Wait a minute...

What I want to talk about is something I heard Cliff Kincaid quoted as saying on the Keith Olbermann show just now.

"A vote to repeal the homosexual exclusion policy would inevitably mean more disease and death for members of our Armed Forces," stated Cliff Kincaid, the veteran journalist who runs ASI. "It is unconscionable to add this danger to the risks they already face in fighting for our freedom around the world."

No, not that. I'm assuming most if not all of the people who read this blog already share my belief that the homophobes screeching such about DADT being repealed are sick in the head. So I'm not going to get into this that way. I just wanted to give you an idea of where he was coming from.

This is what got me:

"If Congress repeals the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' homosexual exclusion policy," declared Kincaid, "Corporal Klinger could become a reality in the Armed Forces." Klinger was the bizarre character on the MASH comedy show that dressed up as a woman so that he could be kicked out of the service.

"Klinger may now give way to the Pentagon actually permitting transgendered male soldiers that look like Klinger to openly wear women's clothing," noted the ASI president.

Sigh...never mind that this implies homosexual=transvestite, which isn't true. Never mind that it also confuses transgender with homosexual, which isn’t true either. Here's my thing:

Corporal Klinger was not a homosexual. It's why his character was funny. The street kid from Toledo wearing dresses, worrying about the latest fashions in hem length and so on, while still remaining, emphatically, that street kid (and straight kid) from Toledo.

So the story goes, when Klinger was first introduced, the director had Jamie Farr play his one scene very effeminate/gay. Fortunately, the producers, including my man Larry Gelbart (who created the character) got to the scene and had it redone. And what was written as a one-shot became a regular who lasted to the end of the series.

I'm not surprised anymore that homophobes like Kincaid are sick in the head. I am surprised that he apparently never watched a single episode of what was arguably the most successful television series of all time...