Рорабейкер не имел отношения к “New Right”, но в своё время поддержал Джессе Хелмса в попытке урезать государственное финансирование искусства.
Из 1990:
Sen. Jesse Helms's onslaughts against federal support for anything vaguely homosexual have seemed cultural heroism or low comedy -- depending on your point of view. In Senate debate last fall, the North Carolina Republican railed against the "disgusting and illegal practices" of homosexuals; and earlier the "Helms transvestite amendment," as analysts at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force dubbed it, stipulated that transvestism, in and of itself, couldn't qualify as a "handicap" under the Fair Housing Amendments Act. (Helms won, 89-2.) But while Dannemeyer, Helms and a few other legislators see themselves manning the ramparts of Western civilization in the service of "our Judeo-Christian heritage" -- a favorite phrase -- not everyone agrees. "The motivation is simply hatred and bigotry," says Eric Rosenthal, political director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the nation's largest gay and lesbian lobbying organization. "In America today," observes Urvashi Vaid, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, "it's still okay to be anti-gay. It's perfectly socially acceptable. People are encouraged to be homophobic -- there's no condemnation as in the case of racism or antisemitism." <...> When Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) set out to promote the House version of the Helms arts amendment, he telephoned Frank and Rep. Gerry E. Studds (D-Mass.), who is also gay, "to assure them personally that nothing that I was doing was an attack on them or their lifestyle... . Homosexuals have been with us since the days of the Bible. This is not something that's going to be stamped out by government. We believe in individual freedom in this country!" Rohrabacher then proceeded with an attack on the House floor against the National Endowment for the Arts for sponsoring "drawings of homosexual orgies, bestiality and a Statue of Liberty turned into a transvestite, complete with male sex organs." Rohrabacher's insistence that it's federal funding for such drawings that he opposes rather than the drawings themselves, or even the orgies -- a view many Americans share -- is considered a distinction without a difference by gay and lesbian activists. They find his views alarming. Most members of Congress apparently would prefer that the issue simply disappear. Dannemeyer himself says that "they don't want to deal with it. It isn't that they're for homosexuals. They're just not comfortable talking about it." When possible, his aide Mero says, members will take cover in procedural thickets to avoid going on the record against gays -- a growing political bloc. But when legislation is clear-cut, Dannemeyer and Helms tend to win by high margins, perhaps, as several Hill insiders point out, because the pols fear negative advertising of the "SEN. WACKO BACKS GAYS" variety. The issue "scares the heck out of members of Congress," says Rosenthal. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1990/01/25/out-of-the-cloakroom-the-anti-gay-crusade/e5354c40-7511-454a-8cc9-c6650f6407f5/
Из 1990:
Sen. Jesse Helms's onslaughts against federal support for anything vaguely homosexual have seemed cultural heroism or low comedy -- depending on your point of view. In Senate debate last fall, the North Carolina Republican railed against the "disgusting and illegal practices" of homosexuals; and earlier the "Helms transvestite amendment," as analysts at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force dubbed it, stipulated that transvestism, in and of itself, couldn't qualify as a "handicap" under the Fair Housing Amendments Act. (Helms won, 89-2.)
But while Dannemeyer, Helms and a few other legislators see themselves manning the ramparts of Western civilization in the service of "our Judeo-Christian heritage" -- a favorite phrase -- not everyone agrees. "The motivation is simply hatred and bigotry," says Eric Rosenthal, political director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the nation's largest gay and lesbian lobbying organization. "In America today," observes Urvashi Vaid, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, "it's still okay to be anti-gay. It's perfectly socially acceptable. People are encouraged to be homophobic -- there's no condemnation as in the case of racism or antisemitism." <...>
When Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) set out to promote the House version of the Helms arts amendment, he telephoned Frank and Rep. Gerry E. Studds (D-Mass.), who is also gay, "to assure them personally that nothing that I was doing was an attack on them or their lifestyle... . Homosexuals have been with us since the days of the Bible. This is not something that's going to be stamped out by government. We believe in individual freedom in this country!"
Rohrabacher then proceeded with an attack on the House floor against the National Endowment for the Arts for sponsoring "drawings of homosexual orgies, bestiality and a Statue of Liberty turned into a transvestite, complete with male sex organs." Rohrabacher's insistence that it's federal funding for such drawings that he opposes rather than the drawings themselves, or even the orgies -- a view many Americans share -- is considered a distinction without a difference by gay and lesbian activists. They find his views alarming.
Most members of Congress apparently would prefer that the issue simply disappear. Dannemeyer himself says that "they don't want to deal with it. It isn't that they're for homosexuals. They're just not comfortable talking about it." When possible, his aide Mero says, members will take cover in procedural thickets to avoid going on the record against gays -- a growing political bloc. But when legislation is clear-cut, Dannemeyer and Helms tend to win by high margins, perhaps, as several Hill insiders point out, because the pols fear negative advertising of the "SEN. WACKO BACKS GAYS" variety.
The issue "scares the heck out of members of Congress," says Rosenthal.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1990/01/25/out-of-the-cloakroom-the-anti-gay-crusade/e5354c40-7511-454a-8cc9-c6650f6407f5/
Reply
Leave a comment