Hate For Sale On EBAY

It was one of the most disgusting moments in a ugly campaign filled with disgusting moments. 2008 may be remembered when the worst of America was exposed. There was racism, sexism, classism and then there was this:



The image of Sarah Palin hanging in effigy was the low point of a campaign filled with hate. In a nation where women are the victim of domestic and sexual violence several times of day, this was simply disgusting, no matter how you feel about Sarah Palin's politics.

There was so much that was wrong and alarming about the display in West Hollywood. But one other thing that struck me as particularly alarming is that the display was created and displayed by Milo Aviles and Chad Michael Morissete, a gay couple.

The gay movement preaches acceptance. The gay movement has been in the forefront of making "hate crimes" part of the American lexicon. The gay movement made us all understand that hateful displays and speech can and will lead to hateful actions and they must be tempered.

Now, I understand that it is unfair point to this couple as the symbol or standard of an entire segment of America. Every group has its idiots and these two certainly fit the bill.

But you would think that they would know better. You would think other members of the gay community in West Hollywood and across the nation would see the dangers in such hypocrisy and join in the call for the effigy to come down.

Who knows? It did eventually come down and maybe that is exactly what happened.

But now it is on the national scene once again. The ignorant duo of Milo and Morisette have put the display up on EBAY. Here is the description -

AS SEEN ON THE TODAY SHOW, INSIDE EDITION, THE VIEW, FOX NEWS, KEITH OLBERMAN, EVERY MAJOR NEWS NETWORK, AND READ ABOUT IN EVERY NEWSPAPER WORLDWIDE, the world famous, controversial, Sarah palin Halloween display is currently on ebay!

the mannequin is a patina-v mannequin. outfitted with the original neiman marcus red vintage coat and tortoise-shell framed glasses,this is surely something not to be missed! along with the sarah palin halloween display, we are also going to include a larger-than-life john mc cain political propaganda head poster. the head is 4 feet tall and 40" at its widest.

this amazing piece of political memorabilia could now be yours!

You can see the item on EBAY by clicking here. You can also send a message to the "neverbeforeneveragain," the ebay user who posted the item.

Milo/Chad claim that the money will go to fighting Proposition 8 in the courts. (Prop 8 in California passed in the last election. It defines marriage in the state constitution as being between a man and a woman.) It just adds to the hypocrisy that these buffoons would auction off a symbol of hate to help the gay movement fight a Proposition that they say is hateful.

These two should just go away.

I read about the effigy on Ebay on "The Edge," a Boston Web Site. You can see the write up by clicking here.

A comment left at the bottom of The Edge article sums up the story very well -

"One bidder in five days. Yesterday’s news. It was a tedious bit of self-promotion to begin with, and even with all this publicity, nobody care. Yawn. Next."

Well said.

But I have to think that just ignoring these two is not enough. They should be Pariahs in their own community. It would be a wonderful gesture by the gay community in California if they turned down the "hate money." It would show the world that the movement practices what it preaches.