Art imitates life in the politically themed “Tea Party,” the new show by playwrights and couple John Gibson and Anthony Morris, known for their long running play “Peachtree Battle.”
“Tea Party” is a political satire where the lives of two strangers collide. Preston Miller (Truman Griffin) is a political newcomer from Connecticut who simply wants to make the world a better place. Clarissa Cannon (Tonglia Davis), the wife of Mississippi congressman Thurgood Cannon (Patrick A. Jackson), is dead set on getting into the White House.
In an attempt to appear more white to Tea Party folks, the African-American Cannons hire Preston, but only to re-do their image. Preston thinks he has been hired on merit, unaware of the real motivation.
65-year-old singer and icon Cher (too fabulous for a last name) erupted in gay-allied fury all over Minn. Rep. and presidential contender Michele Bachmann. Cher tweeted on Sunday night:
Just got spam letter from M. Bachman! My reply ! Woman go bake 2 school take history ! & if I was on my deathbed & your best friend was JESUS!!! I WOULDNT VOTE 4 YOUR GAY HATING, BULLY LOVING , POSER CHRISTIAN ASS ! Got One From The TEA PARTY 2.l ! Head STILL SPINNING !Not HAPPY With Leaders.of DEMS & PRES. EIither wtf!
Despite the heavy-handed misspellings—perhaps righteous fury has that effect?—Cher is echoing the sentiment that many in the gay community can vibe to: A sentiment that wonders how it is 2011 and a presidential hopeful can retain hope in an ever-diversifying nation and still be married to a man whose clinic still practices conversion therapy.
Cher replied to this then-new information exactly a month ago:
Margaret Hoover, a Fox News analyst and author of “American Individualism,” was on the O'Reilly Factor last night to discuss the perceived split in the conservative movement between its base and the movement commonly known as the Tea Party.
Hoover, a self-proclaimed Republican, argued that the GOP runs the risk of losing the next generation of voters because of the party's stance on social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage.
“We're going to save the Republican Party by connecting to the next generation,” Hoover told host Bill O'Reilly. “The next generation is 30 and under. They voted two to one for Barack Obama and their partisan identification solidifies after three presidential election cycles. They voted for John Kerry. They voted for Barack Obama. If we don't make inroads in the next 16 months, we're going to lose the next generation.”
Homosexuality, like drugs and cigarettes, harms young people that experiment with it. Well, that's what right-wing activist Rich Swier from Tea Party Nation thinks, anyway.
Earlier this week, Swier posted a blog on Tea Party Nation, an online collective of conservatives and Tea Party members, where he claimed that harassing youth because of their sexuality, or perceived sexuality, was not actually bullying, it was “peer pressure” and “healthy.”
According to Right Wing Watch, Swier equates sexuality with smoking and drug use in an argument to justify bullying LGBT youth.