New York Newsday - Thursday, February 2, 1995
MUCH MORE THAN A SLIP OF THE TONGUE
by Gabriel Rotello

	New York - "I don't think it was on the tip on his tongue, but I do believe
it was in the back of his mind." 
	So said Rep. Barney Frank last week after House Majority Leader Dick Armey
called him "Barney Fag" in a radio interview. With all due respect to Frank,
he must have been trying to be polite, or politic. Most insiders I've talked
to think that "fag" was so far out on the tip of Armey's tongue it was only a
matter of time before it tumbled into the ozone.
	Republicans may not have a monopoly on anti-gay bigotry, but lobbyists tell
me that congressmembers in the Republican cloakroom routinely refer to Frank,
one of three openly gay members of congress and by far the most vexing to the
GOP, as "Congressman Fag"and "Barney Fag" and even "The Distinguished Fag
from Massassachusetts."Among themselves, anyway. 
	It's hard to get a bona fide bigot to confirm this, but anti-bigot Rep.
Charles Shumer said it has "a great ring of truth to it," and he's right.
He's especially right in Dick Armey's case.
	Armey represents a district in Texas where homophobia runs so rampant that
gay bashing is practically a local sport. There have been so many vicious
anti-gay murders in and near his home base they have prompted major
investigative pieces by network news shows and even Vanity Fair magazine - a
rare bit of scrutiny in a nation where violence against minorities is sadly
routine.
	But if the anti-gay sentiment in Armey's district is unusualIy virulent,
that sentiment is well represented by Armey's record in Congress. He holds
the dubious distinction of a "zero" rating from the Human Rights Campaign
Fund, Washington's main gay and lesbian lobbying group. He earned it by,
among other things, being one of only forty seven members who voted against
the Hate Crimes Act, mainly because it required the FBI to keep track of bias
related crimes against homosexuals. And he supports a Republican amendment to
the federal education bill, narrowly defeated last term and likely to pass
this, that would strip all federal funds from school districts with
multicultural programs or curricula the Republicans maintain "promote
homosexuality."  
	One of the most basic intentions of such programs, which promote nothing but
basic decency, is to teach straight kids that it's wrong to call gay kids
names - fag, for instance, the single most common epithet among schoolyard
bullies nationwide. Armey and his allies are alarmed that in certain school
districts teachers are actually allowed to instruct students that it's wrong
to use such names. He wants to put a stop to such dangerous, possibly
infectious, tolerance. Which is why, even though he generally advocates
states' rights, he supports banning such approaches in every school district
in the nation, whether those districts like it or not.  
	All that being so, Armey's "apology" to Frank - which was delivered in a
speech of such masterful hypocrisy it recalled fond memories of Alfonse
D'Amato when he talks about ethics, or Speaker Gingrich when he talks about,
well, almost anything rang hollow indeed. Armey claimed his slur was a slip
of the tongue. He said his parents taught him it's wrong to call people nasty
names. But if he really believed it was wrong to call lesbian and gay people
names, or for that matter for his constituents to murder them in cold blood,
he has plenty of ways to prove it. He could start by denouncing the Texas
murders. He could continue by announcing that he won't support the anti-gay
education amendment, and will instead throw his weight behind the Lesbian and
Gay Civil Rights Bill, which would forbid discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation.
	Don't hold your breath. Armey may want us to believe he's sorry, but nobody
believes he's sorry enough to put his votes where his mouth is.