We begin the summer with Memorial Day, end it on Labor Day and sandwich both Gay Pride and the celebration of our nation’s independence in the between. Last month focus on Gay Pride was a personal perspective that I realize 90 percent of you can not relate to, this month, Independence Day is a holiday for every American; straight, gay, transgendered, black, white, Christian, Jewish and Muslim.
Had there not been that fateful day on the 4th of July 200-plus years ago, there would be no U.S. and despite our flaws, few countries hold the opportunities we notoriously now take for granted and without them would any of us be able to do what we do in our chosen profession?
Even for an industry that prides itself on inventing niches where they did not formerly exist, religion and porn, now there are some strange bedfellows even we cannot come to grips with.
While constitutional conspiracy theorists will ague, and with due cause, the last eight years have seem an erosion of our freedoms of speech and privacy in the country at large and the all facets of the adult industry in particular, this seemed like a pretty good time to get back to the basis of why our founding fathers left the motherland to begin with the pursuit of spiritual freedom.
Even for an industry that prides itself on inventing niches where they did not formerly exist, religion and porn, now there are some strange bedfellows even we cannot come to grips with.
Social conservatives may have fueled the Reagan Revolution in the ‘80s; it was the “born again” zealots that expanded that base to Christian coalition during the Dubya Dumbing we are living under now. It was in January of 2002 that we first learned of then Attorney General John Ashcroft had spent $8,000 of tax paper money on rental drapes to cover the exposed breasts on two sculptures that had been ensconced in the Great Hall of the Department of Justice. In June of 2004, with the offensive titties stopped from their scurrilous mission at accelerating moral decay, our Crusader for the Cross set his sites on the resurrection of 2257 that had been on the books for nine years. The blundering, wire tapping and just plain misinformation that led to our war in Iraq somewhere in the middle, you will never believe what our porn-hating, breast fearing, anti-gay mongering government has done now.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that it is standard practice for American forces at Guantanamo Bay to provide Islamic detainees with prayer beads, the Koran, culturally suitable meals, and daily calls to prayer. Such basic freedoms are granted to, despite the often lack of due process, actual charges or credible evidence, what this administration refers to our most grievous enemies in the War on Terror. The recent fracas on water boarding does give a much more complete picture on the methodology permitted in the pursuit of information from these same prisoners.
What Mr. Boucher omitted in his recounting of how our Guantanamo Guests are provided with respect for the traditions of their faith is, that when standard questioning and some I am sure not-sostandard protocols failed to produce a mea culpa of guilt, the uncooperative detainee is forced to watch gay porn during interrogations. According an FBI email, “The adjoining room, observable from the monitoring booth, was occupied by two Department of Homeland Security investigators showing a detainee homosexual porn movies and using a strobe light in the room.”
How’s that for the gay angle: The very government that is seeking to deprive homosexuals of our right to marry and would seek to legislate away the way we all make a living, uses of all things in their battle in their War on Terror as a weapon but porn … and not just porn, but gay porn at that!
Arguably, the only silver lining to the fact that our War on Terror has now lasted longer than our term in World War II is that while our government seems to be building the case for the next battle, this time in Iran, we really do not need to worry — after all, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared in January of 2007 that there were no homosexuals in his country.
But back here in our country, as we make the potato salads, grab the sun screen and lock in 4th of July plans this year, let us remember next time we hear God Bless America, there is no prequalification required … let’s save that for our traffic!
Happy Independence Daze!
