Gay/Lesbian Press Mischaracterizes My Criticism of OPUS Cartoon
Not surprisingly, the gay press has fired back at me over my comments earlier this week in my blog post Nationally-Syndicated Cartoonist: It’s Better to Have Two Moms than a Mom and a Dad, in which I criticized the OPUS Father’s Day week cartoon “Davie Dinkle has two moms.”
In the cartoon, which appeared in many of America’s largest newspapers last Sunday, two elementary school boys discuss a classmate who is being raised by two lesbian moms. One boy says, “Makes you wonder how he’ll do without a male role model in the house.” Right afterwards, the drunken, idiot father angrily throws the TV out the window, yelling “Now THAT was a pitch you @$%* moron!”
I wrote:
“[Cartoonist Berkeley] Breathed’s message is clear–dads are useless as role models (when they’re not outright destructive), and kids have little need or use for them.”
I also noted, “My commentary above should NOT be construed as a criticism of lesbians, lesbian moms or gays. As I’ve made clear on many occasions, I fully support the rights of gays and lesbians to live their lives as they choose. What I oppose is the idea…that kids don’t need fathers, that moms are better than dads, and that having two moms is better than having a mom and a dad.)
Now the gay press–including the prominent blogs Queerty and Pam’s House Blend as well as the lesbian mothers’ blog Mombian–are firing back. They criticize me and conservative religious writer Jennifer Roback Morse, who had later criticized the same cartoon in a Townhall.com column. I respect Morse and her work, but her views are obviously substantially different from mine. (To pick one example, she and I clashed a few months ago over my defense of lesbian social mothers’ custody rights in gay/lesbian divorces or civil union dissolutions–to learn more, click here.)
My belief is that while gays and lesbians as individuals are just as competent as parents as heterosexuals are, children need fathers and do benefit substantially from both the male and female parenting styles. When two gay men parent a child, I believe children lose something substantial from not having a mother, and when two women parent a child the child loses something substantial from not having a father.
I might have hoped that critics would deal with my argument directly. Instead, as almost always happens, they glide past my argument to find a more radical one–in this case, Morse’s–and then paint me with the same broad brush. When my work is discussed on feminist sites, my critics almost always cite some stupid or misogynistic thing which some other men’s issues columnist wrote–and such comments are not hard to find–and link me with it.
In Cartoon Causes Controversy: Conservatives Decry “Anti-Daddy” Droll, Queerty writes:
“Conservatives have their neatly pressed panties in a twist over this Opus The Penguin cartoon. The Berkeley Breathed-penned comic appeared Sunday (aka God’s Day) and provides more fuel to the ever-raging debate over gay parenting. Rather than focusing on the alleged pros and cons of queer parents, the Right’s taking a different angle–they’re accusing Breathed of denigrating daddies…Glenn Sacks squeals, ‘Breathed’s message is clear–dads are useless as role models (when they’re not outright destructive).’”
In other words, I’m an anti-gay conservative looking for a way to beat up on gays, and I used the OPUS cartoon as a way to do it. They have it almost exactly wrong. I’m not anti-gay, I’m not a conservative, and I don’t like to criticize gays or gay marriage. However, I do have a major problem with the idea that fathers are useless or destructive and that kids only need mothers–an idea the OPUS cartoon clearly represents.
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Stumble It!
June 14th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
So what have you learned here ?
June 14th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
feminists have promised full inclusion, and promotion of the homosexual lifestyle to the gays….
The gay community (which is overwhelmingly white middle class) is a staunch opponent of the male/father..
The father might point out to his son that crystal meth/and gay sex marathons are not conduceive to a healthy lifestyle…we also should study the results of some of these “medications” some of our youth are on…
Exstacy..a popular drug these days is a seratonin uptake inhibitor..is well known for its super sexual stimulations…
Common anti-depressants (prozack) ect. ect…are also seratonin uptake inhibitors..and is this drug making alot of kids super sexual, to the point of homosexuality.
June 14th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
I’m no anti-gay conservative either…but if the gay community as a unified voice, feels it ok to further choke the males/fatherhood…then they are opening the doors to be targeted..
June 14th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
So you have learned that criticizing your leftist buddies and straying from the party line marching orders and talking points gets you crucified. You’re only their friend if you remain a useful idiot.
Dogs. Lying down. Fleas.
Some assembly required.
(And yes, I did just write a piece critical of you. Show where there was a personal attack on your integrity and character…)
Opposition to the Gay Agenda does not arise from opposition to the “Gay,” part, but to the “Agenda” part. Like I said elsewhere – look at what they do – not what they say. Then you tell me if it is about equal rights, or some animals being more equal than others.
Of course here they are saying right out that you, Glenn Sacks, are unimportant to your children as a father, and can easily be replaced or done away with. Yes, that red dot is the targeting laser.
Nice friends you have there. Still comfy being their champion?
June 14th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
When you see the red dot, DUCK!!!!
If you are a family court judge and you see an angry crowd of divorced fathers marching down the street singing La Marseillaise in French, RUN!!!
And in some parts of town, make sure the girl you are kissing is actually a girl before you kiss her! Unless you like that sort of thing.
June 14th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
A California lawsuit which is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court would make the use of the words “natural family,” “marriage” and “union of a man and a woman” a “hate speech” crime in government workplaces. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has already ruled in favor of the plaintiffs!
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20070610-111445-6957r.htm
June 14th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
European Union is rightfully considering making denial or trivializing the Holocaust a crime. It’s already a crime in Germany.
But making “natural family” hate speech” is going a bridge too far.
Oprah, who trivializes straight men had a guest who had a sex change from man to woman. She complained that she gets no respect she deserves,
HBO had a brief documentary of bordello in Nevada and she was among the girls. It could be her occupation that causes the stigma. Oprah of course was sympathetic as she was anti-father- male when she worked as newsperson at local station here before her fame and fortune
June 14th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
Does any one believe that two lesbians, who are most likely feminists, can bring up a boy who feels “proud” to be a man and proud of what his gender has accomplished. I would bet that the goal of most feminist lesbians bringing up a boy is to bring up a boy sensitive to the needs and beliefs of feminist women – which would lead to learning that his gender, compared to women, is flawed but if he tries hard enough, just maybe he can be an “honorary woman.”
Most (gender feminists) feminist reading “what men have accomplished” can’t even begin to consider what men have accomplished and they will reflexively go straight to “raping-bastards” – I am sure it’s not unusual for lesbians who decide to bring up a boy to decide he should be a feminist or feminized man.
Ya, he might say he is quit happy with it but that would be after several years of brain washing and a bit of Stockhomle syndrome; identifyingwith your captors. It’s not the views of a boy brought up by a strong and mentally healthy man.
What does a boy do when brought up with feminist beliefs – when he learns that from Domestic Violence, to rape and false rape charges to pay inequity to housework that if feminist are not totally wrong they at least didn’t get it half right about these issues and worse than that, the repressed other points of view that showed men as equals, as fair, as giving and sacrificing which is typical of most men?
The bashing of fathers and men is a huge problem in America and you can’t get most people to even listen because they go straight to myths about men and fathers. Men should not have to defend fathers or men but that’s where we are and when we do we are told that other issues are more pressing. What could be more important than having “normal” parents who are positive role models of both genders to any child they are bringing up. To pretend that most men are not good role models compared to two women or two mommies, which is what some women are teaching and writing about, isexist bigotry.
Protesting sexist bigotry works well if the bigotry is directed toward women but when sexist bigotry toward men is protested, as Glenn S did about Opus, as other men do about male bashing, you can count on more sexist bigotry arriving shortly from the usual suspects.
SD
June 14th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
the day is coming when men realise its a spiritual battle to fight the feminist leviathan…
when that day comes, men will no longer fear death…and will know that if they die, they die fighting for a just cause…the cause of the father..
then the femi-nazi (including the eunech males behind the femi’s) that are choking out men/boys will know that they are in trouble..
June 14th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Glen,
You absolutely cannot support lesbianism and paternal parenting rights at the same time.
The feminist lesbian agenda is to have two mothers, which by definition means NO FATHERS. If you think heterosexual men have it bad getting parental rights, just imagine what happens when you have twice the “mommy magnetism” hiding behind the politically-correct shield of lesbianism.
The idea of lesbian “marriage” (or just living together) is to have two bodies in the household to raise kids, just like the heterosexual family. Since lesbian women have two bodies, and at least six sources of income (their own incomes, at least two sets of child support orders, and various welfare entitlements as a backup, they have absolutely no use of men.
“Heather has two mommies” means exactly what it says. It is an edict operating to full exclusion of fathers.
Glenn, you must stop trying to be politically correct with regard to lesbianism. It makes no sense whatsoever, and it is hurting this movement. Lesbians are never going to support you no matter what you say. Most gay men do quietly agree that I am right when I take them aside to discuss the facts of lesbian bi-maternality. Get with the program — and tell it straight to gay men. After all, should anybody in the men’s movement support giving feminists or lesbians what they want to finally kill fatherhood?
June 15th, 2007 at 6:33 am
Lesbians are the embodiment of hatred against the father…
Gay males have been duped into thinking liberation for them, comes in the form of joining the feminist/lesbian attacks on men/boys..
I say to my gay friends that I will not judge their “sexual preferences” but if they continue (as a unified voice) to villify the father/mens rights..then they are fair game…
June 15th, 2007 at 8:40 am
I don’t know whether it was naivity or good, old-fashioned hopefulness that the gay/lesbian audience would understand what you were saying, Glenn, but mischaracterisation is what they are good at and they play their strongest hand.
Hardly anyone on the left or in the queer culture know how to speak without a forked tongue and they hear only what they want to hear. We are talking about people who have ‘their own truth’ and a ’special way of knowing’.
Don’t take it to heart.
June 15th, 2007 at 9:16 am
I am sure you have made Jeff Dahmer and John Gacey role over in their graves.
June 15th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
scottkirk and David Usher
You are both right. When feminist argued that courts did not have power to grant joint custody, it took six sessions to get into law. Fift session it got throug the House but a feminist senator had to to Chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee to hold the vote so late so full legislature would not have time to consider it before adjounment.
I wonder how former Gov. Mario Cuomo, who vetoed joint custody legislation in New York now feel when his son was divorced by Kennedy girls wife. Perhaps its poetic justice, but still sad for all children.
June 15th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
To all, and gay men in particular:
Please note that all major litigation over gay marriage involves lesbian cases filed by N.O.W. Gay men are merely “along for the ride” — the legal precendents are set on behalf of lesbians, and that is the basis on which they operate.
Please note that in the few states where gay marriage or civil unions have been established, it is lesbians who are doing it. Gay men, for the most part, are not taking part.
This occurs on account of two factors:
1. lesbians want to establish a pure matriarchy.
2. Gay men tend to be disinterested in stable “living” arrangements. Studies indicate that they have 800% more sexual partners than their heterosexual counterparts.
So, the situation is this: by “including” gay men in agitprop, N.O.W. pretends it is representing men equally. The reality is that N.O.W. is using gay men as cardboard characters, in creating a pure matriarchy.
Now, having said all this: If somebody wants to be gay or lesbian, that is their business. The many serious problems that invariably arise are their responsibility. Doing these things does not in any way constitute a case for acceptance of these lifestyle choices as either being positive, equivalent, moral lifestyles requiring any special constitutional recognition or special protection. Children have enough problems without subjecting them to a vast experiment growing up under brute lesbian values. And, the final destruction of heterosexual marriage must absolutely be denied.