Posts Tagged ‘Art Johnston hypocrite
“DJesus Uncrossed” Video Used to Incite Anti-Christian Sentiment in Chicago Gay Community
[ Click above to embiggen: a clip from the latest Saturday Night Live sketch mocking our Lord and Savior, as broadcast on 2/16/2013. To watch the full clip for yourself, it's currently available on HULU.com for free, which you can watch HERE ]
Last Saturday (2/16/2013), NBC ran a parody of Quentin Tarantino films called “DJesus Uncrossed”, which was a bastardization of Django Unchained…with a lot of Inglorious Bastards thrown in for good measure (or, for bad taste, depending on your personal perspective). Saturday Night Live heavily employed a laugh track during this faux-movie trailer…so that as our Savior was mocked in various ways these disembodied voices were hysterically overcome with giggles. Such as, when it was implied by the trailer that Jesus Christ “used the N-word a lot” (and that Peter Travers, from (I believe) Rolling Stone, quipped about this).
I’m going out on a limb in noting that a similar sketch entitled DMuhahahammad Unturbaned would have never left the writers’ room at NBC…for fear of the physical consequences to Rockefeller Center and the bat-guano-crazy reaction of Muslims worldwide to a blasphemous depiction of the medieval pedophile they deem to be a “prophet”. Since “the religion of peace” is neither a religion nor peaceful, NBC endeavors never to insult or offend Muslims…because Muslims vociferously police depictions of Muhammad in all forms of media.
Christians, on the other hand, raise little outcry whenever Jesus is impugned or mocked by the likes of Saturday Night Live…and, as a result, that mockery becomes a frequent source of material for unimaginative and talentless writers on shows that were past their prime back when I was still in high school (20 years ago!). Networks like NBC won’t so much as show an actor playing Muhammad…PERIOD…but they have no problem at all running sketches that portray Jesus as a violent, racist, murderer.
This is all part of the Left’s endless war against and persecution of Christians…and it’s important that you understand the REAL role of Saturday Night Live in the Left’s greater propaganda machine within its Ministry of Truth. The reason conservatives have lost the Culture War is because too often they delude themselves into thinking, “That’s just stupid!” or “Saturday Night Live doesn’t matter!” or “The only people who watch that are crazed Lefties anyway so they are preaching to their own choir”.
In reality, Saturday Night Live’s anti-Christian propaganda doesn’t just air once and then disappear into the firmament…it’s actually picked up in lots of ways by the Left and rebroadcast in various venues where it becomes part of a bigger effort to indoctrinate the susceptible into a permanent anti-Christian mindset.
Here in Chicago, there is a textbook, classic example of this at work in Sidetrack the Video Bar…which is the largest and most prominent gay bar in the city, located on Halsted Street and owned by Art Johnston and Pepe Pena (who are essentially the “godfathers” or “Dons” of the Chicago gay community). The anti-Christian videos produced by the likes of Saturday Night Live are collected by Sidetrack’s video production team and then re-edited into smaller clips that pack the anti-Christian sentiment into smaller, more explosive bites.
Those clips are then aired repeatedly to the intoxicated customers of the bar — over and over again — so that it’s resoundingly clear to the gay community of Chicago that Christians are to be targeted, mocked, and persecuted wherever and whenever possible. Since Sidetrack is the biggest and most prominent bar…and its owners are viewed as the “Dons” of the Chicago gay community…there’s immense peer pressure for gays in Chicago to toe the line and behave in the way that Sidetrack seemingly wants them to behave (if they want to keep being welcome in the largest and most prominent gay bar in Chicago).
I’m never sure if straight people understand the importance of being socially accepted in a particular bar, especially the biggest and most prominent gay bar around. A stereotype of straight men is that they do all their business and conduct all their networking on the golf course…so in that sense belonging to the largest and most prominent country club would be the key to a successful life as a straight businessman. For straight women, success in the spheres they inhabit might involve belonging to the largest and most prominent gym or a prestigious social club like The Daughters of the American Revolution or the like.
For gay guys, if you aren’t regularly seen in the largest and most prominent gay bar and if you aren’t known widely as “a friend of the bar” then your social status in the gay community is adversely affected…and you forfeit the networking and status-enhancing opportunities afforded to regular patrons of that bar. If you’re someone who has been made to feel unwelcome in the largest and most prominent gay bar, you become a gay guy who has to miss out on all the big events in the community…and all the benefits that come with attending those events.
So, the pressure is high to be a “good guest” of an establishment and to go along with whatever trend its owners set…by behaving the way those “Dons” instruct you to behave via the videos they play in Orwellian fashion on massive screens throughout the bar.
If you’ve read 1984, you’ll remember the concept of a “Two Minutes Hate”…which is a propaganda tool used by the people in control to incite those watching a film to express hatred and rage at “the enemy” on a regular basis. Johnston and Pena orchestrate “Two Minute Hates” against Christians in the gay community on a regular basis, via the videos they regularly select for exhibition in Sidetrack…knowing that the net effect will be the strengthening of the Left’s propaganda that Christians are the “enemies of the gay community”.
Sidetrack, in fact, employs a Chicago Public School teacher named Bradley Thomas Balof as an MC and event host to really rev up the crowds against “the enemies of the gay communities”…which supplements the spirit of these videos with a live-on-stage maestro of hate who demands the crowd jeer at Christians and shout aloud how they’re going to “get them”, “stop them”, “hurt them”, or “destroy them”. Without fail, all the drunk gays in attendance raise their glasses in the air, their faces red with anger and booze, and follow Balof’s lead to scream out against the Christian “enemies”.
Can you only imagine the outrage in the national media if Muslims were the target of Sidetrack’s “Two Minutes Hate” instead of Christians. I even think that there’d be some pause if Jews were targeted, instead of followers of Christ.
I’ve tried repeatedly to interview Art Johnston to ask him why he needs to keep showing clips like “DJesus Uncrossed” in his bar, instead of just playing fun videos without any attacks made on Christians, but Johnston won’t sit down with me, answer my letters, or return my calls. I just can’t imagine doing the things he does to Christians in his bar unless he’s doing them on purpose…and that purpose is part of a larger strategy on the Left to keep this anti-Christian sentiment flowing in all the various ideological subgroups of the Left where it can take root.
What’s remarkable is the glaring hypocrisy of all of this, too, because gays are who the Left trots out to constantly claim they are persecuted by Christians…with plenty of banners reading “Christians hate gays!” at any Pride Parade event or “equality march” the gay community holds for the cameras. In another Orwellian twist, some people are more equal than others because gays actually accuse other people of doing the things they actually do to Christians themselves!
In the five years I have been running this site as an openly gay Catholic I have not even once had an experience where a Christian said anything evil at all to me for being gay…but on a sustained and regular basis I’ve had employees and customers of Sidetrack harass and malign me for being a “traitor” or “enemy of the gay community” for not renouncing my allegiance to the Church. Christians never attempt to make me choose between being gay and being Christian, but gay “Dons” like Art Johnston apply constant pressure to force gays to turn their back on Christ if they want to be accepted in the gay community.
I believe this is an orchestrated strategy on the Left, since it’s widely known that a gay man truly does need access to the largest and most prominent gay bar in a big city to thrive socially and professionally in gay circles…and the threat of cutting off access to those benefits is enough to force gay men to join the “Two Minutes Hate” that bars like Sidetrack incite against Christians with the videos they play and the speeches their staff members make.
Saturday Night Live and other entertainment arms of the Ministry of Truth provide the prepackaged material needed for the “Two Minutes Hate”…and Art Johnston serves up the venues for exhibition…and then his staff sees to it that the message is delivered to the desired targets for their anti-Christian conditioning.
This is happening where you live too, but if you aren’t a frequent visitor to or observer of the gay community you might not realize it.
But, this is how the Left won the Culture War…while Christians sat back and deluded themselves to believe “Oh, no one pays attention to that!” or “That show hasn’t been relevant in 20 years!” .
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NOTE: Hulu.com has a tendency to take videos down after a while, so if you are reading this at some point in the future and the Hulu link at the top doesn’t work, I think the Amazon Instant Video link will work for as long as Amazon is around. You’d have to buy the episode of SNL to see the “DJesus Uncrossed” clip, though…and I’d advise never giving SNL or NBC any of your hard-earned money if you can avoid it. But, if you REALLY need to see the clip and Hulu is not playing it for free then I suppose this is an alternative (since NBC is very aggressive about removing its clips from YouTube):
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UPDATE: For those unfamiliar with Sidetrack the Video Bar and how endemic the hypocrisy is there, I want to remind you that this is the very same bar that posted photos on its official website of a friend of the bar’s owners dressed up as Adolf Hitler for last year’s Halloween party.
So, the bar’s photographer specifically picked out those photos of Adolf Hitler to appear in the prominently-promoted galleries of photos on the website, when a great many other photos were not similarly chosen for inclusion in that gallery. And no one at Sidetrack had sense enough to appreciate that Adolf Hitler and the Nazis persecuted and then executed gays back in the 1930s and 1940s. You know, in the Holocaust…which wasn’t exclusively used against Jews, but also included the elimination of gays (branded with pink triangles), gypsies, the disabled, and other minorities in German-conquered territories.
But, in the year 2013…the largest and most prominent gay bar in Chicago specifically chose to celebrate dressing up as Adolf Hitler for Halloween, like it was a good thing.
For those of you who scratch your heads at the Gaystapo’s attacks on Christians while simultaneously showing fervent deference to Muslims, include Sidetrack’s promotion of Adolf Hitler Halloween costumes with that insanity.
More on the bizarre and hypocritical things Sidetrack and its owners do HERE.
Why calling the Left out on its hypocrisy matters, whenever hypocrisy happens
I was a lifelong Democrat until the summer of 2008, when the Democrat Party made a conscious decision to veer squarely Left, no longer wanting or (supposedly) needing us “bitter, clingy, Midwesterners” (to paraphrase how Obama once described the Jacksonian, Hillary Clinton voting Democrats of 2008) in what had very much become the Leftist-controlled Obama Party.
It took me a while to register as a Republican, because the wimpiness the Cocktail Party GOP establishment has always shown was something I could not only never respect, but could never imagine myself willingly want to be a part of.
It took Republicans like Governor Sarah Palin, Congressman Allen West, Governor Jan Brewer, Governor Nikki Haley, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, and Governor Scott Walker to let me see that not all Republicans are part of the wimpy, Mittens “Mood Ring” Romney, soggy cucumber-and-mayonnaise establishment club that forever allows the Left to get away with everything, often with immense hypocrisy. I really needed to see that Republicans actually existed who were willing to take on the labor unions, were unafraid of being called RAAACISTS! for challenging Obama on anything, and were not so obsessed with seeking love and affection from the media to speak their minds and call the Left out on the terrible things it tries to do to this country.
I truly believe the only reason the Left has any power at all is because the Cocktail Party GOP establishment enables it, thus allowing it power to harm America. If Republicans would just forcefully stand up to the Left, and call the Left out on a daily and aggressive basis, the Left wouldn’t know what to do.
The last thirty years of American politics are in fact based on the premise that the Left will do terrible things to ruin the economy and force government into every facet of our lives, while the Republican Cocktail Party establishment allows it to do this (since these establishment types have never met a fight they weren’t thrilled to run away from, if it meant copious media adoration in the form of being called “so bipartisan!”).
I hope enough of you have read the books (or at least seen the movies) to get this Harry Potter reference, but dealing with the Left, and battling it, is like Harry, Ron, and Hermione venturing beyond the safety of Hogwarts to seek out and destroy Voldemort’s horcruxes (the various things he’s infused with bits and pieces of his twisted soul that keep him alive no matter how many times great wizards fight him). If you’re familiar with J.K. Rowling’s universe, each horcrux is aggressively defended by forces of great evil. Just identifying and locating these cursed items was arduous enough, but when Harry or his friends actually faced one, live and in person, all Hades broke loose.
The Left holds the Democrat Party together using horcruxes of its own, with the Cocktail Party GOP establishment has been too cowardly to battle…and too stupid to even simply identify. Just like how so many people in the Potter books were too scared to even say Voldemort’s name aloud (instead sheepishly referring to him as “He Who Must Not Be Named”), far too many conservatives never speak openly about the truly despicable things the Left does to maintain its power.
One of the great horcruxes of the Left is the use of gays to attack conservatives and consistently claim Republicans are evil. Another horcrux is the Left’s abuse of black people, who are kept forever on reserve and ever at the ready to accuse conservatives of being RAAACIST! if the Left needs opposition blunted on anything. Jewish people form a third horcrux the Left depends on whenever accusing someone of being antisemitic will close debate and silence critics. We can continue this way through all sorts of ethnic, cultural, and other minorities, seeing how the Left pits each group against conservatives (and, often, against one minority or another) to get whatever the Left wants.
I love the Harry Potter series, but must admit they’re formulaic. Rowling is an inventive writer, but her plots are largely telegraphed from page one.
As interesting as American politics can be, I feel the same way watching the Left consistently get the better of the Cocktail Party GOP establishment, because those fools behave much like the Ministry of Magic in the Potterverse, too afraid of shadows and loss of reputation to ever do the horcrux-hunting that needs to be done.
A very personal example of this happened here in Boystown this past week, as I wrote to you about the extreme hypocrisy of the Ben Cohen Standup Foundation holding an anti-bullying event at Sidetrack the Video Bar, where bullying of conservatives, Christians, women, and special needs children regularly occurs. Sidetrack is the most prominent gay bar in the country, with massive clout not only in the gay community, but in Chicago at large because of the large donations Sidetrack’s owners make to Democrat candidates. Since 2008, Sidetrack’s been showing — each and every week — misogynist, sexist, and often downright vulgar videos bullying Governor Sarah Palin, columnist Ann Coulter, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, former First Lady Laura Bush, and other conservative women.
This is very much the purpose the gay community serves for the Left, as a repository for the Left’s inherent hatred of women. Gays are encouraged to aggressively assail women on the conservative side of the aisle, in much the same way blacks are directed by Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Henry Gates, and others in the Race Industry to accuse Republicans of being RAAACIST! whenever the Left needs this sort of animosity manufactured. Meanwhile, the ugly secret no one ever wants to talk about is how much the Left encourages black people to hate gays, so that even in the Democrat ranks the various identity voting-blocs are kept at war with one another but focused on the bigger enemy that is conservatives. If you ever want a classic example of the black-on-gay animus, see Proposition 8 in California (which passed resoundingly, despite Obama winning the state in the presidential race…which means black DEMOCRATS had to vote to discriminate against gays in large numbers while pulling that lever for the historic and unprecedented first black president…since it’s illogical to claim Mormons or conservatives were responsible for Prop 8 when John McCain would have won California if these people were powerful enough to pass a ballot measure on their own like this, without all those black people voting to discriminate against gays).
I’ve tried for a solid week to get representatives of the Ben Cohen Standup Foundation to explain how they can make an anti-bullying appearance at Sidetrack the Video Bar tonight when just two weeks ago, on August 16th, 2011, Sidetrack showed the premiere episode of “Only@Brunch” — a gay talk show shot here in Boystown that bullied Trig Palin for being a special needs child in a segment dedicated to bullying Congresswoman Michele Bachmann because of her gender and physical appearance.
The gay community is never called out on bad behavior like this, because the Cocktail Party GOP establishment is always so afraid of being called homophobic for doing so. This is exactly the same thing that happens with the Race Industry too: Republicans are so terrified of being called RAAACISTS! that they never stand up to Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Henry Gates or the other race bullies and call them out for their shamelessly bad behavior in service to the Left.
Of course, if you draw attention to anything the Left does, especially when it involves inherent hypocrisy, you’ll be attacked yourself. Back to the Harry Potter books, it’s always what happened when hunting and exposing the horcruxes.
The Left knows full well the only thing keeping the Democrat Party’s various identity blocs in line is the pervasive fear that exists in the hearts of those who’d try to topple this system. The Cocktail Party GOP establishment crowd has always been too afraid of bad press or name-calling to talk openly about the Alinsky-rooted and forever hypocritical things the various factions on the Left due in service of the Democrat Party.
I can’t repeat this enough to all of you out there: it really is time to stop being afraid, because while the Left can and will come after us on individual levels for taking on these assorted horcruxes, the Left cannot destroy us all. Fear of these reprisals keep millions of people quiet…which means no one ever really knows just how many of us are out there who see the Left for what it really is.
If only people would stand up to these bullies, no longer afraid of reprisal, and show others around them that the entire country is through with business as usual.
The Left’s hypocrisy needs to be exposed, each and every day, wherever it happens. That’s important because even if you don’t live in Boystown, and couldn’t care less about Ben Cohen making an appearance here, you need to know that a Foundation that spends a fair amount of time chiding conservatives for being intolerant of gay people is holding an event tonight in a venue that openly and aggressively displays bullying intolerance of conservatives, Christians, women, and those with special needs.
And that needs to be brought up again and again in the future, because the Left very regularly accuses conservatives of all sorts of things the Left actually does itself.
The problem is that conservatives don’t take the time to call the Left on this hypocrisy.
With the end result being that the public at large default-believes the Left’s stories on the end, since conservatives don’t mount a PR effort to correct perceptions and stand up for the truth.
Whenever I go to conservative sites like Ace of Spade or Redstate, I’m struck by how often conservative men, in particular, say “don’t waste time on this” or “that thing the Left’s doing doesn’t matter” or “we have more important things to focus on”. Really? Since these guys never seem to focus on much of anything, they sure seem like the standard issue Cocktail Party GOP establishment crowd that keeps letting the Left get away with all the things the Left has always gotten away with.
The Left, to its credit, understands how much the little things in politics matter…and how quickly they aggregate into very big deals when the Left decides to make them into scandals. For instance, just imagine a conservative group that regularly criticizes the Left on various issues hosting an event in a venue that participates in the very behavior that conservative group crusades against. Can you picture what the Left would do in this situation, and how the Left would use that hypocrisy to really pummel conservatives and discredit what they were trying to accomplish?
Conservatives lose the culture wars not because Americans as a whole agree with the Left, but because conservatives too often don’t bother to get any skin in the game.
They don’t put up a fight, or resist the Left on very much of anything.
They don’t decide as a group to stop accepting the status quo from the Left and start battling back.
I guess there’s always hope, though, because though it took Harry Potter and friends seven books and eight movies to figure out the secret of Voldemort’s horcruxes, they finally beat him by systematically addressing and exploiting his individual weaknesses.
Despite the fact the establishment surrounding Potter and company were terrified of doing what needed to be done, and in fact tried stopping him as often as possible.
This is really the sort of epic battle we’re all in for in 2012, whether any of us like it or not, and for it to turn out differently than it has in the past it’s really up to a grassroots effort of regular people to take on the Left in ways the Cocktail Party GOP establishment has always been too scared or stupid to do.
And that means seeking and exposing the Left’s hidden horcruxes….starting with the Left’s consistent and, I think, obvious hypocrisy.
An Open Letter to Kim Cattrall regarding the hypocrisy of Ben Cohen attending an anti-bullying event at Sidetrack the Video Bar (a venue that promotes bullying)
VIA Open Letter, Email, and Post:
August 26, 2011
Dear Ms. Cattrall,
I write to you because you have been a strong, public supporter of the Ben Cohen Standup Foundation and its published mission of being “dedicated solely to the cause of anti-bullying, wherever and to whomever it occurs”. Your photo (above, with Naya Rivera and Ben Cohen) is featured on the Foundation’s website and lends your image and good name, and with them great credence, to the public’s belief that Ben Cohen takes his Foundation’s mission seriously and means what he says when he promises to end bullying “wherever and to whomever it occurs”.
Considering the above, you need to know that Ben Cohen is currently scheduled to appear at Sidetrack the Video Bar on August 30th, 2011 for an event promoting the Standup Foundation in which he will appear on stage alongside Bradley Thomas Balof, a Sidetrack employee who is billed as the event’s MC and auctioneer.
On August 16th, 2011 at 730pm, Sidetrack screened the premiere episode of “Only@Brunch” which features Bradley Thomas Balof as co-host of this gay Chicago talk show, with format similar to “The View”. Sidetrack aired this video on its largest screen, provided free mimosas to attract viewers, and allowed its official logo to be featured on promotional materials with Sidetrack’s clear endorsement of the “Only@Brunch” content.
At the 1:37 mark of this video, another “Only@Brunch” co-host, Jesse Budlong, attacked Trig Palin, the son of Governor Sarah Palin and her husband Todd, with tasteless and unjustified bullying (for being a toddler with Down Syndrome). This attack arose while the “Only@Brunch” cast bullied Congresswoman Michele Bachmann because of her gender and physical appearance — and resulted in five minutes of these gay men mocking her looks in a video that Sidetrack aired in the Main Bar area of this Chicago gay establishment (the most prominent placement Sidetrack could give this bullying, in the most prominent gay venue in the country).
As a gay man living and working here in Chicago, I am ashamed of the way leaders of the gay community, such as Sidetrack’s owners Art Johnston and Jose Pepin “Pepe” Pena, consistently engage in hypocrisy like this.
Because of articles I wrote here on HillBuzz.org about this outrage, “Only@Brunch” was forced to issue a statement acknowledging the tasteless and unjustifiable nature of its bullying attack. Subsequently, “Only@Brunch” edited out its mocking of Trig Palin from the video it currently features on YouTube, but retained the five minutes of bullying directed at Congresswoman Bachmann. Sidetrack and its owners have made no apology whatsoever for providing this bullying a venue in which to air publicly before a large crowd.
Trig Palin is a common target for bullying attacks in the gay community, with venues such as Sidetrack airing videos that mock him and others with special needs for the way they were born. Similarly, Sidetrack has a long and documented history of brutally bullying women, Christians, and people with conservative political beliefs. Sidetrack features a weekly Thursday “Laugh Track Comedy Night”, which Bradley Thomas Balof often hosts, that invariably includes sexist and misogynistic attacks on Christian women such as Congresswoman Bachmann, Governor Sarah Palin, Governor Jan Brewer, columnist Ann Coulter, and others. Sidetrack is the only gay bar in Chicago that engages in this sort of orchestrated, endemic bullying on its video screens, I think because it’s the biggest bar in town and regularly attracts celebrities like Ben Cohen for events.
Since they believe they can get away with this, and possess so much political and economic clout, Sidetrack’s owners Johnston and Pena apparently see no problem with hosting an anti-bullying event on August 30th, 2011 (in which conservatives and Christians will be scolded for allegedly bullying gay people) after airing the “Only@Brunch” video on August 16th, 2011 (which showcased gay people bullying a special needs child and women who are conservative and Christian).
The hypocrisy is obvious and glaring — and does a great disservice to the Ben Cohen Standup Foundation because it’s certainly an affront to the published mission of dedication “solely to the cause of anti-bullying, wherever and to whomever it occurs”. Except when gay people are doing the bullying, and the victims are a toddler with Down Syndrome and Christian women the gay community doesn’t like, it would seem.
On a very personal level, Ms. Cattrall, I need to tell you that I have friends in New York City who have volunteered with God’s Love We Deliver and have gotten to know you, somewhat, through its own mission. My friends tell me you are hardworking, gracious, and truly committed to the causes you endorse. You are, they assure me, the real deal and no fan of hypocrisy. In New York, I’m told you are often an angel that rescues many a fundraising event, often agreeing to appear at the very last minute if another speaker falls through or something important is not getting enough attention. Seeing Kim Cattrall attached to anything means the organization involved deserves the public’s support and confidence. There aren’t words to properly thank you for all you do, for so very many.
For the last five days, I have been asking for an explanation from the Ben Cohen Standup Foundation for why Mr. Cohen remains scheduled to appear at Sidetrack the Video Bar here in Chicago on August 30th, 2011 after Sidetrack so egregiously aired a clear bullying attack on Trig Palin, Congresswoman Bachmann, and others on August 16th, 2011. I have corresponded with, and spoken to over the phone, Patrick Davis, the President of the Ben Cohen Standup Foundation on multiple occasions. While incredibly polite and unfailingly professional, Mr. Davis has STILL not explained to me why the Foundation is rewarding Sidetrack’s bad behavior with a personal appearance by Mr. Cohen. Sidetrack stands to make a great deal of money August 30th, because Mr. Cohen is a sought-after sex symbol in the gay community that draws large, thirsty, crowds to any bar he visits.
Can you please contact Mr. Patrick Davis at the Ben Cohen Standup Foundation (404-347-7778 or Patrick@BenCohenUSA.com) and ask him to explain why Mr. Cohen is choosing to abandon his pledge to standup to bullying “wherever and to whomever it occurs” by appearing in a venue that fosters bullying here in Chicago’s gay community?
I have spent the last week drawing attention to the fact that bullying towards special needs children, conservatives, Christians, and women is ongoing at Sidetrack the Video Bar here in Chicago and is a very serious problem in our community exacerbated by Sidetrack’s owners Johnston and Pena.
If Mr. Cohen chooses to honor his scheduled appearance at Sidetrack next Tuesday August 30th, 2011, he’s clearly voiding the Foundation’s mission and encouraging this sort of bullying committed by the gay community in Chicago to amplify nationwide.
It’s a bigger issue than just something happening here in Chicago, because this act of hypocrisy will permanently undermine the Foundation’s mission and will cast doubt on its “anti-bullying wherever and to whomever it occurs” core tenet.
Thank you Ms. Cattrall for involving yourself in this matter and inquiring of Mr. Cohen and Mr. Davis exactly what’s going on here, and how the August 30th appearance at Sidetrack complements the stated mission of the Ben Cohen Standup Foundation.
Kevin DuJan
Founder and Editor, HillBuzz.org
Fan of yours since Mannequin, permanent admirer because of God’s Love We Deliver
HYPOCRISY ALERT! Ben Cohen to hold anti-bullying event August 30, 2011 at Sidetrack the Video Bar in Boystown, which is a bar that airs videos bullying special needs children, conservatives, Christians, and women
On Tuesday August 30th, Ben Cohen is making an appearance at Sidetrack the Video Bar here in Chicago to promote his “Ben Cohen Standup Foundation”, which claims to work against bullying of gay people. Cohen is a straight rugby player who started this foundation to assist various gay charities that support gay youth who are bullied growing up.
It’s a noble cause, but quite hypocritical of Cohen to hold the event at Sidetrack the Video Bar, because this same venue aired a high-profile bullying attack on Trig Palin on August 16, 2011 in the premiere episode of the gay talk show “Only@Brunch”. Because of national criticism of this bullying, The Jared Hall Company and Downtown Cupid Productions edited the attack on Trig out of the current video they’ve posted on YouTube (while deleting all comments calling their bullying out for the tasteless and unjustifiable attack that it was). Sidetrack the Video Bar, owned by Art Johnston and Jose Pepin “Pepe” Pena (and managed by Chuck Hyde), approved the original “Only@Brunch” video complete with the vile attack on Trig Palin and aired it in the most high-profile and prominent part of the bar.
As I’ve covered this week, “Only@Brunch” features Sidetrack bartender Bradley Thomas Balof as one of its co-hosts. Balof did nothing to stop the bullying of Trig Palin that aired in the “Only@Brunch” pilot. In fact, he sat there and laughed along with Jared Hall, Terrence Chappell, Craig Rathwell, and Brian Felder when co-host Jesse Budlong bullied Trig Palin.
Balof is scheduled to be the MC for Ben Cohen’s anti-bullying event at Sidetrack, despite appearing in a video mocking a toddler with Down Syndrome just two weeks before.
(Click to embiggen)
Sidetrack stands to make a large sum of money on August 30th, as Ben Cohen is quite the beefcake pinup in Chicago’s gay community; he’s guaranteed to bring in huge crowds to see his handsome face and athletic build, and to listen to his Foundation’s speeches about how bad bullying is.
Sidetrack enticed a large crowd on August 16th to view the attack on Trig Palin contained in the “Only@Brunch” premiere episode, by dispensing free mimosas to those who came to Sidetrack and watched a video not only bullying a special needs child, but also attacking his mother and other conservatives and Christians with malicious zeal.
The hypocrisy in the gay community is obvious and endemic.
So, this morning I sent the below email to the Ben Cohen Foundation asking them for comment on the appropriateness of hosting an anti-bullying event in a Boystown venue that encourages the bullying of children with special needs.
We have a clear situation here where leaders of the gay community claim gays need to be protected from bullying because of the way they were born…when the very same gay leaders encourage the bullying of children with Down Syndrome because of the way they were born. On top of that, the gay leaders who scold conservatives and Christians for not accepting them are the very same men who revel in attacks directed against women who are conservative and Christian.
Someone has to standup to this hypocrisy.
Since Ben Cohen’s foundation is actually named “The Standup Foundation”, perhaps he can show some leadership and address these matters with Art Johnston at Sidetrack so attacks on special needs children, conservatives, Christians, and women are no longer prominently made in Sidetrack the Video Bar.
Please email the staff at Ben Cohen’s Foundation either a link to this open letter or your own personal letter asking these people to “Standup to Hypocrisy!” and reconsider the appropriateness of hosting an event at Sidetrack the Video Bar, where the “Only@Brunch” attack on a toddler with Down Syndrome originally aired.
CONTACTS:
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HORRIFYING: Cast of Chicago gay talk show caught on tape making fun of Trig Palin during bullying attacks on conservatives and Christians
Note: If you are not familiar with the long history of gay men like those on “Only@Brunch” mocking people with special needs and directing catty cruelty at conservatives and Christians (especially at female Republicans), please read here to get a fuller picture of what’s going on that the media never shows you…and why someone like Jesse Budlong in the clip above is so quick to attack Trig Palin at the 1:37 mark…while his co-hosts neither stop him nor cut tape and choose to try the segment again, but this time without mocking a special needs child. It speaks volumes on the character of all involved in this production that this opening segment was not refilmed minus Budlong’s cruelty directed at a toddler with Down Syndrome. These guys saw nothing wrong with Budlong’s remark, they thought it was funny, and are so used to hearing other gay guys mock people with special needs that they still probably can’t see how evil their behavior really and truly is. These guys are honestly the reason that so many people in the world have negative feelings towards gay people, because they see gays like the “Only@Brunch” bullies and assume everyone who’s gay is like this. I am here to tell you we most certainly are not…and this group has really brought shame to the gay community with this show.
Here in Boystown, the biggest bar on the Halsted nightclub strip is Sidetrack — owned by Chicago Gay & Lesbian Hall of Fame inductees Art Johnston and Jose Pepin “Pepe” Pena, who together fund much of the activities of Equality Illinois (an organization that professes to pursue equal rights for all residents of the state and is supposedly against hatred and discrimination in any form).
One of Sidetrack’s bartenders is Bradley Thomas Balof, seen in the above video (third from the Left, in the blue shirt), who also serves as Sidetrack’s M.C. for special events and business promotions.
Bradley, together with (from Left), Jared Hall, Jesse Budlong, Terrence Chappell, Craig Alexander Rathwell, and Brian Felder premiered their new talk show (clearly modeled on “The View”, but with five shallow gay dudes instead of untrained circus animals) at Sidetrack on Tuesday August 16th, with free mimosas sponsored by Sidetrack owners Johnston and Pena (who have clearly endorsed this project fully, since Sidetrack’s website and Facebook account were used to publicize this “premiere”, with this pilot episode of Only@Brunch shown prominently on Sidetrack’s large video screens).
