Texas LG David Dewhurst forces university to cancel religious satire play.

So much for that smug superiority we Americans felt over the Prophet Cartoon outrage. The conservi-ban government of Texas strikes again. (And I live in Texas, so save your attacks on Texas to the conservatives in power now).

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/highereducation/entries/2010/03/27/plays_cancellation_right_thing.html#comments

At first, Tarleton State University said the show would go on. The show being “Corpus Christi,” a play that depicts Jesus as gay.

Then, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst condemned the show.

And then, Tarleton State, citing “safety and security concerns,” said the show would not go on after all.

snip

Dewhurst, for his part, issued the following statement today...:

“The cancellation of the play, ‘Corpus Christi,’ by the university was the right thing to do. While I’m a strong defender of free speech, we must also protect the rights and reasonable expectations of Texas taxpayers and how their money is used. A play that is completely contrary to the standards of decency and moral beliefs of the vast majority of Texans should not be performed using any state resources, especially by an institution of higher learning. “

step up, show biz elite.

Only if it agrees with him.

These charmers keep it up and the phrase "Texas diploma" will be a vicious insult.

Everyone I've ever met, liberal or conservative or otherwise, who works around the Texas Capitol believes Dewhurst is gay. I know a few people who swear they know his partner--some lawyer in Houston. True or not (and I don't think it is), he's always fighting that rumor and dreading the day it becomes common perception. A few years ago some people shifted the rumor to Rick Perry, and that's when Rick Perry went insane and started banning gay marriage in Texas and stuff like that. Now Dewhurst is doing his part to attack teh gay, hoping that when the big rumor goes big time, he'll have won his mark as a gay-hater and no one will believe it.

That's a small part of all this, although of course homosexuality is a big hot-button issue in swing districts of Texas. A few years ago we ran a former mayor of Dallas for the Senate, and polls showed him neck and neck. Ron Kirk is a moderate, pro-business Democrat, and black, so they had a lot of trouble attacking him. If the Republicans act too racist in Texas nowadays, it turns off the African American and Hispanic voters, some of whom are conservative and might like the Republicans otherwise. Just enough to win an election. So they can't play the race card anymore. That's why they've all gone to the sex card now. Heterosexuality sells in parts of Texas. So they ran adds in east Texas and the panhandle that claimed that Ron Kirk wanted to legalize gay marriage (even though Kirk had said he didn't), and the numbers flipped overnight, and Kirk lost mostly by losing big in those regions.

Gay. It's the new black amongst Republicans.

As I understand, the play is not a satire and it doesn't depict Jesus as gay. The one-act play has a gay character who is representative of Jesus.

taking direct aim at Dewhurst.