Follow the Leader: Tucker Carlson Reignites Right-Wing Homophobic Rhetoric
The debate over Pete Buttigieg's parental leave has given right-wing figures permission to indulge their hate
Sneering from Fox News’s Tucker Carlson about parental leave has opened the door to a resurgence in right-wing homophobic rhetoric with little meaningful pushback.
Carlson, a Pied Piper of sorts for a number of striving right-wing talking heads, set the latest hatefest off on October 14 when he attacked Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for taking parental leave to welcome his first child with husband Chasten.
“Paternity leave they call it—trying to figure out how to breastfeed,” Carlson said. “No word on how that went.”
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The blueprint
Right-wing commentators are using Carlson’s comments on Buttigieg’s parental leave as an excuse to attack gay rights. On October 26, Virginia Republican Rep. Bob Good, on the House floor, attacked both gay marriage and gender identity.
“I believe in God’s definition of marriage without apology, and I will continue to oppose any effort to further undermine timeless truths regarding gender and life,” Good told The Independent in a statement affirming his beliefs.
Newsmax’s Sebastian Gorka took the opportunity to cast the institution of gay marriage as illegitimate.
“A man cannot have a husband,” Gorka said. “Do not surrender the language to the people who undermine the civilizational values upon which this nation was built. It’s a fake. It’s a fraud. It’s a charade.”
Lemmings
It’s not just those who are openly on the right. Faux-left Carlson hanger-on Jimmy Dore followed the Fox host’s lead, making a similar “joke” to Carlson’s during a segment with guest Max Blumenthal discussing Buttigieg’s time off.
Dore—rubbing his hands together like Gargamel—giggled over the secretary taking time off.
“He gave birth,” Dore said. “It’s going to take him a few months.”
Sycophantic silence
Carlson doesn’t brook insolence from those he allows to appear on his show and if you want to keep appearing on it you need to stay in his good graces.
It would be nice if there was a semblance of resistance to the homophobic hate being spread by the most-watched man on cable news from any of the people who appear on his show with regularity. Unfortunately, we’ve yet to see it.
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