There's a surefire way to get a big spread in the Washington Post Style section: Be an outspoken, blatant homophobe.
In August, The Washington Post's Style section wrote a glowing article about one of the nation's leading homophobes, Brian Brown from the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), earlier this summer. The title was, "Opposing Gay Unions With Sanity & a Smile." We just weren't clever enough to know it was snarky.
Today, the Washington Post's Style section has a puff piece on one of the District's leading homophobes, Bishop Harry Jackson. Apparently, the editors of the Style section have a thing about profiling gay-bashers. The article notes that Jackson critics have multiplied but offers only two sentences of that criticism:
D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson says he disagrees with the principles espoused by Jackson. "It's an unfortunate reality," Mendelson says, "that one can't preach discrimination without inciting homophobia."So now we know all about Bishop Jackson's education, but the Post didn't get into the vile homophobia he spews on a regular basis.
PFAW's Right Wing Watch has been monitoring Jackson. A synopsis of Jackson's speech at the right-wing Values Voters Summit gives the sense of what this guy says about gay Americans. In his anti-gay rant, Jackson got the crowd to chant “let God arise and his enemies be scattered...” The videos of the speech are there, too. I guess adding that element to the Post's puff piece might have ruined the article. All that homophobic ranting can really ruin a story line. Jackson clearly sees gays at the "enemies." I'm pretty sure most, if not all, of the gay people in D.C. really don't want to be "scattered."
The right wingers love Jackson. As someone who has followed his career noted to me, "Opposing marriage equality in DC isn't a matter of conscience for him. Its a career move." And, the Post just gave his career a big boost and validated the hate.
