Mar 21, 2008  |  By: KEVIN NAFF  | COMMENTS     

“WHAT’S THE GAY angle,” is a question commonly heard around the Blade’s newsroom.

Rest assured, from Hurricane Katrina to the Indian Ocean tsunami and Eliot Spitzer’s resignation to the White House Easter Egg Roll, you can find a gay angle to just about any major world event if you look hard enough.

And so, when Jeremiah Wright’s anti-American screeds hit YouTube, the search was on for the gay angle. In a turn of events unexpected by some, Wright appears to be a gay-friendly preacher. Some newspapers, including the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune, even reported passing references to Wright encouraging gay couples to marry. Unfortunately, however, Wright’s Trinity church is not among the United Church of Christ churches that offer blessings to same-sex couples.

The mainstream media reaction to Wright’s sermons, in which he says “God damn America” and insists that the government created HIV “as a means of genocide against people of color,” has been harsh — and justifiably so.

At the risk of agreeing with Sean Hannity and his ilk, in the wake of 9-11, you cannot damn America and expect people to shrug it off. Those of us who knew someone who died on that awful day are especially sensitive to such sentiments.

As Obama himself has asserted, words matter. And Wright’s words are incendiary, backward-looking and insulting. That’s not to say he doesn’t occasionally have a point.

Prior to 9-11, Americans were ignorant and arrogant on the subject of terrorism, believing that the oceans somehow protected us from the rest of the world. I spent six months in Manchester, England, in the early 1990s and endured IRA bombings of my local shopping mall, a favorite restaurant and a popular theater. Most Americans had no idea what it feels like to live under the constant threat of bombings before 9-11. The attacks shattered our sense of isolation and forced us to engage with the world.

Obama’s speech this week marks a welcome start in repairing the damage wrought by Wright’s sermons (and Fox News’ incessant replaying of them). But it will take more than a speech to put Obama’s campaign back on track. This tempest will surely cost Obama a major defeat in the Pennsylvania primary next month. His national lead over Sen. Hillary Clinton has already evaporated, according to a new Zogby poll, which shows GOP Sen. John McCain now leading both Obama and Clinton.

It’s too bad Obama didn’t see this coming (and surprising that the Clintons didn’t uncover Wright’s sermons months ago) and take more decisive action to distance himself from his pastor’s teachings. But he deserves much credit for stepping into the minefield of race in America and taking a nuanced approach to the complicated issues involved. It remains to be seen whether Americans will indulge his thoughtful take or blame him for Wright’s misdeeds.

Ellen finds her voice

ELLEN DEGENERES MUST be feeling secure in her job these days, because she’s taking on gay rights issues on her show with some regularity.

At a time when so many gay celebrities remain safely ensconced in their closets — Queen Latifah, Anderson Cooper, Jodie Foster, Clay Aiken, etc. — Ellen is fearlessly speaking out on her popular talk show.

After the shooting death of California teen Lawrence King in an apparent anti-gay hate crime, Ellen made a tearful plea for gay acceptance, declaring that King was not a “second-class citizen” — and neither is she. It was unexpected and moved many in her audience of Middle America moms to tears.

Then Ellen called out Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern on the show, after Kern’s now notorious anti-gay tirade was posted to YouTube by the Victory Fund. Ellen played audio from the clip on her show, including the bit where Kern says that gays represent a bigger threat to the country than terrorists. There was laughter from the audience, but not from Ellen. Then Ellen grabbed a phone and placed a call to Kern’s office; unfortunately there was no answer and her voicemail box was full.

Ellen endured criticism shortly after launching her talk show. Some gay rights advocates claimed she wasn’t speaking out on gay topics for fear of alienating her audience — and her network bosses. Maybe that was true then. But Ellen has clearly changed course, empowered by the success of her show to speak out when so many others remain silent. She deserves much praise for her recent public comments and, of course, for coming out so boldly in 1997.

There’s no overstating the importance of what she did then. She put the coming ...