Yep, that's about the size of it.
A few days ago, when Clint McCance, a school board vice-president in Arkansas, was outed as a frothing, anti-gay bigot thanks to some screen caps of his Facebook page, I was mired in workaday business and couldn’t post.
But I did catch McCance being buttonholed on AC360, squirming through an apology, which sounds better in print than in the video clip. Part of his statement:
I’d like to extend apologies to those families that have lost children, for all those children who feel that suicide is the only way out, especially for the five families who have already lost children. I brought more hurt on them… they didn’t deserve that and I do feel genuinely bad for them.
Cooper (himself a “fag”) doesn’t seem to believe McCance, and I don’t know that I do either. He said repeatedly that “picked the wrong words to use.” ORLY? Are there nicer ways to say “I think gay kids don’t deserve to live”?
Anyway, good on Cooper for calmly dealing with this issue and pursuing the issue in a dignified fashion, and good on McCance (I guess), for not pulling the uber-weaselly “I’m sorry if my words hurt people” or “if people were offended.” He does seem to be taking responsibility, and, under pressure, will be resigning from the Midlands School Board.
Although I don’t know if anyone will have their anti-gay opinions changed by this dustup, but it’s a testament to the Power of the Internet that both McCance’s poison and that the response, which led to letters of protest and an on-site demonstration, spread so quickly.
Jesus loves you, Clint McCance.
The rest of us think you’re a steaming hompohobic sack of shit.
The problem that remains is: he hasn’t really changed. It was more like he was the kid caught looking for Christmas presents; it isn’t going to stop him from looking — he’ll just have to be smarter about it. It was clear from the fact that he used “ignorant” a lot in his statements, but never once “bigoted,” that leads me to believe that he was only doing this to take the heat off.
The Internet has power, but sufficient power to scare someone out of their long-held beliefs. He didn’t go from being a homophobe to being an LGBT supporter; he went from being a severe homophobe to a moderate homophobe. Some Internet outrage isn’t going to cure him. No doubt he’ll carry a grudge now, but he’ll keep it to himself.
Funnyface here, reporting live from Arkansas.
1) I’d like to take this opportunity to assure you that there are plenty of us in this state who believe in education, equality, and not using the word “thereselves.” We also wear shoes and have indoor plumbing and don’t actually marry our relatives.
2) That said, Pleasant Plains is a shithole. It’s very near where I went to college (a lovely little liberal arts school), and I’d say that McCance’s views aren’t that unusual for his community. The Arkansas Times went to a protest, and there were locals counterprotesting those there in favor of McCance resigning. They seemed to believe most of those against McCance were city folk with no morals, who needed to get the hell out of their town, where, if there are any gay kids, they stay in the closet where they belong, gosh darnit.
I’m glad McCance chose to resign, because he was running for re-election unopposed, and there’s no way to remove a school board member (no recall process, and they can’t be fired). So, he could have hunkered down and stayed in his job. Instead he resigned and went on Anderson Cooper. I take that as a sign of progress, and I hope that, beyond learning to watch what he says, that he will examine his heart and learn some compassion.
funnyface, you are one of a passel of people I know from the Natural State who are solid, smart, and horrified by people like McCance. No hate for Arkansans here (even though I used to live in Missouri, and oh, the rivalry!).
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