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Gay journalist Andrew Sullivan ‘disgusted’ by gay rights ‘fanaticism’ after Mozilla CEO resigns

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Brendan Bordelon Contributor
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Openly-gay journalist Andrew Sullivan expressed his “disgust” over Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich’s resignation for his one-time opposition to gay marriage, calling it a symptom of gay rights “fanaticism” and warning the movement is fast becoming “no better than the anti-gay bullies who came before us.”

The former editor at The Atlantic and The New Republic is widely regarded as the intellectual father of the gay marriage movement. He wrote the first story to advocate for gay marriage in 1989 — a piece many regard as the blueprint for gay marriage laws and the normalization of homosexuality in America — and has a “tendency to view virtually everything through a ‘gay’ prism.”

But despite his activism, Sullivan is furious over Eich’s persecution for his $1,000 donation to California’s Prop 8 campaign in 2008, which made gay marriage illegal in the state (RELATED: Mozilla CEO out over opposition to gay marriage).

“The guy who had the gall to to express his First Amendment rights and favor Prop 8 in California by donating $1,000 has just been scalped by some gay activists,” he wrote in a blog post titled “The Hounding of a Heretic.”

“Will he now be forced to walk through the streets in shame?” Sullivan asked. “Why not the stocks? The whole episode disgusts me — as it should disgust anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society.”

“If this is the gay rights movement today — hounding our opponents with a fanaticism more like the religious right than anyone else — then count me out,” he added. “If we are about intimidating the free speech of others, we are no better than the anti-gay bullies who came before us.”

In a follow-up piece posted hours later, a still-incensed Sullivan blasted the “repugnantly illiberal sentiment” that Eich could’ve saved his job, if he’d only renounced his views.

“He did not understand that in order to be a CEO of a company, you have to renounce your heresy!” he wrote. “There is only one permissible opinion at Mozilla, and all dissidents must be purged! Yep, that’s left-liberal tolerance in a nut-shell.”

“It is also unbelievably stupid for the gay rights movement,” he added. “You want to squander the real gains we have made by argument and engagement by becoming just as intolerant of others’ views as the Christianists? You’ve just found a great way to do this.”

Sullivan often mocks the politically-correct instincts of many in the gay rights movement. When the New York Times wrote last month that “homosexual” had become an offensive term, Sullivan pulled no punches.

“As a writer, there are few things that piss me off more than being told which words I can and cannot use. Fuck that shit,” he asserted. “I like the term ‘homo!’ … The gay thought-police would be aghast, but the intent is what matters. Mine is mostly benign. Mostly” (RELATED: Media Matters inexplicably attacks Fox News for using the term ‘homosexual’).

[h/t Mediaite]

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