On Friday, April 10th, The Delco Times resident blowhard (Gil Spencer) published a piece of political and social tripe. His argument boils down to advocating that anti-gay bigotry taught in the home should not be undermined with tolerance taught in the schools.
Here is his article: Gil Gets a Failing Grade on Tolerance
This was a follow-up to his equally outrageous blog article that actually declared teaching tolerance to be liberal tyranny.
The Delco Times finally decided to print my letter to the editor: Is Gil Spencer a Bigot?
Editor-
I was quite surprised to see Gil Spencer's spirited defense of gay discrimination appearing in the print edition of the paper. Gil uses classic straw man arguments to divert from the real issues.
First, he pretends that gay rights are some left-wing social agenda, rather than a Constitutional equal protection issue.
Second, he falsely claims that the left is accusing everyone opposed to gay marriage of being a bigot and a homophobe. This is completely untrue. Gil's goal here is to mask the fact that large numbers of bigots and homophobes ARE opposed to all sorts of gay rights, including marriage. Bigotry has its heart in ignorance. Judge for yourself in which camp Gil can be found.
Third, when Gil was in school, gays were considered to be sexual deviates and pedophiles preying on children, and they were barred from jobs like teaching. Our military still classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder. Maybe Gil would prefer to live in Iran, where they claim there are no gays and homosexuality is the result of our Western culture. Or maybe Gil agrees with his blogger friends that you can "pray away the gay".
Fourth, Gil actually equates the question of a gay baby-sitter with a baby-sitter with HIV. This is Gil's not so subtle way to push the idea in people's minds that being gay is somehow the same as a disease.
Our children should be receiving a solid education based upon real medical science and facts, and not illusions, perceptions, out-dated myths, ideology and propaganda.
Finally, Gil PRAISES a private Catholic prep school teacher for believing there was nothing he could do to admonish a student that verbally expressed hatred for gays. What if the kid had said he hated Jesus instead?
Gil may go around proclaiming that people can't prove he is an anti-gay bigot, but actions speak louder than words. Gil is giving the bigots aid, comfort and material support with his columns. Therefore, even if Gil is not a card-carrying bigot, it's a distinction without a difference.
Feel free to contact editor@delcotimes.com and ask him why the Delco Times has someone like Gil Spencer in such a prominent opinion role.
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2 comments:
Gil responded to my letter to the editor in his blog! Boy, is he pissed.
Here is his blog responseMy response (setting the record straight, which Gil is unlikely to publish):
Gil-
I guess my letter to the editor really got to you. It's the first time you've actually dared to use my name in months.
Let's see if you have the guts to publish this post where I set some facts straight and correct your mischaracterizing:
1) My PUBLISHED letter did not SAY you were a bigot. It ASKED if you were a bigot and concluded it was a "distinction without a difference". Walks like a duck, quacks like a bigot.
2) "intemperate and insulting for my taste". No, you banned me when I informed your editor of one of your anti-gay diatribes. Also, I trounce you on the facts and can back up my arguments with links to relevant science articles or full transcripts of political speeches. You don't like to lose or be contradicted with opposing points of view. (What's the point in having a blog if you won't engage in debate?)
3) If your blog supports anonymous posting and unverified identities then you should allow posts based upon the content of arguments given, not the poster. I've been contacted by at least one other "anonymous" poster who says you don't post his stuff either.
You've got over 30 topics that you've posted in the past week and only ONE anonymous comment. So, if I'm the only one you are banning, what happened to everyone else?
4) In unpublished blog comments, not emails (get your facts straight), I have indeed indicated my desire to get this blog canceled and you fired. You and your toxic column are a blight on the internet, the newspaper industry and Delaware County. The lack of posts on this site proves how out of touch your blog is.
5) Which wife? Current or ex? I'm pretty sure that the first wife is creeped out by your daughter being exposed to your "philosophy" and has to frequently inoculate her.
6) Getting letters published in the paper is more productive because it exposes you to an actual audience of readers (rather than the non-audience for this blog).
Some of the reactions I've received:
1) drunk dial call at home from "nick" that thought I was advancing the gay agenda and that homos should stay in the closet where the belong
2) phone call from former Spencerblog poster that loved my letter and how steamed it must have gotten Gil.
3) email from CH:
Great letter in today's paper! I used to respond to Gil's articles all the time (mostly when I was pushing an anti-discrimination policy in the William Penn SD and fought to include "sexual orientation" in the mix) and when I criticize the County jail and the disparate treatment of people of color....
I assume you will be prepared to be attacked in his column. I always considered it a badge of honor.4) email from Larry of Springfield:
Good letter in today's Times. Gil Spencer is a jerk and a bigot. Like most right wing conservative pundits, he attempts to hide his bigotry and racism behind buzz words and code so that his like minded followers rally behind him.5) Chris in Philly liked letter and then Googled Spencer's blog. He said it was so bad that he felt like reading it could make someone dumber.
Empirical evidence of Spencer's fan base supports this theory.
On the Delco Times site (not Spencer's blog) the usual assortment of bigotry and Bible-thumping was on display in the comments defending Gil. There were some rational bright spots thanking me for calling out Gil so publicly.
On Gil's blog, he has blocked any and all comments critical to his point of view. He's shown once again that he's like the neighborhood bully. A coward at heart that runs away crying when someone stands up and gives him a bloody nose.
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