Recommended Reading

Mannion and his pal Nancy Nall have an interesting discussion up over at The American Street about the latest Catholic church scandals, which, for a zany change of pace, don’t involve children, making them ever less nauseating to discuss. (Check out Mannion’s intro here before you head over.)

One of the reasons I’m recommending this piece (aside from its just generally being interesting) is because woven throughout it is the carefully drawn distinction between gay priests and pedophile priests—a distinction that many like to ignore, and one the church itself has been keen to blur as much as possible, as gays made a convenient foil when their own mendacious excuses revealed their complicity in the widespread abuse. It sort of seemed like we’d already (successfully) dealt with the whole “only pedophiles are pedophile priests” thing a few years ago, but now that the GOP is gunning for gays again, the ugly and erroneous conflation of gays and pedophiles is back, so we’ve got to set back to work again. Former alter boy Mannion does a pretty good job of it, tiring as it is to revisit these shores, which were just as rocky and inhospitable the last time we were here.

Tangentially, it’s often been discussed around here that the LGBT community needs its straight supporters, too, and while a lot of straight girls tend to discuss gay issues with some regularity, the straight boys aren’t always quite as forthcoming—many regular blogging Shakers, especially John Howard, being notable exceptions. (And no, Big Dogs…blaming gays for losing Dems elections doesn’t count, you pricks.) I mean, even the linked post isn’t really addressing gay issues, per se, aside from defending gay men against something from which they wouldn’t need defending in any kind of reasonable world, but it was notable that a straight guy was writing about it for a change.

So, what’s the problem, guys? There’s a group of Americans (who traditionally vote liberal in large numbers, by the way) that is currently being denied over 1,000 rights and benefits that any one of us straight girls and boys are guaranteed by 15 minutes at the City Hall, whether we mean it or not. Isn’t that worrisome? Shouldn’t we all be writing about that a little bit more, especially as the Right increasingly tries to crack apart existing Dem voter blocs by exploiting hatred of this community?

Come on, tough guys. If the author of the manliest blog with the manliest name (which I’m cribbing from Wolcott, so you know it’s true) can do it, so can you.