So why didn’t my outgoing governor just go ahead and say “faggot“?
ABC News’ Eloise Harper Reports: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton received the endorsement of North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley Tuesday morning in Raleigh, NC. After touring a bio-manufacturing training center, Gov. Easley, First Lady of North Carolina Mary Easley and Clinton held a ceremony at NC State University. The Governor formally expressed his support saying that there was “nothing I love more than a strong powerful woman.” Easley concluded his remarks saying Clinton — “makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy“.Note that Hillary, who was right there with the NC gov, said nothing about his remark. Of course Easley infamously received the endorsement of Equality NC in his re-election bid, then in a debate said he’d sign a marriage amendment if it hit his desk, so why should we be surprised. And who is Hillary trying to court here — the “traditional Southern conservative.” Take the homo money and run, as it were. (The Politico):
Easley is a meaningful ally in the culture war she’s waging against Senator Barack Obama, as she seeks to cast him as a hopelessly unelectable liberal elitist and to persuade the Democratic Party leaders who will decide the nomination – the “superdelegates” – to choose her instead.Both of the Dem candidates for governor here have endorsed Barack Obama, btw. I don’t see Easley’s nod to Clinton as significant; what matters are mayors and state reps, and the majority have publicly endorsed Obama as well.
Hillary Clinton was backslapping laughing with the NC governor. The same Hillary Clinton who has sucked millions of dollars out of the LGBT community. The same Hillary Clinton who cannot use the words gay or lesbian in front of general audiences, the same Hillary Clinton who has a web site where there’s no way to find any information on her LGBT positions.
Activist Phil Attey, former Human Rights Campaign staffer and online strategist, had a lot to say. It’s below the fold.
This release landed in my inbox:
Today in his endorsement of Senator Hillary Clinton, Governor Michael Easley of North Carolina ended his speech with an anti-gay epitaph. The hateful and sexist comment was that in his opinion, Senator Clinton makes Rocky Balboa look like a “pansy.” Directly following the word “pansy” the two veteran politicians burst into laughter and then embraced on stage.When LGBT activists across the country heard this, our jaws literally hit the floor, as did our hearts. Since the Pennsylvania primary, we’ve been concerned that Senator Clinton is now courting and beholden to an anti-gay demographic, but never did we ever expect to be so whimsically made the butt of a joke nor blatantly thrown under the bus by politicians we once revered and some continue to support.
The statement was calculated and hateful. Americans over the age of 50 are fully aware that the word “pansy” is that generation’s polite way of publicly saying the word “faggot.” Both Governor Easley and Senator Clinton are of that generation, and both of them know what he meant by the word. This was not a slip of the tongue. This is part of Senator Clinton’s new “Rocky theme” … a theme that sadly includes now gay bashing.
On behalf of the LGBT community, I demand the following three things:
1. Governor Easley immediately issue a public apology for his use of hate speech and commit to launch a new state-wide campaign in North Carolina to educate the public on the issue of anti-LGBT hate speech and hate crimes.
2. Senator Clinton make good on a previous campaign ascertain that that she would strongly “reject and denounce” any endorsement from someone who engages in hate speech by immediately rejecting and denouncing Governor Easley’s endorsement.
3. Governor Easley face me in a public boxing ring in Raleigh, NC this weekend, so I can show him and the those who make such hateful comments, that if you go up against a real “pansy,” you’re going to end up pushing daisies. And, yes, I double yellow dog dare him.
27 Responses to “NC: Governor Easley’s gay-baiting ‘pansy’ endorsement of Clinton”
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#3 made me laugh because I couldn’t help but think right away that some leather daddies or other extremely macho gays would make him look an idiot for saying it.
Also, while the homophobia is obvious and angering, I can’t help but think this is a psuedo-friendly way of calling Sen Clinton suspiciously un-feminine After rumor campaigns about her sexual orientation, a press that has dogged her for being insufficiently feminine, etc, is that really something she wants her endorser to say? I can’t help but think he was actually endorsing sexism, and she was suddenly faced with being “humorless” by telling him that was the wrong thing to say for multiple reasons, or pretending it was funny. But if she genuinely thought it was okay, she’s tone deaf to insults to others, AND herself.
This seems like a viable interpretation. Also, there’s the deer-in-headlight denial of what’s going on. I myself suffered from paralysis in an even-worse situation over the weekend (a new acquaintance mocking the driver of our shared cabs with a nasty racial undertone, completely out of the blue) and I was literally stunned into silence - half because I couldn’t believe it was happening, half because I didn’t even know WHAT to say. After the guy got out of the car, I shared a continued awkward silence with the other woman with us for a few seconds before we could even speak: “Did that just happen? OMG, we are SO SORRY.”
But I was kicking myself mentally for my delayed reaction; I consider myself a loudmouth generally - in fact, I was having it out with this guy about facing his male privilege in the restaurant earlier that night - but he was a friend of a very good friend of mine, and the social forces at work in that kind of “someone I’m on friendly terms with just said a shitty, horrible thing” situation can be really overwhelming.
In short: I’m not going to crucify Clinton for this, especially since a) every word spoken from her mouth on gay rights has been much less tone-deaf than Obama’s (i.e. “my gay professor, who’s name I can’t even remember, wasn’t one of those ‘proselytizing’ gays”) and b) I’m tired of Clinton (and women in general) being held responsible for the words and actions of everyone else. Crucify Easley, for fuck’s sake.
That said: I hope she does say something about this.
I called out Easley for this at MyDD, but I think it’s going too far to aver “And who is Hillary trying to court here — the ‘traditional Southern conservative.’” Sam Nunn endorsed Obama, after all, without a whole sturm und drang about the optics of being associated with the guy who stabbed Bill Clinton in the back over gays in the military.
Actually, hold on a minute. What is this actually referring to?
Did I miss something? What’s the source of this concern?
Sheesh! These people are supposed to be professional politicians. They are supposed to have a carefully thought out script for these occasions, and they are supposed to practice. Ad libbing will get you in trouble every time! (Just ask Trent Lott!) Politics is show biz for actors, not for stand up comedians. Of course, Easley is on his way out of the show, so maybe he was careless or drunk on duty. Who knows?
I am actually embarrassed to say that i never knew until this day that the word pansy meant anything other than “wuss”.
And in all truth that has really surprised me. I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, and I figured I would have learned all the nasty epithets for homosexuals that there were.
I guess i was a bit more isolated than I thought.
wierd.
FlipYrWhig, here’s the source of concern: God, Guns and Gays. SOP for seeking the Bigot Vote. Hil used the God and Guns in PA (I would have left that church) (I killed so many ducks). She laughed with real discomfort, I think, but thinking of the polls, as usual, killed her anti-Un-PC instincts dead! The lust for power won, sad.
Yeah, I don’t think Clinton should get too much flak for this.
I agree with Samantha Vines. It seems to imply that Clinton is unfeminine. ‘Cos women only get to be feminine, or to have power, experience and intelligence but be a macho ol’ lesbian of course! We can’t win!
Hmmm. “Pansy” is used to mean “wimp”, “wuss” type thing by a lot of people I know, as in “Jeez, it’s only a cold, what a pansy!” (I heard this said by one woman to another).
Not that it doesn’t sometimes indicate gayness of course.
“Hmmm. “Pansy” is used to mean “wimp”, “wuss” type thing by a lot of people I know, as in “Jeez, it’s only a cold, what a pansy!” (I heard this said by one woman to another).
Not that it doesn’t sometimes indicate gayness of course.”
Nope. It always indicates gayness. The reason that it is used for being a wimp and a wuss is the built in subtext that all gay men are effeminate, weak, and delicate.
You get to declare that it isn’t anti-gay in the same discussion where you declare that one man calling another man a pussy isn’t sexist and misogynist because he wasn’t literally saying he thought the other guy was female. “Hey, it just means ‘wuss.’ ”
There is no possible way that a man that age could have used the word innocently.
Just to be clear on my stance on this:
1) I can empathize with Clinton’s position at that moment in time, and don’t think she should be held responsible for the words of another person.
2) I think well-intentioned people can be truly ignorant of the origins of the term. Easley may be one of them, but the gray hair indicates him to be of a certain age that would recognize it for what it is much easier than someone of, say, my generation, but I do not know
3) Regardless, when the LGBT community points this crap out to us, we shouldn’t dismiss it. Easley should apologize.
Just add this to the list of reasons that Easley has NO political allies and no political capital in North Carolina. Even his own party mostly views him as useless at best.
You know what? I don’t get it. Are we so hung up on being persecuted that we need to turn everything into an attack? Does anyone even consider that there was absolutely no homophobic undertones in the comment at all? I never even considered “pansy” to have a shred of reference to the LBGT community until reading this. I understand it as a lack of strength and conviction and see the comments as perfectly acceptable in that regard.
agree w/ Calvin. pansy does not equal gay.
It’s a fucking flower. And an quite resilient one at that.
What’s funny is that the word “pansy” itself derives from the Latin word for thoughtfulness (pensare which is also the root of ‘pensive’ and ‘ponder’) so what he was really saying is that Clinton makes Rocky Balboa look like a thinker.
This is nothing compared to Hillary throwing San Franciscans under the bus. It’s too bad we don’t have a viable third party in this country, because, if she did somehow get the nomination, she deserves no less than every core Democratic constituency jumping ship.
I ditto those making over-sensitive claims. To turn what is, at the very most a poor choice of words (was there anything that would had been an acceptable replacement for “pansy?” Wuss, girly boy, “substantially less tough of a person”?) into a controversy is completely asinine. It’s asiten, or asieleven even.
This ridiculous uproar over the use of the word ‘pansy’ is the gayest way you could have reacted. Don’t tie any more weights to the shoulders of candidates who clearly support gay rights. Don’t give in to the shitshow of blurbs extracted and exploited for ratings. If you’re offended by being called a ‘pansy’ then you are a pansy. The election of a Democratic candidate in this election is too important to blur with sensational, trivial news stories. Whining about semantics like this is not important.
i dont think he is being anti-gay he is using the term to mean “wimp”
he is using the term to mean wimp not anti-gay
http://www.queersunited.blogspot.com
Gah! I half-expected people to be angry with me, but now I’m angry. He should NOT have used that term. If he wanted to say she made Rocky look weak, he could have said WEAK! Instead, he chose a term laden with sexism and homophobia. I think Easley deserves public shaming.
Well, that didn’t take long. Bleargh.
Anyone who was an American schoolchild in the fifties (which both Hillary and Easley were) would know what “pansy” means. It’s the same as faggot, queer and fairy. It implies male homosexuality and effeminacy and weakness all in one.
I can’t believe people are denying this. Just because you don’t know the history doesn’t mean it’s not there and it doesn’t matter.
Doesn’t this sound familiar? Haven’t people discussed something a *lot* *like* *this* on this very blog? Something to do with.. oh, I dunno, savage tribesmen? gorillas?
I can’t quite remember, it’s all so long ago and so hazy and it was such a small thing anyway.
Sigh.
Anyway. Hillary wasn’t the one who said it, and I agree that she was caught in a no-win situation. I wish she had had the guts to say, hey, wait a minute, let’s not use “pansy” like that, but I can just imagine the “OMG she’s so PEE CEE” reaction. She’s already got the pedantic harridan schoolmarm radical feminist image working against her. Sucks that she has to choose between that and looking like a gaybasher. Or clueless.
Agreed, Pam, that Easley is a) the lamest of ducks; b) the NC equivalent of the embarrassing older relative. The gubernatorial candidates — did everyone get the excruciating paid-with-your-money ‘informational’ mailout from Richard Moore this week? — have both backed Obama.
(I’m not a NCer, but I’ve been here five years.)
Look, if you want to play semantics, ‘pansy’ is just another version of ‘gay’-as-insult. ‘Fairy’ is in the same semantic area. It just is. From my perspective, it just lumps Hillary in with the bits of NC that pine for a Mayberry that never frakking existed.
obviously, pansy division wasn’t a queer band after all! now i know from reading everyone’s comments that they called themselves pansy division simply because they were wimps, not because they were gay.
but how do you explain their songs?
Cool! I stand corrected. This is going to make things so much easier on the language front, because the people to whom and about whom a slur is directed no longer get to complain.
So women can’t complain when two men call each other pussies or girlie.
Black people can’t complain when one white person says to another “that’s mighty white of you.”
We’ve completely resolved the whole “Indian-giver” controversy.
Everyone is required to issue apologies for objecting to the whole “macaca” thing. Preferably in writing. Because even though the whole friggin country had never even HEARD the word, as soon as it was made clear that it had a history of being offensive, the sirens went off.
Unlike pansy, which was just a clear anti-gay slur for generations nationwide.
What? No? Overreaction? Calm down. No offense as long as it was said politely? Oh. All those other things really are offensive? Once again, the rules for gay people are completely different than those for straight people.
Apparently, we’re the only ones who are not allowed to take offense when offensive words are used. For everyone else, the measure is whether the target is offended, with the responsibility lying with the speaker to know the meaning and connotation of the words they use. But for us, the measure isn’t even whether the SPEAKER knew it was offensive or not.
You people are actually sitting here telling us that a word we know to be offensive, that has a history of being offensive, which has been personally directed to many of us for the purpose of being offensive, and was used publicly by a man of a generation which ONLY used the word as an anti-gay slur, is to be given a pass because uninvolved listeners didn’t know it was offensive.
Everyone else is supposed to learn. Gay people are apparently just supposed to take it.
That does clear it up. A lot.
I wasn’t that offended by the use of the word by an asshole politician. I am deeply offended that you people, in this venue, are defending it.
Insert expletive of choice. I expected better here.
I rush to add that my comments were ONLY aimed at the people who actually ARE defending the use of the word pansy this way. I do recognize that there are plenty here who are not.
Cool! I stand corrected. This is going to make things so much easier on the language front, because the people to whom and about whom a slur is directed no longer get to complain.
What does Sly Stallone think of it?
Sure Easley probably had, at least, a subconscious homophobic (and misogynistic for that matter) intent there but I, for one, am unwilling to condemn his intentions when they are not clearly - or at all even - implied by context. I have more concrete things to be appalled over than some moron pol’s bungled use of a slippery word.
How dare he insult a beloved fictional character like that.