My Thursday column begins like so:
One of the more successful things about Mitt Romney’s doomed 2012 campaign was his ability to portray himself as an aw-shucks clean-cut good guy; a Mormon who never drinks or smokes or uses profanity, and quite literally uses the word “gosh” in every day language. But just beneath the thin Ward Cleaver veneer is a sociopath who’s incapable of experiencing certain moral and emotional connections to fellow humans.
He possesses the cold, animatronic mind of a CEO. Like so many other men in similar posts, he was able to fire thousands of people without flinching while also raiding and busting-out unsuspecting business after unsuspecting business. This T-1000 Terminator mindset was also evident in his youth, especially when he and his buddies assaulted a student who they thought was gay. Romney pinned John Lauber to the ground and, while the boy screamed out for help, the future Republican nominee for president cut his hair with a pair of scissors.
The immorality of what he did probably never occurred to Romney, as it never occurred to him that his corporate raider business model helped him to earn his fortune on the backs of countless destroyed lives. In schools all across the country, LGBT kids continue to be harassed and terrorized. Just yesterday, a 15-year-old boy named Jadin Bell was removed from life support after doctors informed his family that he was brain dead. Jadin had tried to commit suicide by hanging himself from a jungle gym at a local schoolyard after being mercilessly bullied for being openly gay. Jadin’s mother told the press, “We always knew that Jadin is a special person. Now everyone knows.”
Bill Maher once joked that homosexuality can’t possibly be a choice because why would any teenager choose to get the shit kicked out of him by cruel thoughtless meatheads (like Romney and too many others)?
So it goes with a reintroduced Tennessee law, SB 234, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill. [continue reading here]
