In which Peter LaBarbera takes fake victimization to another stratosphere

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03/26/2010

by Jeremy Hooper

Peter LaBarbera just posted this, without any apparent irony, hesitancy, or scruples:

"What about the hateful rhetorical attacks against me and AFTAH and nasty shibboleths that come routinely from the Left? “Porno Pete”? Honestly, this is the type of malicious, hateful slander I experience on a daily basis (it is analogous in its ugliness to Phelps’ use of the term “Fag”)."
AFTAH’s LaBarbera Challenges SPLC’s Potok to a ‘Debate on Hate,’ Asks to Reverse ‘Hate’ Designation[AFTAH]

Okay, uhm:

(a) Not everyone calls Peter "Porno Pete," anymore than everyone on his side say that gay male relationships are based on "one man violently cramming his penis into another man’s lower intestine and calling it love" the way that Pete defender and Americans For Truth's board member, Matt Barber, has in the past (among many other extreme comments). You might find the "PP" label silly, childish, or inaccurate. You might find it lame. But it ain't a slur!

(b) Peter is only on anyone's radar because he makes his living -- HIS LIVING! -- attacking LGBT people, their rights, and their very worth as human beings. That's what he does. For a job. One could argue that those who use the "PP" label are showing some sense of restraint, embracing the silliness so as to not let their hurt or anger get the best of them. Again: This site has never used it, so this writer's not going to answer for it. But I do know it's nowhere near the ballpark in which Pete placed his comparison.

(c) The word "f*g" is among the most heinous on the landscape, used in most every gay bashing to ever occur. To relate it to a silly web nickname that applies to a supposed affection for pornography (something that many would gladly own up to)? And to compare those who use the silly name to the Phelps family from Westboro Baptist, who protest people's funerals and tell the parents that their child is burning in hell?!?! That is completely out-of-line!

Peter and his pal Matt are trying with all of their might to spin the script so that gay activists are the "haters." It is Peter-Labarbera a completely futile exercise. Not a single one of us who fight for equality want to be doing this. We do this because folks like Pete have demanded it of us, and we're scared of where we'd be if we didn't resist the onslaught! The on the socially conservative side declared this so-called "culture war" against our inclusion in the spectrum of normalcy, which puts them in the aggressor seat from day one. Some folks like Peter, who do things like personally attack people's weddings, have just taken it to a whole other level!