On the front page of today's Style section, Washington Post staffer Jose Antonio Vargas promised readers a look at the "gay political blogosphere" in "Gay Bloggers' Voices Rise in Chorus of Growing Political Influence."
"Disparate Gay Bloggers Create a Virtual Village of Many Voices," the headline on the jump page noted:
On the Internet, no group -- however controversial or on the fringe -- is invisible. Everyone is but a Google search away. And the sheer diversity of blogs written by gays, lesbians and transgenders proves that, like all minority groups, the gay community is not monolithic. Though they may blog about the same topic -- say, Prop. 8 -- it doesn't mean they'll arrive at the same conclusion.
Yet nowhere in his 20-paragraph profile does Vargas look into the generally conservative bloggers who maintain GayPatriot.net, a site that describes itself as "the Internet home for the American gay conservative." Indeed, Vargas spent the lion's share of his article focused on Pam Spaulding, a liberal black lesbian blogger from North Carolina. Vargas sums up Spaulding's insights on Prop 8: "religious anti-gay whites" are equally responsible for the passage of the ballot referendum as socially conservative African-American voters.
Wow. Truly insightful.
By contrast, GayPatriot bloggers also opposed Proposition 8 yet take liberal gay activists to task for their shrill invective against proponents of the ballot initiative. Here's one such excerpt from a February 8 post by Daniel Blatt, who blogs as "GayPatriotWest" entitled, "Will Gay Groups Criticize Mean-Spirited Tactics of Angry Prop 8 Opponents?":
Opponents of California’s Proposition 8 claim that in taking issue with those who favor the traditional definition of marriage, they’re standing against hate (or H8, as some put it). And while, to be sure, there has been some mean-spirited rhetoric from supporters of the successful ballot initiative, the bulk of the hatred in this debate has come from those opposing the initiative.
In an article in yesterday’s Business section, even the New York Times acknowledged as much:
FOR the backers of Proposition 8, the state ballot measure to stop single-sex couples from marrying in California, victory has been soured by the ugly specter of intimidation.
Some donors to groups supporting the measure have received death threats and envelopes containing a powdery white substance, and their businesses have been boycotted.
In her post linking the article, Michelle Malkin asks, “What took” the supposed paper of record “so damn long?“
I would offer that it upsets their narrative, that the ugly tactics of intimidation are supposed to come from social conservatives, in this case, those opposing gay marriage and not the supposedly progressive advocates of social change.
Perhaps finding and reporting on generally conservative gay bloggers also upsets the Washington Post's preferred narrative.
