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More on Elton John & Eminem |
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By John Aravosis The List E! TV Does Dr. Laura
Elton John and Eminem
Wednesday night at the Grammy's, Elton John will be singing a
duet with homophobic rapper Eminem. Eminem apparently asked
Elton to sing the duet, and Elton readily agreed, saying that
"If I thought for one minute he was hateful, I wouldn't do
it."
As probably everyone knows, Eminem has angered a lot of people by peppering his music with anti-gay and anti-women lyrics. As for whether he's really hateful, or the lyrics are a problem, check some of them out for yourself: You faggots keep eggin me on til I have you at knifepoint, then you beg me to stop? SHUT UP! Give me your hands and feet I said SHUT UP when I'm talkin to you YOU HEAR ME? ANSWER ME!... "Slim Anus," you damn right, Slim Anus I don't get fucked in mine like you two little flaming faggots!... My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge That'll stab you in the head whether you're a fag or lez Or the homosex, hermaph or a trans-a-vest Pants or dress - hate fags? The answer's "yes" Homophobic? Nah, you're just heterophobic Starin at my jeans, watchin my genitals bulgin (Ooh!) That's my motherfuckin balls, you'd better let go of em They belong in my scrotum, you'll never get hold of em Hey, it's me, Versace Whoops, somebody shot me!... I'm not going to rehash all the same arguments here about whether Eminem is a homophobe and whether Elton John should be singing with the guy. I do, however, have an idea as to why Elton John might be doing this.
And perhaps even worse than the content of Eminem's lyrics, is the content, or lack thereof, of his response to his critics. According to the news reports I've read, and other reporters I've spoken to, never once has Eminem come out and repudiated violence against gays and violence against women. I think back to a time last summer when Dr. Laura claimed that some anti-Laura activists were phoning in death threats against her and against Paramount. When asked about this, those of us involved in StopDrLaura.com immediately expressed our outrage, and disavowed anyone who might physically threaten Dr. Laura or Paramount employees. We didn't know if the reports were true, but they were serious enough accusations that we thought it important to make clear that we would never condone violence. The point is that when asked about the potential for your work to lead to violence, responsible people should make it very clear immediately that they of course repudiate such violence. Eminem, however, has done no such thing - and the deafening silence is quite telling. And that is the reason Sir Elton shouldn't be singing with Eminem Wednesday night. I will say one final thing about the content of Eminem's lyrics. If Elton John and the hosts of the Grammys are so sure that Eminem's anti-gay rhetoric isn't hateful, then I'm sure they wouldn't mind singing one of the songs about stabbing fags on Wednesday night, just to show the world that the lyrics aren't so bad after all. Log Cabin and AIDS
"President George W. Bush will significantly upgrade the White House fight against HIV/AIDS over his predecessor by creating a new AIDS coordinator at the Domestic Policy Council, the senior policy body at the White House... 'This is a major step forward, and we applaud President Bush for taking the fight against AIDS to a significantly higher level at the White House than the previous administration,' said Rich Tafel, executive director of Log Cabin Republicans... The White House Office of National AIDS Policy was created in 1994, but no AIDS policy coordinator was elevated to senior status within the White House under the Clinton Administration." Sounds like good stuff, until you realize that under the Clinton Administration, the AIDS Czar, Sandy Thurman, was already represented on the Domestic Policy Council by her deputy. And while it's true that Sandy herself was not in attendance at those meetings, it's because she was a member of the White House Senior Staff - a higher-level group than the Domestic Policy Council - and attended the Senior Staff meetings which took place at the same time as the Policy Council meetings, so she sent her deputy to the less important meeting in her stead. The test for Bush isn't whether he has someone from the AIDS office on the Domestic Policy Council - been there, done that years ago - but whether the AIDS Czar (if it even exists any more - it's reported that Bush plans to cut the 3 full-time staffers back to only 1 will be attending Senior Staff meetings. I'll say it again. I get it that Log Cabin is made up of gay Republicans so they feel the need to be nice to Bush, but can't we please please please get something in return, rather than repeatedly giving the guy false cover when all he is really doing is hurting the community by nominating an anti-gay attorney general and downgrading the White House Office on AIDS? The truth wouldn't kill you guys. Got an Opinion? "I'm beginning to wonder if there really are ANY gays in the Log Cabin Republicans. Maybe they have been infiltrated by the Christian Coalition or some other right-wing wacko group" Posted by USA520 to my About.com bulletin boards Do you think Log Cabin has gone too far? Post a reply here: http://forums.about.com/ab-uspolitics/messages/?lgnf=y&msg=6064.14 |
E! television is doing a "True Hollywood Story" on Dr. Laura this
Sunday, February 25th, at 9PM EST/PT. They interviewed me
for the show, but I have no idea if we'll be in it - though the
promo for the show mentions our Paramount protest and the
controversy, so it's a good bet. Either way, should be an
interesting watch. Be sure to check it out, if you get E!
on cable. The show will re-air later that evening, Feb. 26:
12 a.m. EST/PT.
Rich Tafel is the executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans 