There be a slugfest going on as some are taking down to the mat Pam Spaulding of the less than grandiose and use to be important Pam's House Blend.Monday David Kaufman wrote a post in the Gay Voices section of Huffington Post calling out many of the LGBT Elite bloggers who hold President Obama as A-Number 1 responsible for not making same-sex marriage available by defeating and doing away with DOMA, the Defense Of Marriage Act. While Kaufman's writing focuses on Joe Sudbay of AmericaBlog and his finding fault with Obama and the lack of change and dumping of DOMA Spaulding is mentioned.
Spaulding sent out a tweet calling Kaufman "this fool" for mentioning her in his writing about Sudbay. Then when she posted a link to Kaufman's post on Google+ and wrote about Kaufman, "has a curious hard-on hate for me" she got into a free for all with Derrick Mathis of RENWL when he wrote in part, It's about the messaging that continues from Gay Inc mouthpieces like yourself. You're quick to take credit when some piece of agenda you've been advocating goes your way. But when someone calls you on the carpet for your misguided blah blah then suddenly you have no influence.
He continued after a salvo from Spaulding, You know exactly what you're up to because you know what your reader base wants to see. And that's you giving the black president a hard time because the majority of them (your readership) resent Obama solely because he refuses (and justifiably so) to act on their time table.
And the fact of the matter is this is no time for your games in terms of the presidential elections. There's just too much riding on his re-election to have gay bloggers like yourself playing the games you play. Either you support the man or you don't.
This is what you and your posse have been up to this whole time. It aided in getting us a Republican congress. Yes, Pam, you had a hand in that. Little influence or no influence as you love to bray when someone tells you to can it, you had a role in making sure resentful white gay folks supported Repubs for Congress.
And I love this part although I'm sure some will be offended in his description of some in the LGBT community, And you're going to have a role in impacting feeble minded gays who're going to vote in this coming election. Kaufman in his latest essay clocks you and your friends with the following-----the thing you've been up to for the past three years.
The point I believe Mathis is writing about in part was when Spaulding et al started a still going campaign to "close the gAyTM" and not contribute to the DNC. This goes back as far as 2009 when Tobin Harshaw wrote an opinion piece at the New York Times and called out Spaulding for the gAyTM movement in which she wrote in her rebuttal in the previous link, "time to lay down the crack pipe".
What got Spaulding's ire up was the final part of his opinion piece, Pam, you may not like to hear it, but that last line could just as easily have come from Glenn Beck. Just goes to show: it may be entertaining to watch your enemies rip themselves apart, but you might just want to keep an eye on the guy to your left.
Now here's my unimportant take on all this, but first I do apologize for all the copy/past which goes against this writer's grain but was done for those who do not have access to Pam Spaulding on Google+.
First I find it most interesting that someone who (in addition to her co-horts at PHB and other Elites) makes such a big deal about the issue of bullying yet has no trouble hurling insults at not only Republicans, Conservative and Religious folks, but also have no problem with hurling insults to others including LGBTs when someone is in disagreement with her or said partners in crime.
The crime you ask, the constant finding fault with President Obama and as a party the Democrats who don't move and act according to Spaulding and the others timetable. While she finds fault with GOProud and the like, Spaulding certainly over the past three years hasn't helped keep the Republicans out of various offices and may have induced if not by vote then money being kept away from the DNC. A finer member of the Republican party they could not ask for or find.
Hopefully as Pam's House Blend and other Elite blogs become less and less relevant as they have over the past year as readership has dropped off, de gay can make up their own mind as to who and what to support both in vote and money. But then as Spaulding and others would probably say out of one side of their mouth she/they are not that important in swaying readers while out of the other side of their mouth say how important what they preach and write on their blogs and websites is for the greater cause.
You can't have it both ways. Either you are or not.
Certainly this blog doesn't make any claim either way. Just one more voice out in the LGBT blogosphere opining and I'm certainly not a spokesperson for LGBTs which is how Samantha Manning describes Spaulding in the audio video from 2009 below from Spaulding's Youtube page.
I don't know about you kids but Spaulding doesn't speak for me.
