Jeff “Rent Boy” Gannon has his defenders on the Right, but you will not believe who’s not only sticking up for the faux journalist, but is blaming the gay left for picking on the poor little man-toy: the Washington Blade’s Chris Crain. This is incredible:

Gannon, of course, made headlines earlier this year after a softball question he asked President Bush at a press briefing led members of the White House press corps to do some digging into his background. They discovered that Gannon’s legal name was Jim Guckert and the media outfit he represented, Talon News, was owned by a wealthy Bush backer and published reports severely slanted in the president’s favor.

Then things got really interesting, when liberal gay blogger John Aravosis got a tip that before entering journalism, Gannon had advertised online as a gay male escort. Gannon largely evaded questions about the claim, suggesting he merely owned the sites or provided web consultation services.

Gannon also avoided questions about his sexual orientation, leading this newspaper to report in February that he attended a gay sex party in Virginia. A week later, we apologized for the story, saying that while accurate, we had unnecessarily reported on private details of Gannon’s life that were not critical to the story.

Since then, Gannon has become a target celébre for liberal bloggers, one of a handful of shorthand symbols they use for all they see wrong with George W. Bush’s America. [Uh, yes, hypocrisy. Boinking other men for pay while railing on the evils of homosexuality and the pious purity of the Right is, perhaps, a teensy reason to point out this little issue.]

So it came as a surprise to many readers when the same Jeff Gannon showed up on the opinion pages of this gay newspaper and its affiliated publications, arguing in his debut column that liberal gay bloggers were too far on the fringe of American politics, dragging down the rest of the gay rights movement with them.

…The job of any good opinion section is to challenge readers, not just preach to the choir. For that reason, our Forum pages are open to anyone, gay and non-gay, whether or not they support the goals of the gay rights movement. [Yes, I can deal with opposing opinions, but not from a two-faced, professional GOP pole smoker that eggs on politicians that would enact legislation taking away rights from gay citizens. [The guy’s a lying sack of sh*t, not a journalist. He was playing politics to advance his career on the backs of openly gay people that are taking the heat for fighting for his right to live a queer life.]

But Jeff Gannon doesn’t represent that sort of challenge. He doesn’t oppose gay equality. In fact, he confirmed just this week that he is bisexual. Even still, he is very clearly a conservative who supports the policies of the Bush administration, and that plus his headline-grabbing past has been more than enough to enrage some gay liberals.

And then, this paragraph, which indicates a large consumption of Mehlman Kool-Aid:

Our activists groups have grown quite fond of talking about the “conversations” we need to have with straight America. Well half of that conversation involves listening, not talking. And if we won’t even listen to the heretical views of our own kind, then how can we be open to one of “them”?

Gee, you regular readers of the Blend have had plenty of stories to peruse about AmTaliban nuts that have no interest in dialog. These people would prefer us dead, in “ex-gay” programs, fired from our jobs and unable to adopt or foster kids, to name a few. There’s not much wiggle room for dialog.

About the only figure of note that has moderated his position at all has been Jerry Falwell, who now believes that gays are entitled to basic civil rights. I’m sure that coming close to meeting his maker had more to do with this realization, rather than any dialog with gay leaders.

In any case, Kenny, please pass Chris another glass of Kool-Aid, pour one for JimmyJeff and make a party of it.

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