual?
PERRY: Well, the ban in scouting applies to scout leaders. When you have a clearly open homosexual scout leader, the scouts are going to talk about it. And they’re not there to learn about that. They’re there to learn about what it means to be loyal and trustworthy and thrifty.
SOLOMON: But don’t you think that homosexuals might also be interested in being loyal and thrifty?
PERRY: The argument that gets made is that homosexuality is about sex. Do you agree?
SOLOMON: No.
PERRY: Well, then why don’t they call it something else?
Hat tip, Towleroad.
Flashback: Remember this godawful bullsh*t back in June 2005?
35 Responses to “Texas gov Rick Perry only sees the ’sex’ in homosexual”
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You mean like “gay” or “natural”?
Well, then why don’t they call it something else?
That’s it? That’s his argument? He wrote a whole book on the subject of why Boy Scouts should continue to keep gays out, and that is the best he’s got? “Well, it’s about sex, because it’s got ’sex’ right there in the word!”
Is it just me, or are they getting even stupider?
Well, of course Perry thinks it’s “about sex” because that’s the only time he acts on his same-gender-lovin’ impulses. At least, that’s the scuttlebutt down in Texas.
As when Larry Craig said, “I am not a homosexual!” I want to say: dearie, we KNOW you’re not a homosexual. Homosexuals are just like everyone else, except with partners of the same sex. What you are is a self-loathing closet case, and that’s quite different.
Oh, poor Rick. He wants to be president so, so bad, and it’s just never gonna happen. Even other Texans hate his guts. The guy’s got negative charisma, and he can’t go more than a few months without doing something to really, really humiliate himself badly, whether getting caught on tape trying to browbeat a cop out of giving his limo a ticket to parking his vehicle in a handicapped space just because it was easier. My brother’s loathed him since threw himself a multimillion-dollar inaugural party and immediately declared that the state was too broke to pay for sick people anymore.
And of course, the big irony here is that Rick is gay.
Click that first link in my post and look at the NYT photo of Gov Good Hair. Gaydar alert.
A&M may think about rescinding that diploma.
The Boy Scouts: founded by Robert Baden- Powell, that well known American. Oh, wait.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baden-Powell
The argument that gets made is that homosexuality is about sex.
So, because homosexuals enjoy having sex with their, you know, sexual partners, the argument gets made (by whom, exactly?) that homosexuality is about sex.
In stark contrast, because heterosexuals enjoy having sex with their sexual partners, the argument is that heterosexuality is about all that’s good and pure and moral. And about teh children…and fluffy bunnies.
What’s sad about this isn’t the level of the argument (if you can call it that). It’s the fact that people who peddle it have the power to enact laws.
Assuing they haven’t changed the Scout Law since I got my Eagle, let’s see how Perry stacks up just for his comments on Teh Gays:
A Scout is:
* Trustworthy — Since Perry doesn’t trust gays to keep it in their pants for five minutes, I don’t see how he’s worthy of much trust.
* Loyal — I would find it very hard to believe that in all his time with the organization he never met a closeted Scout, much less a straight ally. But you can’t spread lies about people and still call yourself “loyal” to them.
* Helpful — I think the most helpful thing he could do for the Scouts right now would be to never speak of them again.
* Friendly — Ha. Ha. Ha.
* Courteous — Ha. Ha. Ha.
* Kind — I hope I haven’t run out of “ha”s.
* Obedient — I’ll be kind and grant him this one, since the higher-ups did officially sanction his breaking of the other points of the law.
* Cheerful — He seems more anxious and petty than cheerful.
* Thrifty — This book and the associated promotional activities certainly seem like a waste of time.
* Brave — Defending the narrowminded status quo seems pretty cowardly to me.
* Clean — Immediately fantasizing about hot man-on-man action when someone mentions homsexuality is pretty much the definition of a dirty mind.
* Reverent — My edition of the handbook took a “it doesn’t matter what you worship, as long as you worship something” line (and I recall this point being presented to us such that having reverence for the intrinsic value of all people would be enough). Since revering the powers of evil does, technically, count as reverence, I’ll grant him this one.
So he manages to violate 10 out of the 12 points in one go. Someone should hand out copies of this interview to Tenderfoots as a case study.
I’m almost tempted to say, “Let him talk. It’s not as though anyone is going to fall for claptrap like this.”
But then I remember the so- called “Swift Boat Veterans”….
Let’s humor him. Call it something else. Any nominees?
Paul got started with some obvious ones, but we can probably do better.
-Homofashionable
-Homo-howdy-y’all
-Homo sapiens
Come to think of it, gays are also called “flamers,” and Boy Scouts are all about learning how to build campfires. That makes gay leaders ideally suited as instructors.
Why don’t they call HETEROSEXUALITY something else?
But if they don’t talk about sex, how will they ever know how to Be Prepared?
(conjuring Tom Lehrer here …)
Homo-fabulous maybe? That may just be my word of the day.
“SOLOMON: But don’t you think that homosexuals might also be interested in being loyal and thrifty?
PERRY: The argument that gets made is that homosexuality is about sex. Do you agree?”
Also his answer to the last question she asks just seems… off. I mean, the whole thing is INSANE but that just seems like the weirdest reply. But I do have a tendency to fixate on odd things like this.
PERRY: The argument that gets made is that homosexuality is about sex. Do you agree?
Heh. Cue Al Pacino’s [Roy Cohn’s] rant in the doctor’s office from Angels in America.
Is there any way for this site to say “your comment is awaiting moderation” instead of nothing? A lot of sites do that if your comment gets put in the moderation queue. I can’t tell if I hit something wrong and hit the back button somehow, erasing my whole last post or if it was sent and is now in the queue. I guess I’ll know tomorrow, and if I still find my snark funny when I’m not past my bedtime, I’ll rewrite it.
I happen to be all for keeping the sex in homosexual. Even if y’all decide to get married, KEEP ON FUCKING NONPROCREATIVELY! just to piss ‘em off.
Yeah, I hate to tell him, but when you have a bunch of boys going through puberty hanging out together, it doesn’t matter what their scoutmaster is like, when the adults aren’t in hearing range, sexual topics are very popular in conversation.
thanks for that stentor, been a while since I’ve seen the scout law though I can still recite it backwards and forwards. This guy seems like a complete idiot and though I loved my time in the scouts and am still proud to have made eagle I hate it when people like this talk about it. I see no reason for the ban on homosexual scout leaders, they are there already whther he likes it or not and people like Perry also usually dont know that in scouting throughout the world a lot of scouting organizations are coed. Luckily not all scouting organizations or councils are as close-minded as this guy. A few of our A. Scoutmasters were gay, it was a lot like my friends in the military who were gay, everyone knew it, no one cared yet we still couldn’t talk openly about it at functions with other troops. Stupid. If he wants the scouts to down the line kick out all the homosexuals and atheists fine, just take away all use of gov’t facilities and sponsorship (for example no more camporees on, sponsored or helped by the military).
actually- I’ve been grousing for some years that we take the whole “sexuality” piece out of homosexuality; heterosexuality, and bisexuality.
I just think the word “sex” helps small-minded people just focus on acts of pleasure, and that’s it. not that people are people, who have real, you know, relationships with one another (which may include fucking, grocery shopping together, catching movies together, paying bills together…).
I know it’s my fault for not being a bigot, and strangely alerted to the word “sex”. But, you know that’s what’s on the minds of bigots. HOW THEY (WE) ALL DO IT. So, so fixated. I feel like I’m advocating taking bigots by the hand and reshaping language just for them- but I’m not. Yes, I think changing terms that end in “sexual”, would help- including heterosexual.
It’s just that for more than half of my life, I’ve gotten the idea that what is most upsetting to (let’s say conservatives) people, is that the word “sexual” gets brought up, and all they can do is foam at the mouth; stare into space, fantasize, and think about the varieties of sex they may not be getting.
No, I do not know what we should call these inclinations to fall in love and lust with opposite sex; same sex, both sexes… but, I’d sure like to find something. Something that focused more on who we’re inclined to be attracted to, fall in love with… et cetera. “Relationship” doesn’t exactly fit here.
I’m just wondering what does? Although I am somewhat hating Jennifer Baumgardner’s (um, god, there is so much I disagree with her in it) Look Both Ways- I think that saying is the best descriptor for my attractions, loves, lusts, crushes, et cetera.
Oh, and all of my other not-so-straight, to not-fucking-straight-at-all, friends resist labels that begin with L, B, G… it takes the wind out of bigots’ sails, I think, really.
I’m not some goddamned label on Myspace. I’m a girl with a boyfriend, who likes girls and boys… (yes, this is calling upon one o’my favorite Blur songs) but that’s it.
Fuck, it’s early in the morning; I have to go to class, danced into the wee hours… I hope somebody gets my point. (And, that’s hopefully before it’s someone that gets on here just to state, “I are so smart! I are so smart! S-M-R-T. Yes, a little tired of those people. Also have noticed that those same people that love to “correct” others, one-up/best everyone- they’re on here 24/7). /End of rant.
oh, uh, as the caffeine hits:
the word I usually employ is “orientation”, not preceded by “sexual”. if that clarifies what I’m trying to say with a massive headache.
Can’t Perry own his own opinion and say something like, “I’m a wanker and all I think about is sex, therefore I cannot see gay people as full human beings, so homosexuality must be all about sex”? What’s with the passive voice crap? “The argument that gets made” means nothing to me.
Yep, still find my snark funny in the morning, and I guess my post was lost, not being moderated.
yeah, i think we should call heterosexuality something else. heterosexuals are always going on and on about adultery and how bad sex is, it’s like they’re fixated on the act, you know? i guess i shouldn’t send my kids to any schools or activities run by heterosexuals because they just never stop talking about and having sex, do they! so scandalous. can’t have the little darlings exposed to the horror of het folks.
at least if my kids hang around gay people, they can learn about being oppressed by the dominant culture. i’ve always thought that to be a valuable lesson.
homorelational?
homoaffectionate?
homofond(-ness?)?
As an alternative to Scouting, Campfire.org is an inclusive youth program involving camping, leadership training, and community service.
Even trying to picture Perry’s worst case scenario, I see no basis for Perry’s fears. Reflecting on my high school days: Although I believe I was typical in that I thought about sex approximately 80% of my waking moments, the gay guys in school somehow refrained from hitting on me, or even leering at me. Maybe I just wasn’t all that attractive, but more likely the gay guys were able to exert self-control. I didn’t even know half of them were gay till after we graduated, when I found out that a few teachers were gay as well.
yes, “calliopejane”! I mean, I know it all sounds so ridiculous and contrived, but orientation is soooo much more than sex. I kinda like homorelational, heterorelational, birelational (I mean, if I have to employ the damned “bi” thing- anyone on here who has seen me comment on the label “bisexual” knows what my issues are with it- and I just end up pissing people off
sheeeit, the only person I should worry about offending is my mom, at least I think so).
I do kinda like bi-inclined, for a label for those emotions… I guess that’s what I’d call myself, if I had to pick a damned label.
and “youknowit”- glad I’m not hittin’ the Coke Zero at the moment- your comment would’ve left CZ all over my clothes. or out my nose. and we all know that hurts. a lot.
I dunno, trying to ‘clean up’ the word ‘homosexual’ because it has ’sex’ in it just seems wrong to me. Just because some people are hypersensitive to the word ’sex’ because they have repression issues or whatever, doesn’t mean we should cater to them by adjusting the terms to make them feel better.
There was an Old South politician who lost an election to a rabid racist and vowed never to “get out-niggered again.” I think Perry is trying to make sure he doesn’t get out-fagged.
Did you ever see that “canteen boy” sketch on SNL?
Why is Perry so obsessed with the boy scouts?
Sal “The Muckraker” Costello
http://salcostello.blogspot.com/
Most asexuals use “somethingromantic” to denote what we’re emotionally attracted to. For instance, I’m an asexual heteroromantic.
1000 points to Ms. Kate for the Tom Lehrer reference.
-1000 from my computer for not having a working volume control thing at the moment.
-1000 from me for being too lazy to fix the volume.
And lastly, Tom wins the internet. Seriously, he wrote his songs about half a century ago (if my sources are correct) and they could still be relevant today!
And now back to your regularly scheduled comment eloquence.
“The argument that gets made is that homosexuality is about sex”
No dear. That’s not the “argument that gets made”. That is the argument that YOU are making. And I don’t think it even qualifies as an argument.
“Then why don’t they call it something else?”
“they”? As in the homosexuals? “They” call it lots of things. Because someone coined a word a buzzilion years ago that has the three letter s-e-x in it, that’s a reason to deny “them” rights? I can’t prove it, but I’m guessing that a person of the alternate sexualities did not come up with the word “homosexual”. Again, this is an argument? Oy.
I can’t prove it, but I’m guessing that a person of the alternate sexualities did not come up with the word “homosexual”
A gay man certainly was the first to popularize it–Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld.
He proposed “homosexual” and “heterosexual” as value-neutral clinical terms. Which they are to everyone except bizarro closet-cases like Perry.
PAI- I think you’re totally missing my point. Orientation is not just about sexual attraction.
I just call it “orientation”, and people always understand what I am talking about. It’s not about people having “repression issues or whatever”; it’s about acknowledging that orientation is so much more than about who one fucks.
Like I tried to say earlier: have been thinking about this for over half my life. So, that means- at least since I was fifteen.
This isn’t about pandering to homophobic right-wingers. This is about changing language, and maybe changing viewpoints over time. Yes, I do think some people are way too focused on the word sex. That’s why, I think, so many conservatives have such a problem with same-sex attraction. All they hear is “sex”!
Whatever. I have a life, and a practicum to attend to, oh, and then some research to do when I get home.