We Must Not Respect Rush Limbaugh in Death
He celebrated AIDS and mocked gay men. That’s just for starters.
I wasn’t going to write about Rush Limbaugh even though I’m sincerely delighted he’s gone. Wanna know a secret? I danced a little jig when I heard the news that he lost his battle with cancer. What, what, what? Am I being insensitive and mocking the dead?
Of course not.
I was going to keep my dance private. I had no plans to write about the passing of the conservative talk radio icon, because I think most people already know he was one of the public figures most responsible for the rise of Trumpism. He worked hard to make and keep racism, xenophobia, homophobia , misogyny— and just plain meanness — popular and acceptable on the U.S. political stage.
I don’t have a lot to say about that. If you’d like to know more, check out Justin Ward’s excellent article in Gen Magazine.
When I was a young activist in New York City, I felt sometimes like I lived in hell
By day, I worked at an HIV/AIDS service agency. Evening and weekends, I marched in the streets or did safer-sex performance art with Act Up in public spaces. Almost half my friends died.
