I’ve often wondered about the incomes of anti-gay luminaries. I suspect, though, that the true obsessive/compulsives, like Lively and LaBarbera, would do it even for a subsistence level of income. They simply cannot help themselves. Those two are self-employed homosexualists. (As an aside: If they were forced to seek a real job, it would be fun to read their resumes. I’d love to read their lists of job functions over the years, and particularly their lists of accomplishments.)

Others, such as Maggie Gallagher, who loom very large among anti-gay luminaries, are another story. I’d love to know how much loot Maggie is hauling in. Surely, it’s the only reason her Hindu husband sticks around, and is willing to remain hidden away in the attic.

But I’m not sure that their dehumanizing is so much deliberate, as it may be a byproduct of who they are. For fanatical Christians, all humans are, by definition, stinking pieces of crap until such time as they demonstrate submission to the correct belief system. So, in some sense, they are dehumanizing themselves. That seems to be the reason it’s so easy, for example, for them to redefine “loathing the homosexual” as “loving the homosexual.” The genuine emotion of love has been wrung out of them and replaced by empty statements in conformance with the belief system.

I think the difference between healthy heterosexuals who are secure in their sexuality having a professional interest and the type of attention paid by Lively and Barber and LaBarbera is that the former is interested in the psychological, cultural, or interpersonal dynamics of gay people, while the latter is focused solely on the mechanics of sex, the more fetishized the better.

A heterosexual with professional interest might attend a Men of Leather event to interview participants and study perceptions of masculinity, for example, while LaBarbera just wants to take pictures of bare butts and attend the most salacious S&M workshop possible.

Scott Lively creeps me out, not least because he didn’t seem too bothered by having a pedophile manage his coffee shop, but also because I know from personal experience that obsession about someone else’s personal life and sex life can lead to stalking and whatnot. (For the record, I was stalked by a woman) I guess I just get a “creepy” vibe from a lot of these anti-gay guys.

I’m not sure he’s gay, truth be told I don’t really care…but to me such obsession about sex (gay or otherwise) really seems indicative of some sort of problem.

but I would like him to be arrested at a rest stop while getting serviced by a prominent bishop of any anti-gay church.

That would be very satisfying.

Richard– good point. How do you immerse yourself in the gay lively-style without actually being one of them?

I’ll happily accept Gandhi and somewhat bemusedly take in Malcolm X. But please Dear God don’t let Scott Lively end up as part of my community. Please let the camp of ‘hetero missionary position only and then while desperately trying not to have too much lust’ crowd keep him.

I just don’t think that healthy heterosexuals who are secure in their sexuality would immerse themselves so deeply and completely into homosexuality. They would be captivated by a world full of much more interesting things to do with their lives.