Right-wing pundit savaged for asking: ‘Is conservative the new gay?’
Gayle Trotter prompted outrage by asking: Is ‘conservative’ the new ‘gay’?” (gayle trotter/facebook)
Right-wing political commentator Gayle Trotter has prompted a viral Twitter storm after asking: “Is ‘conservative’ the new ‘gay?'”
Trotter, who is also a lawyer, wrote the question on Tuesday (December 11) above a link to an article by Chad Felix Greene on US news site The Federalist with the headline: “The stigma against my conservative politics is worse than the stigma of being gay.”
Her tweet has provoked countless furious, intelligent and insightful posts disputing her premise.
Idea that conservative is the new gay angers many
People ripped into Trotter’s question, which reflected the piece’s message that taking on conservative beliefs meant being “a marginalised voice, suppressed and dehumanised.”
Some constructed other queries which they viewed as similar concepts, like one which read “Are ‘murderers’ the new ‘murder victims’?” and another that said “Is victimhood the new homophobia?”
“I’ll admit, I’m fully against gay conversion therapy but I’d be open to supporting conservative conversion camps.”
— Rob Rousseau on Twitter
Others pointed out particularly stark contrasts between homosexuality and conservatism, with one saying: “calling out conservatives’ privilege is not the same as oppressing them for generations, so no, it’s not the new gay.”
This was supported by another tweeter, who wrote: “someone said being conservative is the new being gay like conservatives ever had to go to public restrooms to talk about Ayn Rand.”
Another striking difference between the two groups was “that gay people aren’t advocating dehumanising conversion therapy for conservatives,” according to one commenter.
The question was called a “disgusting comparison,” among other, angrier things. (Twitter)
This didn’t mean that everyone was opposed to the idea, with one person writing: “I’ll admit, I’m fully against gay conversion therapy but I’d be open to supporting conservative conversion camps.”
There are, of course, many other differences, with one user saying: “Talk to me when you get beaten, repressed, killed, raped, denied rights, publicly humiliated, banned, denied marriage, s**t on by religions, denied adopting children because of an unorthodox household, shunned by family and friends, legally fired from your job, abused, scared to be out in public, and I’m sure I’m missing some others for being conservative.
“And WE’RE the snowflakes,” they added.
Tweeters point out that conservatives hold political power
People were also keen to emphasise that the conservative Republican Party controls the presidency, Senate and—until January—the House of Representatives, and has repeatedly used that platform to move against LGBT+ rights.
“Conservatives are literally in power, oppressing and not being oppressed. Get the absolute f**k away you shower of c**ts,” wrote one tweeter.
Another said sarcastically: “Oh yes, it seems like only yesterday gays had control of most of the government and were taking away people’s health care and civil rights. How the tables have turned!”
A different user tweeted: “For real, you’d have to do an ‘are Nazis the new Jews’ to outnuke this take. Who the f**k do you narcissistic d-bags imagine was making life hard for gay people in the first place?”
Most responses could be boiled down to the tweet one person sent in which they answered: “No, because being hateful is a choice.”
There was, however, one thing that the so-called discrimination faced by conservatives has in common with homophobia, another commenter observed.
“The only similarity between the stigma of being gay and the stigma of being conservative is both stigmas exist because conservatives are bad people,” they wrote.
