The Gay Klan: Slow-Track To The Back-Track, by Mike Gold – Brainiac On Banjo #257

January 9, 2012 Mike Gold 7 Comments

Last week https://mdwp.malibulist.com/2012/01/our-gay-ku-klux-klan-by-mike-gold-–-brainiac-on-banjo-256/ I told the story of Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George and how he compared gay rights organizers to the Ku Klux Klan. He reaffirmed these opinions on Fox TV on that day of peace on Earth and goodwill to all men. If you didn’t read last week’s column, I urge you to do so in order to read the quotes in context.

Well, last Friday Cardinal George issued still another follow-up statement. To be specific, he issued a retraction.

“It was an inflammatory example,” Cardinal George said. “It occasioned a lot of hurt for which I’m very sorry.” He went on to say “My oldest nephew, whom I love dearly, is a gay man, generous with the poor… We disagree on some fundamental realities but he’s part of who we are… To say something like that is abhorrent to me and I find it truly disturbing.”

Yeah, it took a long time for George to figure this one out, but compared to, say, Galileo Galilei, who served 350 years in hell for saying the Earth revolved around the sun. He wasn’t exonerated until 1992, so this whole gay Klan thing was a relative nanosecond.

Yeah, it was a really stupid thing to say and an even dumber thing to reaffirm. But my better-informed Catholic friends told me that it is more likely that the sun would indeed revolve around the Earth before a Cardinal would issue such a retraction, so in my book the Cardinal did the right thing.

Then again, a gay activist friend in Chicago reminds me that the Rainbow Sash Movement (representing LGBT Catholics), along with Equality Illinois and other organizations were planning on a demonstration at Holy Name Cathedral yesterday if George didn’t apologize.

To my activist friends I say, “accept your victory and take it to heart.” It’s a big one. A Prince of the Church acknowledged your basic humanity. That’s a very, very big deal. Rainbow Sash accepted the apology and canceled the protest. That’s good enough for me.

This is not to say that George has become a civil rights leader. The Illinois legislature passed a civil unions law and he’s still pissed at that. The concept of gay marriage must make his head explode.

Nonetheless, philosopher Lao-Tzu said “the journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet.” That’s an obvious truism, one that needs to be in the forefront of the minds of all political and social activists. It’s as clear and as true as the Earth revolving around the sun.

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Bon-vivant psycho Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking bizarro music and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com, every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, replayed three times during the week (check the website above for times). It’s also available On Demand at the same venue. Go on, listen already. Your computer won’t byte you.