Shame on you faggots for crying about your hurt feelings. This is the face of your enemy, and you should be glad for this opportunity to know it. You should be doubly glad that he took the opportunity to make such an ass of himself.

-- Ivan Cockrum (Yeah, I'm using my real name.)

"Finally I do not want to be remiss and ignore Dan Savage, who I understand had the brilliant idea of staging this joke in the first place. This is simply another in a very long line of his misguided endeavors, which are usually nothing more than outrageous attempts at self-promotion."

I had nothing to do with the debate—except for giving it the okay. It was Josh's idea, and if it was a stunt intended to promote myself, it wasn't a very effective one. I didn't speak before or after the event. I wasn't on stage at Town Hall, or on the radio, and I did no interviews about it. It was a good idea—but it was not, sadly, my idea.

And almost a 1000 people came, so it was an idea that resonated with people, and a debate that folks wanted to hear.

I think you'd agree that the more people have a chance to hear the Good Reverend, the more they have a chance to formulate an opinion on him.

By strutting him out for a "debate" with an elected official, however, we not only did that but also legitimized his views as worthy of such treatment.

3,500 people are members of his church -- and no, that does not make any of their views "mainstream." So why did The Stranger risk treating them like they are?

One of the reasons I organized the debate was to bust Seattle's hermetic seal.

I gotta say, my favorite part of the debate was seeing Town Hall—typically the domain of preach to the choir, self-congratulatory liberal crowds—rocked by people who agree with Hutcherson.

It was neat to see the other half of the house—the NPR liberals—completely startled out of their comfort zone.

When U.S. citizens have a chance to vote on my sexuality, I also will be startled out of my comfort zone.

Sure, but he drew 20,000 to safeco field for a big gay-hate BBQ fest, or whatever it was, so i think we can safely say his influence goes beyond the zombies that pack the pews at Antioch church. It seems impossible but there are folks on the fence about stuff like this and i think any forum of discussion, even if poorly moderated, makes Hutcherson appear exactly as he is, an irrational, hypocritical biggot windbag.

I had my doubts, but thought Sims would cream Rev. Ken.

Nope, the opposite. Sims did not project, seen stymied by Rev. and in general the old football roughneck come to Jesus did a job on him.

Lost in the energy and back and forth
were any real topics. That ended in the opening minutes.

If were are trying to assign non toad status on Rev. Hutch, this debate sure helped. He will now carry the banner through the anti gay campaign with even greater credibility. All he had to do to win was to hold his own- and he certainly did that.

Did I agree with him, Hell no.

In another year this match would have been a lark. This year, Rev.Ken got a lot of message time and comes out looking like the general in charge for the righties.

He also had more charisma than Sims, and that was a real surprise - telegenic they call it. Good suit, booming voice, assurance, humor, and in total control of the day. And smart enough to bring some audience. Not stupid at all.

And to all you straight assholes, why are gay folks wussy- sexitst term- if they are posting opinions that say this dogfight didn't work. Gee- I kinda think we are experts about our movement. Butt out.

I've made similar comparisons myself, but I have to consider this:

If the KKK drew 20,000 people to a major urban stadium to support repealing civil rights, yes, I should hope we would be willing to give them a forum if only expose them and alert the public to the dangerous popularity of the movement.

When the Hutcherson bigots constitute a fringe movement, we can ignore them. As it stands, fag hating is still pretty mainstream.

Bah.

Nonetheless, I do think it's good to have a little reminder of where the majority of voting Americans are coming from. Reinforces the urban archipelago argument, certainly. . .

I agree that he's full of shit, but limiting free speech to the speech that you like makes it kind of pointless.

-SH.