A deluge of far-right blogs and sites, based on nothing but unnamed sources and speculation, began dutifully claiming over the weekend that: 1) Ambassador Christopher Stevens was gay; 2) that the Obama administration is responsible for his death because it had the supposedly terrible judgment to send a gay man to an Islamic country, or even did it as an intentional provocation, and; 3) that Stevens' corpse was dragged outside and sodomized by an angry mob because that's what Muslims do -- they have sex with the dead bodies of gay men.
It's all beyond the pale in terms of the vile and grotesque lies perpetrated by many on the right, but it's exactly in line with those lies that started this latest explosion of hate and violence -- the film, The Innocence of Muslims, which portrays Mohammed just like they're now portraying Stevens: as a homosexual.
Most of the sites and blog posts have been accompanied by brutal photos and grainy videos of what they purport to be Ambassador Stevens' body after it was pulled from the burned consulate building in Benghazi. The reports on the right-wing blogs seem to have emanated from at least two distinct sites. One is RomanCatholicImperialists.org, which is taking great pleasure in disseminating claims of Stevens being raped before and after his death -- which has not been reported by any news organization of any kind -- with this headline: "Homosexual J. Christopher Stevens U.S. Ambassador Was Sodomized Before And After Being Murdered By Homosexual Muslims. His Inability To Discern The Evils Of Islam Got Him Killed."
And the other is Hillbuzz, where longtime gay conservative blogger and Tea Party smear artist Kevin DuJan, who last week hooked up with prominent birther Jerome Corsi to claim President Obama used to go to Chicago gay bars and bathhouses, now claims people in the gay bars in Chicago told him Stevens is gay. DuJan, who also claimed a while back that gay leftists were trying to poison him, also says it's clear from Stevens' good friend Austin Tichenor's Facebook page that Stevens and playwright and actor Tichenor were in a longtime gay relationship, mostly because of some cheesy 70s-era photos of them together which were posted on the page, as well as some references to Brideshead Revisited posted by some commenters.
That's beside the fact that Tichenor, who expresses sadness on the Facebook page for the loss of his lifelong friend Stevens, with whom he went to high school and college, thanks people for offering their condolences to him "and Dee." A few searches on the web reveal that Dee is his wife, and that they have two children. (I know: Just because a man is married to a woman doesn't necessarily mean he can't be in a relationship with another man, but you'd think the right-wing brigade would have mentioned the fact. By not doing so it betrays how they're trying to twist this into the story they want.)
DuJan claims a Serbian consulate employee in Chicago named "Dino" told him that Muslims sodomize corpses to show "utmost disrespect to the body." (This, by the way, is being reported on the other right-wing blogs as "Serbian Consulate Claims...") Like the great many others who've picked up his claims, DuJan then attacks the Obama administration for sending a gay man to be the ambassador of an Islamic country.
I don't know anything about the sexual orientation of 52-year-old Ambassador Stevens, whom the Washington Post described as "never married and had no children." But even if he were gay, it's absurd to claim he couldn't do the job, nor shouldn't have been sent to Libya, particularly since he'd been working in foreign service in North Africa for most of his working life and doing nothing less than a stellar job according to every news report. To the people who attacked him and to many of those who were scaling Western embassies in other cities, the fact that he was an American or a Westerner was enough to inspire their anger. Being gay or straight is almost beside the point.
It's encouraging, though, to learn that right-wing bloggers actually do care about the well-being of American gay people. Who knew? Now someone just needs to tell them that, when it comes to blocking us from attaining rights, Muslim fundamentalists thousands of miles away are the least of our problems. Maybe they could, oh, get their leaders here in this country to stop bashing us, and perhaps they could, say, get their presidential candidate to drop his plan to make gays second class citizens in the U.S. Constitution.
Follow Michelangelo Signorile on Twitter: www.twitter.com/msignorile
FOLLOW GAY VOICES
Like
32k
GET ALERTS
Commented (1)Read (1)
1 of your friends Commented on this article
GDWhiteman Commented 7 hours ago
"But true."
Read more from Huffington Post bloggers:
Lucas Welch: Why We Need A Million More Chris Stevens and How We Can Get Them
But if we are unyielding champions for freedom of expression, do we not also have a responsibility as a society to ask how are we using that freedom? Is it OK that Terry Jones and "Sam Bacile" are our ambassadors?
More in Gay Voices...
Juan Reyes, New York State Senate Candidate,...
The Times They Are a-Changin'... or Are...
Matthew Vines Won't Rest in Defending Gay...
Rupert Everett On Gay Parenting: 'There's Nothing...
Comments 260 Pending Comments 115 View FAQ
Edit your micro-bio.
kubisiak5
Votes are weapons. Progress requires action.
Our moderators screen these comments before they are published
Post Comment Preview Comment
To reply to a Comment: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to.
Share your Comment:
Post to Facebook.Post to Blogger.Post to Twitter.Post to WordPress.Post to TypePad.Post to Tumblr.
View All Friends Favorites Bloggers
Recency | PopularityPage: 1 2 3 4 5 Next › Last » (7 total)
Truthtalker2
193 Fans Become a fan
17 minutes ago ( 8:54 PM)
The greatest troubles in our country today, and indeed the world, stems from religion. The fundamentalists who killed our fellow Americans and no different from the fundamentalist Christians who have killed millions of people in the name of Jesus. The Bible is filled with one mass murder after another.
This same god is so insecure that he wrote blasphemy laws to kill anyone who said anything bad against him. This same god, who supposedly wrote the 10 commandments, orders EVERYONE to be put to death who works on the Sabbath. Children who disobey their parents are to executed. Christians in America today do not believe this drivel.
I cannot include all the death sentences in this short note but I am sure YOU do not believe in killing people for the offenses named by God. The Bible declares that whosoever will not accept the lord god of Israel should be put to death. Do you believe this? This is NOT a loving god. This is NOT a kind or good god. This is NOT the "manager of all things......".
Until people realize all religion to be superstition, religious groups and their gods will continue their pissing contests to see whose god is best.
Freedom comes by Freedom From Religion.
Favorite (1) Flag as Abusive Permalink | Share it
Truthtalker2
193 Fans Become a fan
21 minutes ago ( 8:50 PM)
Religion is a powerful thing. Few can resist its charms and few can truly
break its embrace. It is the siren who entices the wandering traveler with
songs of love and desire and, once successful, turns a mind into stone. It is
a Venus fly trap. Its attraction is like that of drugs to an addict who,
wishing to be free and happy, becomes trapped and miserable.
Favorite (0) Flag as Abusive Permalink | Share it
theGrands
133 Fans Become a fan
24 minutes ago ( 8:47 PM)
Ya know what I think? I think that certain people want certain people to think these posts are coming from certain people so that certain people can cover-up the truth about what really happened to certain people in a place where certain people were doing things that certain people don't want us to know about.
Favorite (0) Flag as Abusive Permalink | Share it
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lshifler
All the world's a stage...
144 Fans Become a fan
7 minutes ago ( 9:04 PM)
Certainly.........
Favorite (0) Flag as Abusive Permalink | Share it
VTpat
149 Fans Become a fan
34 minutes ago ( 8:38 PM)
How very sad that our civil discourse has sunk so low. Here is a man who has served this country with honor, who risked his own life to save those of his staff, and died in that effort. And instead of honoring his memory some people make up a scenario to suit their own religious/political agendas. I am ashamed for them, since they are ignorant of the fact that they should be ashamed.
Favorite (1) Flag as Abusive Permalink | Share it
gonealreb
Our Constitution is just fine, thanks anyway.
848 Fans Become a fan
45 minutes ago ( 8:26 PM)
Sad when a man expresses remorse over the loss of a life long friend and is accused of being gay because of it. Even if he was, what the heck difference is it?
I lost straight friends I'd known for years in Vietnam - and nobody ever suggested that because I am gay, they were too.
Sad world we live in.
Favorite (1) Flag as Abusive Permalink | Share it
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
lshifler
All the world's a stage...
144 Fans Become a fan
6 minutes ago ( 9:05 PM)
Small hateful people need company, and this is the way that they get attention. It's not about you, it's about a hateful set of ideas that is much bigger than you. It will get better, I promise, but I don't know how to make you feel better about it right now.
Favorite (1) Flag as Abusive Permalink | Share it
pinetrale
482 Fans Become a fan
51 minutes ago ( 8:20 PM)
They are fixated on sexuality these sorry people. Gay or womans bodies are their favorite fruit when they have nothing to offer but hate. rigidly minded. condescending. and disturbed.
Favorite (1) Flag as Abusive Permalink | Share it
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
LucreziaBorgia
186 Fans Become a fan
1 hour ago ( 8:08 PM)
They have no shame. Absolutely despicable.
Favorite (0) Flag as Abusive Permalink | Share it
themaxpowerway
24 Fans Become a fan
2 hours ago ( 7:30 PM)
Ambassador Stevens devoted his life to serving our country, which automatically makes him a loser in the eyes of the Republican base. The only Real Americans are slick corporate raiders from Wall Street, donchaknow? So they'll drag Stevens's name through the mud, which, in their minds, means calling him gay. The rest of us will just keep looking on in disgust at their antics, but we'll remember in November.
Favorite (11) Flag as Abusive Permalink | Share it
Caymus77
We the people ARE the Government
431 Fans Become a fan
2 hours ago ( 7:05 PM)
So if Stevens had been a straight, conservative Christian, he would never have been attacked?
This is crazy.
Favorite (1) Flag as Abusive Permalink | Share it
jdave1
127 Fans Become a fan
2 hours ago ( 6:53 PM)
Why give such disgusting and obviously false allegations airtime? The more attention we give these fringe actors, the more they disrupt. Ignore them, they'll go away.
Favorite (2) Flag as Abusive Permalink | Share it
pragview13
115 Fans Become a fan
2 hours ago ( 6:52 PM)
I am non religious, and am quite aginst organized religioin, but to accuse muslums of sodomizing a dead corpse is definitely one of the vilest things I have evef read! This reallly is over the top- these people are so vile they should not even call themselves christian!
Favorite (3) Flag as Abusive Permalink | Share it
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Vincent Van Der Hyde
The truth will set you free.
776 Fans Become a fan
2 hours ago ( 6:47 PM)
Perhaps there should be some 'protest demonstrations' at the locations of these 'right-wing websites, radical Christian bloggers and Tea Party fringe characters ' to help them remember the consequences of inciting speech.
Favorite (1) Flag as Abusive Permalink | Share it
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Jerry Bourbon
475 Fans Become a fan
37 minutes ago ( 8:34 PM)
Sure, protest away. It is, for now, anyway, still a free country.
Favorite (0) Flag as Abusive Permalink | Share it
gownsbyadrian
28 Fans Become a fan
2 hours ago ( 6:43 PM)
Michelangelo, great reportage/analysis on this story. Most of all, you write with humanity and respect for Ambassador Stevens. Salut. Lew
Favorite (2) Flag as Abusive Permalink | Share it
Stephen Hampe
18 Fans Become a fan
3 hours ago ( 6:31 PM)
Hello, downside of the Information Age!
There have always been conspiracy theorist loons.
While living in NYC, there was an elderly woman, apparently mentally ill, would stand near my neighborhood subway stop and pontificate about anything, to anyone. Unless you used that subway stop, you probably never knew woman. Even if you did, you probably didn't know her name.
But today, for a few hundred dollars ... free you'll wait for a computer at the library ... people used to be known only in a neighborhood or perhaps a local tavern, have the possibility of achieving their 15 minutes of Internet fame. Ironically, if my subway preacher had a modicum of media savvy, she might be Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh. Even blowhards lacking savvy can, with a webcam and a internet connection, spew their "insight" ... er, delusion ... until someone with a larger microphone, sadly, lends it credibility.
By all reputable accounts, Ambassador Stevens accepted his assignment because he had the skills (spoke the language) and temperament to want to make a difference in the region. And he lost his life because he believed he was more than just a bureaucrat, but the "captain" of his diplomatic ship, wanting to make sure his "crew" was safe.
Whatever his sexual orientation, or sports team loyalty, or taste in wine ... all irrelevant.
A good and decent man was killed doing what he thought was right, trying to make a difference in the world.
