This week the LGBT community finally hit what I hope is rock bottom. Two prominent gay hoteliers met with Ted Cruz to reputedly have a “fireside chat.” Mati Weiderpass and Ian Reisner hosted Sen. Cruz, who is a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage and has said that the “gay” community is waging a “jihad” on Christians.
Yet Weiderpass and Reisner broke bread with Sen. Cruz and gave him cover for his anti-LGBT stance. Initially Reisner claimed he was a guest and that Weiderpass was the host, although in his subsequent apology he admitted to “co-hosting” the event. Both gentlemen own the Central Park South penthouse where the meeting took place. Yes, Virginia, a gay man can be a homophobe.
Homophobes are people who fear, hate or treat members of the LGBT community badly. Mr. Weiderpass and Mr. Reisner clearly qualify. You see they allowed Sen. Cruz to become more palatable to those voters who may not know of Cruz’s vocal opposition to marriage equality. Six months from now those voters will say “Cruz met with and is supported by many gay people.” Nothing can be farther from the truth, but Mr. Weiderpass and Mr. Reisner don’t care. What they truly care about is “foreign policy,” which was the primary subject of the dinner conversation. Isn’t it interesting that none of the news coverage about the “fireside chat” with Cruz talked much about the senator’s foreign policy positions? Since the LGBT hosts wanted to talk foreign policy why didn’t the murder, mutilation and imprisonment of LGBT people across the globe come up? Isn’t that part of the international human rights agenda and on America’s foreign policy menu? Yes, Virginia, Mr. Weiderpass, Mr. Reisner and their ilk are homophobes; they do things that treat the LGBT community badly.
Unfortunately, there are others like Mr. Weiderpass and Mr. Reisner. Remember Ken Mehlman, campaign manager for the George W. Bush 2004 re-election campaign and subsequently the Republican National Committee chair? Mehlman helped put 12 anti-same-sex marriage initiatives on the ballot in 2004 to gin up the anti-LGBT Republican vote to help garner a George W. Bush victory. Closeted Mehlman put his career and love of George W. Bush before his community. When he finally decided to come out in 2010, Mehlman was not held to account for his self-hating actions that exploited the anti-LGBT prejudices of the American electorate. Prejudices the LGBT community is still fighting today in part due to Mehlman’s work. There is nothing Mehlman can do to make amends for his unconscionable actions.
Now we have Weiderpass and Reisner, who are Mehlman 2.0. They understand that Sen. Cruz has no intention of ever supporting marriage equality, yet Weiderpass and Reisner believe they can hide behind the theory that the same-sex marriage question is settled with the impending Supreme Court decision. Would a President Cruz create a constitutional crisis by pushing a “traditional” marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution if the Supreme Court makes same-sex marriage the law of the land?
The conventional justification of the Log Cabin Republicans, Weiderpass, Reisner and the Mehlmans of the world are they are not one issue voters. I am glad that my African American forefathers and mothers were one issue voters because it is their single mindedness in the pursuit of equality that ushered in the other civil rights movements of our time. While they walked for one year to protest inequality on busses in Montgomery, Ala. and throughout the South, today some wealthy gay leaders can’t even muster the intestinal fortitude to shun those like Sen. Cruz who actively fight against our equality.
I am thoroughly disgusted and you should be too. I am one who will never forget Mehlman’s self-hating actions, all in the pursuit of money and power. Weiderpass and Reisner are no different. It is unconscionable that Weiderpass and Reisner make money from LGBT people through hotels focused upon the LGBT community and then turn around to support Sen. Cruz who thinks we should be second class citizens.
After significant backlash, Mr. Reisner took to Facebook this week to issue an apology that lacked any credibility. Reisner claims he did not know of Cruz’s anti-LGBT stance!
It is time for the LGBT community to shun folks like Weiderpass, Reisner and the Log Cabin Republicans for their support of those who actively advocate for anti-LGBT policies that are beyond the pale. No more sitting idly by while these people say they are changing the Republican Party from within or are uneducated about LGBT civil rights issues. It’s time to call a spade a spade. Yes, Virginia, a gay man can be a self-hating homophobe.
STAMPP CORBIN
PUBLISHER
San Diego LGBT Weekly
This article is excellent. The LGBT community does not have to be tolerate of supporters of those that want to limit our freedoms. The writer’s comments on Mehlman are spot on. We are fighting what he helped to put in place. He does deserve forgiveness from God but not us. Until Marriage, and I say that because traditional marriage is for everyone, is legal for gays then Mehlman deserves disdain since he knew he was gay as so many others are and choose to limit his own brothers and sisters rights. These hotel GOP Hotel owners are as we say a hotmess and so are their various story versions. The funniest being we didn’t know Ted Cruz views. BP(doesn’t stand for British Petroleum.)
I wish the person who wrote this article would have said what hotels these guys are a part of. I have never been a fan of all gay hotels 8 the first place. From all my travels I have found that gay hotels charge more for less.
We certainly don’t need people like these two speaking for the gay community I am appalled. And for one of them to apologize and then say they didn’t know Sen.Cruz’s stance on gay rights. That’s just bullshit.
OutNYC is the hotel
They hosted a Republican to dinner for a discussion of non-LGBT matters. Foreign policy and national security. And for that the loud cry-babys want to boycott their business for simply having a dinner and conversation with someone? Sick!! This has nothing to do with LGBT matters. It is well known that Reisner and Weiderpass are both Republican [log cabin]. Folks in both partys [Dem, Rep.] do not always agree with each other on every issue. And sometimes intensely disagree with one another. That doesn’t mean you can’t sit down and have a conversation on other matters. Or find agreement on other important issues. Like the need to support our ally Israel, an alternative to the Federal income tax, such as the “Fair Tax”. And there are a host of other non-LGBT important matters that we can try to work together on. I think whats really going on here is a bunch of loud cry-baby Democrats, who just happen to be gay, are trying to use legitimate LGBT matters as a smokescreen for what their real beef with Ian Reisner is: He’s a Republican. And these cry baby Dems are so extremely liberal and “intolerant”, they can’t abide anybody being anything other than Democrat.