In Defense of Bigotry

Male-patterned male escort Mickey Kaus leaps to the defense of his fellow hater, Ann Coulter:

What do I think of Coulter's comment? I think a) she obviously wasn't saying John Edwards is gay; b) she equally obviously doesn't think Edwards is gay; c) she picked the word "f-----" because she wanted to make a joke about what that Grey's Anatomy star said that resulted in him going into rehab; d) hard as it is to believe, it seems as if she doesn't realize how offensive that word is to people -- she thinks it's a very strong, non-boring word that basically means someone with the effeminate traits stereotypically associated with homosexuals; e) it's worse than that, a toxic word that shouldn't have been used even in a joke--or anyway in that joke; f) she's not, in fact, a homophobe. She's not even really what Mike Kinsley would call a "closet tolerant" because I don't think she's in the closet about it. It's worth noting what she did not say in response to Nagourney, which is any suggestion that gays are sinners going to hell, etc.--i.e. what the stereotypical liberal would expect the stereotypical Christian conservative to say ...

Of course, this is all bullshit and Kaus knows it.

Whether Coulter thinks Senator Edwards is a "faggot" is irrelevant. She thinks gay men are legitimate targets for hate and ridicule, and chose the word because she knows exactly how much her audience of haters -- Kaus included -- despise gay men. It doesn't matter if Coulter thinks gay men are sinners, or lesser human beings, or simply an easy target for verbal abuse in front of a crowd that believes the first two. It's bigotry all the same.

And Kaus, whose archives are littered with his weasel-worded opinions about how it's entirely reasonable to be repulsed by homos, whole-heartedly endorses it.