Drudge to Heartland: "The Foreign Faggots are Coming!!!"

I'm not much in the habit of reading The Drudge Report, which may be why I'm still prone to bursts of bookshelf rattling rage when he panders to the homophobe set by concocting stories that confirm their worst fears.  Today, he's using the freshly junketed Oscar hopeful Brokeback Mountain as a means of shamelessly tethering two great hates -- Hollywood and Homos -- that spread hate great together. 

Via selective reporting in the low wingnut style, Drudge only quotes some close-minded "playwright" named Sandy Dixon, who forthrightly declares that she's never met a gay cowboy, which obviously means they do not exist.  Notwithstanding old girl's likely atrophied gaydar, her claim is detonated in the same Casper Star Tribune article by the International Gay Rodeo Association's Chuck Browning, who is a) a cowboy and b) gay.  Drudge disingenuously elides Browning's comments in favor of highlighting Madonna's BROKEBACK seal of approval and the Wyoming Travel and Tourism Division's warning that filthy foreigners are planning to beeline to the state based on rave reviews from the "international community" (i.e. "France"), where, by the way, the film has yet to open.  Way to fuel that intolerance, Matt, you self-loathing jackass.

I'll be shocked if BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN catches on outside of the top twenty markets, though there is something very GIANT in the way the film tackles its central theme head-on which might speak movingly to the (hopefully) majority of people in this country ready to move forward and accept that (cue Kevin McCarthy) they're here, they're queer, and, on occasion, they rope steer.  If that happens, I welcome the resulting debate with the party of rampant bigotry, because there is no way anyone will be able to go before a camera, claim there are no gay cowboys, and not get laughed off the set.

I may elaborate on this for a Collider article, where it'll fit in nicely with the permissive Vivid girls.  FYI, I'm hating myself for that Sarah Silverman headline.

Comments

[sarah]

Funny family story.

So as a kid, we spent a few years living in Casper, Wyoming while my father consulted on the designs of a couple of hydro-electric dams. (The Rockies are full of dams.)

Anyway, fast-forward 20 years and my dad is re-married and wants to show his new wife what Wyoming is like. One of there stops was at a nice bed and breakfast/ranch that his wife found in the Mineral Springs area. The place is very nice, but the keepers seem a bit stand-offish. After my dad and his wife go to bed, the hear that there is some sort of sing-a-long at a campfire that they had not been invited to.

This goes on for two days before it hits them. They have checked into a gay men's ranch.

Take that Drudge. Gay cowboys.

[sarah]

Speaking of gays getting the shaft, (or in this case, not getting the shaft), I cannot believe these girls are being fired.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2216124

Lame.

[T]

Fired? Fired???!!! After all the joy and satisfaction their beautiful story brought to us all?

[devincf]

Gawker makes pretty good arguments for Drudge's own personal gayness.

[sarah]

RIP Courson. The league fucked you.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05315/604635.stm

[sarah]

Man, I want to go hug Roger Ebert right now -

"Roger Ebert's description of "In Her Shoes" as being " ... no soppy chick flick, and anyway what is a 'chick flick' but an insulting term for a movie that's about women instead of the usual testosterone carriers."

http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/video/cl-ca-dvdchickflick13nov13,0,4347469.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=hppromobox

[G.R.I.T.S. (Girl raised in the south)]

It seems to me that this movie is being pushed and hyped by people who have never really lived with or befriended any real live cowboys. Yeah what do u know, real live cowboys, not the ones you see on T.V. City slickers get off your butt and ride a horse sometime, go to an actual rodeo and ask some cowboys from the south especially what they think of homosexuality. They will probably tell you that if their beloved confederacy won their would still be hangings of those kind of people. Don't get me wrong I have a close friend who is gay. I have no problem with that. However, I am going to say that even the cowboys from the north or south have a legendary image. A cowboy is a independent man with a love of family and courage. He is not politically correct. I went to a rodeo once and they described the ideal cowboy and my God he wasn't gay either. Even if it is in the genes they would probably not retain to a culture which discourages homosexuality. Cowboys aren't gay that's just not the way things work and before anyone says otherwise I want to ask you how many cowboys do you know? And how many of them are gay? hmmm...Probably none. Also I want to know how many cowboy/rednecks are actually going to attend this film and back it...hmmm..probably next to none. If they are going to make a movie about two male lovers fine, but don't bash the cowboy culture. Don't try to make people look like something they are most definately not. Otherwise a bunch of people from the city who have no idea what being in the country is about will be like, "yeah I saw a movie once and the cowboys were gay so they are into that kinda thing right?" Then when they actually go up and say that to a real cowboy they will get their face smashed in. Isn't a shame that there were actually good movies with John Wayne and that had shootings and horseback riding in it? Now in 2000s we can't have a decent fight because it may offend a race, we can't have a black person play a servant we'd get sued and we can't have a cowboy that prays in church no no..Seperation of church and the movies remember? Oh yeah...No we have to have movies about gay cowboys. This politically correct crap makes me sick sometimes. It's ok to offend people who are against homosexuality but it's not ok to offend people who are a certain race or don't believe in God. hmmm...ok. So much for everyone being =.

[Just Me]

GRITS, you obviously care deeply about the issue--to the point that you introduce topics that weren't even being discussed (race in the media)! I understand what you are saying. I suppose it must be difficult sometimes to be a heterosexual White Christian in modern America--perhaps you feel that all the values you traditionally held dear are being corrupted? I am of a more liberal bent when it comes to social issues, but I understand what you mean about the rampant political correctness in the media...I get sick of it myself sometimes! However, this movie doesn't appear to be pushing the "gay agenda"; it is simply a movie which explores how two men with strong romantic feelings for one another must deal with these feelings in light of social expectations and stigmas. In is set in the backdrop of cattle country.

[quote]Cowboys aren't gay that's just not the way things work and before anyone says otherwise I want to ask you how many cowboys do you know? And how many of them are gay?[/quote]

And if I said I knew several cowboys? Would that officially negate your point? As a matter of fact, I know about a handful of cowboys, one of who is a grand uncle--I have family in the South who still live on farms. One of their Mexican farmhands is so obviously a flamming homosexual.

You say there are no gay cowboys, but how do you explain the existence of the International Gay Rodeo the OP linked to? Understandably, the stereotypical image of the cowboy is uber masculine, but that does not mean there are no homosexuals who identify with cowboy culture.

[quote]Oh yeah...No we have to have movies about gay cowboys. This politically correct crap makes me sick sometimes. It's ok to offend people who are against homosexuality but it's not ok to offend people who are a certain race or don't believe in God.[/quote]

To be fair, there's nothing stopping an anti-homosexuality advocate to make a film about anti-gay cowboys, or a person from making a film which depicts certain races in a bad light. It's all protected under the banner of free speech. Of course, if any group doesn't like the way it is being portrayed in films, or dislike the content of the fim, they can protest and speak out against it. This may put pressure on the film makers and society, but it doesn't change the law; they still have a right to make these films (within law of course...obviosuly, this doesn't go for illegal activities like child pornography). Just because something personally offends you doesn't mean it is against the law, or you are being attacked.

I'm curious, what are your views on homosexuality, race, and politics? I don't want to just assume I know anything about you, but I know many people who hold similar views that you expressed. What never ceases to amaze me is that they will scream and holler about their freedom constitutional rights, but then proceed to try to restrain the freedom and rights of others.

Off topic: If you think gay cowboys are strange, I wonder how you feel about gay Nazis!

[Jeremy Michaels]

Yes, there are gay cowboys, and I've had a couple myself, so I know they DO exist ... That doesn't mean ALL cowboys are gay, but there there ARE gay cowboys. No big deal. And in the old west days, I wonder how many cowboys turned to each other for companionship when there simply were no women around. And what about the male prostitutes in the brothels back then? You've got kind of a desperate denial about gay cowboys going here, and it just makes me wonder why ...