The Angry Fag

News and Views from a Man Who Likes Men

Pam Spaulding and John Aravosis Cancel Equality Forum Panel Appearance Over Jeff Gannon

Posted on | April 27, 2006

I am definitely glad that I am unable to attend the Equality Forum next week. I wanted to attend the Media Panel dealing with blogs because both John Aravosis (AmericaBlog) and Pam Spaulding (Pam’s House Blend) were going to be on the panel. This evening I discovered that both have now pulled out due to an issue surrounding a third panelist, fake reporter and former gay prostitute James Guckert aka Jeff Gannon.

Both have declined to participate because both feel, as do I, that having Gannon as a panel member is hypocritical. As Pam points out on her blog entry dealing with the topic:

In my response, I made it clear that most regular readers of my blog have zero respect for Gannon as a representative or voice of the LGBT community in the blogosphere, regardless of politics. He’s a homophobe and a serial plagiarist. He has little to add to the discussion about LGBT media and blogging, since his blog has no impact or influence in the community in terms of blogger journalism; he’s a joke.

I can say that as a regular reader of Pam’s blog, I have absolutely no respect for Jeff Gannon given the sleazy nature of how Gannon became a name in the media and how he is nothing more than a tool of neoconservatives. While I applaud the organizers of the Equality Forum in attempting to achieve balance on the panel, there are plenty of others to choose from who have more legitimacy as LGBT bloggers.

It is sad but I applaud both Pam and John for sticking to their guns and not allowing their participation to bestow any legitimacy onto Gannon.

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