Stephen Elliott's Feelings Get HurtStephen Elliott writes over at
the Huffington Post:
I almost gave up today. I've been hosting fundraisers in San Francisco for progressive house candidates running in 2006. I came across a conservative blog (I'm not going to link to it) that had taken issue with one of the candidates accepting money from me. Their reason, an article I wrote for the Huffington Post defending the rights of the S&M and transgender community.
The blog posting referred to the "sick" and "weird" people supporting the candidate. As if racism and prejudice wasn't sick.Now of course, Elliott is doing the usual "Are you questioning my patriotism" diversion here. Elliott's article was not "defending the rights of the S&M and transgender community", it was
slamming Rolling Stone for treating freaks and weirdos like, well, freaks and weirdos. As a weirdo freak himself, Elliott felt called upon to respond:
I've been practicing BDSM my entire sexual life and I'm still waiting for my handbook to arrive in the mail.I don't question Elliott's right to practice bondage and discipline and sado-masochism with other consenting adults. Whatever floats your boat is my motto. But if you're going to write about it publicly and not expect that to affect your ability to work for certain political candidates without it backfiring on them, then you're being naive.
Note that Elliott's first idea was to take down the post about his S&M fetish:
My first reaction was to take down my post. But then I reread what I had written. Did I still believe it? I did. So why was I letting the right wing set my priorities for me? I realized what I was doing. I was doing what Democrats always do, setting aside my ideals in order get elected. It's a mistake.Rather noble and selfless of him, right? Errr, no, because that wouldn't do any good:
It doesn't help that I have a book of S&M erotica coming out in September this year (a good one, I might add, with a very sexy cover). I wanted to help these candidates, not be a burden.I'm sure it will be a big seller in San Francisco.
BTW, I suspect Chris at
Lucky Dawg's post is the one that set him off.
My advice to Elliott: If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the dungeon!
