Mark,
I think you raise some valid issues so I will try to answer them as best I can.
My late husband was black. And gay. And half-Irish.
His family and friends took a very long time to accept his being gay, most never did.
It't true, there is an enormous amount of hatred towards homosexuals and Jews in the American Black community.
But I have never seen or experienced anything to indicate that this hatred is determined by race. I have met many blacks in Europe and in the US who have no problem with gays and Jews.
Obama is half-black. None of his actions or speeches have ever suggested he would discriminate more against gays or Jews than other main-stream Democrats.
Yes, Bill Clinton really knifed us in the back. I do not accept for one nano-second the bullshit about how things would have been even worse if he hadn't sold us out.
In the end, the question for me is, do I go with people who are not my friends as a gay man, but who are willing to leave me in peace...or do I go with people who are secessionists, avowed members of a party which seeks to overturn the US Constitution and who as recently as last Sunday attended a sermon during which homosexuality was characterized as a sin which must be treated?
Yes, the choice this time is between mediocre (Obama) and un-American (Palin). Neither pleases me, but as little as Palin's daughter's pregnancy influences my decisions, so does Obamas skin color or Hawaiian origins.
Ultimately, it comes down to personal experience. I have had some nasty things said to me here by the politically correct, I have been accused of mental illness by some of the killer queens, the e-mails I have received from some members of this and the *other* club were such that I truly expected Idlewild or Bedlam as the return address. But only one group of people here have actively attempted to hurt my family and me. And that was some of the fundamentalist Christians on the far right. There's a big difference between arguing and not agreeing in the virtual world. But when people actually attack people in the real world...well do you really wonder why I fear your side of the aisle?
When I am in Europe and acquaintances tell me how wrong I am to dislike the Islamic culture and religion, how foolish of me to support Israel...I get out my newspaper cuttings of the Frankfurt Airport attack. I was there that day, only reason I didn't get blown up was because I had to return to my car. Muslims are not all evil, but there is a violence in that religion which frightens me. Never been attacked by a Jew or a non-fundamentalist Christian. Have been by fundamentalist Christians.
And that, in the end is the problem I have with the conservatives who now run the republican party. I have personally experienced the hatred and violence of which they are not only capable, but glory in.
I know the bible, I was raised in a Christian home. Christian by your definition, that one may only be saved by acknowledging the grace of Jesus Christ. But neither of my parents nor any of their church members ever countenanced the hatred and violence the conservative wing of the American Christians are engaged in towards homosexuals today.
Ultimately, I think it will take a very long time before the polarization of American politics can be overcome. The culture wars have hurt too many of us in the center and on the left, the attacks by the right have made trust very hard. For me, impossible.
On a personal note, I have defended Shane, I have defended Rune and I have tried to defend you when you were personally attacked. I never write anonymous emails, I try to avoid ad hominem attacks. Certainly I have said some things here which were harsh and I am sorry I've hurt you. I wish, truly I do, there were a way to work together. The Nazis tried to kill us all, they failed. Surely, surely it is time for the political right to accept what science has firmly demonstrated: Homosexuality is not an illness, it is not a choice.
