Friday, October 29, 2010

Anderson Cooper confronts a bully

Anderson Cooper did a TV interview with Clint McCance, an Arkansas school board member who had posted really vile anti-gay diatribes on his FaceBook page. Reported on HP:
The posts, which emerged on Wednesday, were written in response to the "Wear Purple Day" that was launched to show solidarity with gay youth in the wake of a recent string of suicides. In one post, McCance protested the idea behind the initiative.'

"They want me to wear purple because five queers committed suicide," he wrote. "The only way I'm wearing for them is if they all commit suicide. I can't believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid.

In another post, he wrote, "it pisses me off, though, that we make special purple fag day for them. I like that fags can't procreate. I also enjoy that they often give each other AIDS and die...I would disown my kids if they were gay. They will not be welcome at my home or in my vicinity. I will absolutely run them off."

Cooper then confronted him with these really extreme anti-gay statements, and McCance said that he "went too far;" and he said he would never support bullying or suicide for kids. Cooper pressed further:

"But, I mean, do you have any idea of the... pain and fear you have caused to kids maybe even in your own district who are being bullied or who are gay or who don't feel safe telling anyone that they're gay?" he asked him.

McCance tried to wiggle out, saying Copper was setting up a "what if" situation; but in the end Cooper persisted and McCance announced on air his resignation from the school board and admitted that his comments were "hateful;" and he apologized "for hurting people on a broad, broad spectrum."

Good for you, Anderson !!

Ralph

3 comments:

  1. A game changing interview - maybe unique in our history...

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  2. Mark my words. We won't have to wait long before Limbaugh and Hannity will weigh in, claiming that Anderson bullied McCance.

    Wait . . . they'll probably say this confession was coerced under torture conditions (exposed to humiliation in front of millions of people).

    Never mind. There are millions of gay kids who will get Anderson's message: that shouldn't be treated like that and people who do are to be held responsible.

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  3. While you might be right, Limbaugh and Hannity usually drop lost causes. There's no mention of homosexual anything on Limbaugh all this week. It's all hate Obama, hate Liberals. These guys are hit and run cowards. So I can be wrong, but historically whenever the tide turns, they go silent. They're like a reverse barometer...

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