I love what John Oliver said on his segment about I believe Lindsay Graham.
Paraphrasing, he could have helped usher in the change that would have made his lifestyle more acceptable and more inclusive. But he wanted power.
These people choose to be a Republican. They choose to associate with a party that is actively trying to eliminate the very people they are and the sad thing is that they think they are the exception. They think the party will accept them.
And the hard, harsh truth is that they are only accepted so long as it's convenient. I think he knew this and that's why he chose to end his life.
It's sad that he felt he had to do that. But I'm not holding my breath for the GOP to say that they learned a lesson from it.
Being a mayor of a small town and being a US Senator or even House Rep are two very different things. It is very likely that, despite being Republican, he did nothing to further Republicanism with the power that he did have.
Most of the time, mayors really just do small town mayor shit like approving a tree to be cut down or asking the state for a road to be fixed. They're not usually involved with politics in the way Lindsey fucking Graham is.
You can blame that on the US's bipartisan system rather than the multiparty system it is supposed to be.
What other option would he have, the democrats? What if there are things that they did he didn't agree with either? 3rd party is out the window because it would take minimum 2 elections to get their candidate in office.
Plenty of options. Didn't have to be a shaman, didn't have to live in a sheit tier state, didn't have to run for public office, didn't have to support the GOP. He went up to the leopard and screamed "eat my face".
I mean, he was 62 years old you know, not like he could just turn his life around on a dime given the position he was in.
The dude was not hurting anyone. He clearly wanted to help operate the city, you have zero chance of winning with the democratic party in the vast majority of deep south states. Being a part of a party does not mean you believe in every single view that someone in your party holds, why do you think half the GOP is trying to get rid of Trump?
And would you stop with this leopard eating shit? I have read it here like 40,000 times. Suicide isn't a joke, this is borderline not even a story about politics FFS. Save it for actually funny shit.
I am mentioning the church. He was a leader for a denomination of Christianity infamous for the degree of its anti-LGBT stances. Decades feeding the hate machine. And I bet you anything that today they those people who said a thousand good morning to him are happy that he killed himself.
The final unavoidable conclusion of Christianity is to kill its own.
What an uneducated comment. Baptists don't inherently mean Anti-LGBTQ, it's a common low-church denomination which mainly subscribes to the doctrine of grace by faith alone and is characterized by the belief in credo-baptism. It's got nothing to do with LGBTQ politics.
Stop white washing this shithead.
He was a horrible person who was perfectly fine persecuting others BUT THE FUCKING IMSTANT IT CAME BACK ON HIM HE OFFED HIMSELF.
Are you kidding me!? "He had to be part of the anti-LGBTQ party because of where he lived". Fuck out of here with that nonsense. I deleted my longer comment, let me sum it to for you:
He didn't have to live in Alabama
He didn't have to be part of the anti-LGBTQ+ (or any) party
He didn't have have to run for political office
He didn't have to engage in crossdressing
If any of those conflict with each other, well; life is about choices. Anything less is cowardice.
Get a grip. I asked for a source that the person, who you all are celebrating the suicide of, was actually a terrible person or partook in the persecution of others.
That was the assertion that I was responding to, and none of that was mentioned in any source in this thread besides wild assumptions by people simply for being in the republican party in a small town.
None of those words backs up your assertion, which was that there was "no plausible alternative" to being a GOP politician in Alabama. You can't defend it because it's complete nonsense.
Also, I didn't celebrate his death, and I haven't seen anyone else do so either...
Meh sometimes people just hate someone for not understanding them. And that's enough. You don't always need to pretend to have a good reason for hating someone, you just decide and then one day someone asks you why, like asking about babies crying in Africa, people often prefer not to have their beliefs challenged or broken to pieces by any kind of paradigm shift
Is it implausible that perhaps this person wished to hide within the GOP to escape its suspicions about their personal life? A Democrat mayor in a deeply Republican area would attract a lot of distrust and hostility simply by virtue of being a Democrat. A Republican mayor, not so much.
Is every trans person morally obligated to leave every institution that persecutes them? Even when to do so would scrutiny?
You heard it here folks, association by organization means you did the same thing some other shitheads did.
The secretaries for concentration camps?They gassed the Jews themselves, might as well have anyways, based on that logic.
Let's take it even further, all Germans are bad because of what Hitler did to the Jews, after all, they are ASSOCIATED with the SS, being in the same country and culture and all, they all obviously have symmetrical views because all people really believe the same thing even in a party such as the GOP.
(Don't you dare try to pretend those analogies flew over your head, work with me here)
Grow up, it's not about him "being a hero", nobody here is claiming that. The fact you came to that conclusion somehow on your own is evidence enough that you are celebrating his death. Have some respect, it seems pretty clear to me that he had second thoughts atleast some point in his life about his political decisions, had no way out, and when someone threatened to take even that away, made the last mistake you can ever make on your own accord. Please have some respect just as you would wish for yourself.
When the time comes that you are on the other end of the blade, the people you despise will show you the exact same level of mercy you showed them. Problems do not have to be solved with death and violence, suffering and misery.
People like you are exactly what's wrong with this country, that same kind of hatred is what enables mass shooters to commit the atrocities that they commit, the same kind of hatred that allows Israel to bomb innocent civilians to fruitlessly take out ten times less that number of hamas fighters.
You have some soul searching to do, and if you find that you still have the same anger and hatred in your heart, you will never find true happiness, satisfaction, it will never be enough. You will grasp for more and more, clawing at every little thing until it consumes you and all others around you.
Who am I exactly with? Do you even know? Or are you making assumptions because you're an angry piece of shit redditor who walked to the wrong platform to spout the bullshit that you are?
more dumb unrelated shit about "nazi apologists"
Would you please shut the fuck up about the Nazis? The words I am reading from your post are legitimately the stupidest fucking things I've ever seen on the internet.
WAAAAHHH, ME ANGRY BECAUSE ME GOT CALLED OUT FOR BEING A BLOODTHIRSTY ANGRY PIECE OF SHIT HUMAN
You don't even know who I'm with, stop kidding yourself. You seem to still have a lot of growing up to do. Stop being a fucking baby ffs. Ironically the fact that you see things in black and white makes you similar to the Nazis.
(Don’t you dare try to pretend those analogies flew over your head, work with me here)
lmao I loved this part.
You have a good point, I'm starting to think I was in a hateful mood yesterday. I still don't think this person was a hero but it's truly very sad that they had to hide this part of their life, and were so scared of the public's opinion that they killed themselves.
In most rural areas of the South, it's a racial divide between which are Republican or Democrat. Where I'm from, a white person being a Democrat would be, and are, actively threatened and hurt if they voice their opinion (by white Republicans).
But the rest of the small minded fucks in his small minded town who were laughing and pointing? And the asshole who outed him? Now THAT'S a different story, and I hope their laughter becomes a curse to them.
How many of those are also hiding their sexuality/gender just because of the same reasons that you mentioned?
Im sorry for the guy that shot himself, but he was part of the problem. It doesn't matter the reason why someone is a church goer, Trump supporter, one less of them is always good.