Gays and lesbians have found an unexpected ally as Playboy patriarch Hugh Hefner chastises conservatives for what he calls an "assault on sexual rights" and an attack on gays.
In an editorial in the September issue of Playboy, Hefner writes:
"The fight for gay marriage is, in reality, a fight for all of our rights. Without it, we will turn back the sexual revolution and return to an earlier, puritanical time. Today, in every instance of sexual rights falling under attack, you'll find legislation forced into place by people who practice discrimination disguised as religious freedom. Their goal is to dehumanize everyone's sexuality and reduce us to using sex for the sole purpose of perpetuating our species. To that end, they will criminalize your entire sex life."
Hefner went on to say that conservatives continue "to assault the right of gays, whether by denying them to right to marry or, as in Kansas, by attempting to empower landlords, business owners and employers to discriminate against gays on religious grounds."
In the end he concludes: "No one should have to subjugate their religious freedom, and no one should have their personal freedoms infringed. This is America and we must protect the rights of all Americans."
What Hefner uses, quite skillfully, is a tactic anti-gay conservatives have used for a long time. Door-to-door they relate an average citizen's everyday life to how it might be disturbed if gays were allowed freedoms. Most of their claims are fabrications, such as kids being subjected to pornography if gay rights are taught in schools; but Hefner's point hits closer to reality.
There is a reason Hefner is one of the wealthiest men in the country and that his flagship magazine, Playboy, has a circulation of over 1.5 million (2011). There are a heck of a lot of straight and bi men who read his magazine. Not only does Hefner have a captured audience, he makes a not so subtle prediction.
Puritanical tendencies aside, if a man who reads Playboy supports attacks on gay rights then they can eventually say goodbye to the freedoms that allow him to keep erotica on his magazine rack. Like any changing neighborhood, first it will be the gays and then it will be the yuppies.
Conservatives today focus primarily on gay rights, but this could easily change since the ideology behind "American values" extends far beyond sexual orientation. There's more to the meaning of one man-one woman than we are led to believe. That one woman could be real or on the cover of a magazine.
To conservatives there is no compromise. To them there is only one way. They are unwavering with their ideals of what America should be. As Hefner describes, this concept of a pure nation does not include gays or porn. So if any straight man wonders what gay rights has to do with them, all they have to do is look under their mattress and think how easily the freedom to indulge in a "good read" can be taken away by one or a few over-zealous and self-proclaimed values keeper.
Hefner's editorial adds a new perspective to the widespread, and often private, effects of chipping away at freedoms. Perhaps he's overly sensitive, having to defend his empire against claims of immorality for many years. Even if, he has an army of millions that know deep down, and behind closed doors, that the attack is really on them.
In an editorial in the September issue of Playboy, Hefner writes:
"The fight for gay marriage is, in reality, a fight for all of our rights. Without it, we will turn back the sexual revolution and return to an earlier, puritanical time. Today, in every instance of sexual rights falling under attack, you'll find legislation forced into place by people who practice discrimination disguised as religious freedom. Their goal is to dehumanize everyone's sexuality and reduce us to using sex for the sole purpose of perpetuating our species. To that end, they will criminalize your entire sex life."
Hefner went on to say that conservatives continue "to assault the right of gays, whether by denying them to right to marry or, as in Kansas, by attempting to empower landlords, business owners and employers to discriminate against gays on religious grounds."
In the end he concludes: "No one should have to subjugate their religious freedom, and no one should have their personal freedoms infringed. This is America and we must protect the rights of all Americans."
What Hefner uses, quite skillfully, is a tactic anti-gay conservatives have used for a long time. Door-to-door they relate an average citizen's everyday life to how it might be disturbed if gays were allowed freedoms. Most of their claims are fabrications, such as kids being subjected to pornography if gay rights are taught in schools; but Hefner's point hits closer to reality.
There is a reason Hefner is one of the wealthiest men in the country and that his flagship magazine, Playboy, has a circulation of over 1.5 million (2011). There are a heck of a lot of straight and bi men who read his magazine. Not only does Hefner have a captured audience, he makes a not so subtle prediction.
Puritanical tendencies aside, if a man who reads Playboy supports attacks on gay rights then they can eventually say goodbye to the freedoms that allow him to keep erotica on his magazine rack. Like any changing neighborhood, first it will be the gays and then it will be the yuppies.
Conservatives today focus primarily on gay rights, but this could easily change since the ideology behind "American values" extends far beyond sexual orientation. There's more to the meaning of one man-one woman than we are led to believe. That one woman could be real or on the cover of a magazine.
To conservatives there is no compromise. To them there is only one way. They are unwavering with their ideals of what America should be. As Hefner describes, this concept of a pure nation does not include gays or porn. So if any straight man wonders what gay rights has to do with them, all they have to do is look under their mattress and think how easily the freedom to indulge in a "good read" can be taken away by one or a few over-zealous and self-proclaimed values keeper.
Hefner's editorial adds a new perspective to the widespread, and often private, effects of chipping away at freedoms. Perhaps he's overly sensitive, having to defend his empire against claims of immorality for many years. Even if, he has an army of millions that know deep down, and behind closed doors, that the attack is really on them.
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