Gay marriage may be voted on in the New Jersey state Senate this week. It’s in the Judiciary Committee, and if it passes, it should get an up-down vote in the whole Senate later this week. A guy named Steven Goldstein, who ran Jon Corzine’s campaign for the Democratic Senate nomination in 2000, is the leader of Garden State Equality, a gay rights group that has (as you’d expect) been at the fore of gay marriage push in New Jersey. Here he is Monday, just before the Judiciary Committee meeting:
"I’m so deeply moved by the support of the gay community, but I’m even more deeply moved that many of the people here today – probably about half – are straight. For a civil rights organizer, that’s a dream."
Now here Goldstein is at the Democratic National Convention in 2008, talking to the New Jersey Star-Ledger about Jimmy Carter (who was barred by convention organizers from speaking):
"He’s a repulsive human being," said Goldstein, the chairman of gay-rights group Garden State Equality and a rabbinical student. "He’s an anti-Semite. He’s anti-Jewish. He negotiates with Hamas terrorists. He’s an utter plague on the Democratic Party."
Some civil rights leader, eh?
Only a repulsive human being could call Jimmy Carter “a repulsive human being.” This goes beyond disagreement.
It ain’t Zionism until somebody gets labeled as anti-Semitic.
Jimmy Carter is married and has three sons and a daughter so I would say he has the last laff.
Ahem. Be careful where you step, thank you. Suffice it to say that there are homosexuals who sympathize with Palestinians, when it comes to being treated like second-class citizens in the land you were born. Try not to make anyone regret that.
OMG! Lighten up! I was highlighting the point that although Goldstein finds Carter a “a repulsive human being” it is not without a sense of envy.
And it would be quite shallow for anybody to regret sympathising with or even supporting the Palestinian cause because of the ramblings of one individual who’s only connection/affiliation with the Palestinian cause is reading this blog every day.
Fair enough, I suppose. Still, would be nice if maybe you thought carefully about how far your remarks will fly before you post them. I do.
It’s an interesting question, gays on I/P and gay Jews on I/P–how much do their views differ from straights in their group? I’m betting more progressive and fair-minded in general, though important counterexamples come readily to mind.
A lesser discussed aspect of civil rights under Jewish democracy:
link to original.antiwar.com
Citizen….OT
Watch this. Lawrence Wilkerson.
link to pulsemedia.org