In the Jaws of the Pit Bull

I have an adorable pit bull, Gina, so I mean no disrespect or stereotyping. But Bill Donohue of the Catholic League has been called the church's pit bull in America, and he was unleashed when he came on the show yesterday to talk all about his latest rant: attacking the Democratic National Convention and Towleroad.com, among others. The discussion became wide-ranging, including talk of the sex abuse scandal, but Donohue kept changing the subject -- at one point to gay men in bathhouses in the 80s. Yeah, right. I've pulled three video clips, all below.


In this clip Donohue outlines his basic argument against Towleroad being given credentials. It makes even less sense than it did when he put it out in an alert from the Catholic League.




In this one Donohue, after noting he is on Sirius, seems to take glee in reading naughty sexual comments from the blogs.




In this clip Donohue discusses his once having made a reference to my ass cheeks in an alert he sent out about me regarding my criticism of the pope.

The Catholic Church's Pit Bull

The interview with Bill Donohue was very interesting. He just kept trying to change the subject -- sometimes ridiculously -- but along the way a lot of intriguing bits came out. I will try to post the video/audio tonight or tomorrow. For those who listened in, what did you think?

Bill Donohue's Obsession with Gay Sex (and My Butt)

Andy Towle has been baptized with a dunk in Catholic League head Bill Donohue's putrid vat of rhetoric, and I just want to say: Welcome to the club! It took me back to when Donohue became obsessed with my ass cheeks a few years ago, to the point where he issued an alert about them.

But first the latest bile. We missed all the fun late yesterday as we were on the show. Donohue sent out one of his infamous alerts, attacking Towleroad as well as the Democratic National Committee for giving Andy credentials to cover the Democratic National Convention:

“The list of credentialed blogs include radical sites like The Daily Kos. Worse are blogs that feature anti-Catholic and obscene material. The two most offensive are Bitch Ph.D. and Towleroad...

...Towleroad describes itself as ‘A Site with Homosexual Tendencies.’ Accordingly, it shows men in jock straps and underwear. It also has a post on Pope Benedict XVI that takes him to task for wearing a cape with ermine. Some of those who commented on this described the pope in a vile and profane way."

Andy had pushed the pope button (in a very reasoned criticism, as he describes), and with rabid and frothing pit bull Bill Donohue, you cannot say anything critical about the pope even though Benedict ignored the sexual abuse scandal, incited Muslims across the world to violence with his comments about Islam and is the architect of the Vatican's most vile gay-bashing rhetoric -- an ideology that surely gives power to the thugs on the street who like to beat up queers.

In fact, I noted the last item with regard to the pope (the last pope, though Ratizinger was his "brain" on gay issues at the time) and got showered with pit bull Donohue's skanky spray back in 2001. I observed that the church's claim that homosexuality is "intrinsically disordered" had done much to empower those bashers, and Donohue lashed out. He had actually been sending me nasty emails prior to that, obsessed with my syndicated column in New York Press at the time. But finally, I warranted an alert.

What's so hypocritical (not to mention curious and intriguing) about Donohue's attack on Andy Towle now is that he's speaking out on homoerotic references and images ("men in jock straps and underwear") and what he sees as "profane." Meanwhile, in his attack on me in his alert from the Catholic League, he made sexual remarks that surely many good Catholics (like my mom) would see as profane:

"Catholic League president William Donohue had this to say about the article:

'We’re disappointed with Mich: we never thought that anyone who has had as much practice as he has in turning the other cheek would ever write such an intrinsically disordered article.'"

As I noted in this column on the sex abuse scandal shortly thereafter, "Glad to know Donohue has some kind of a sense of humor, but he does seem a tad obsessed with cheek action, don't you think?"