‘Some Right-Wing Gloating About It’
Posted on | April 26, 2012 | 38 Comments
Blame Instapundit for this one: He linked a Daily Beast item about Linda Lovelace and the 40th anniversary of Deep Throat, and while at the site, I saw a sidebar article with this headline:
Melissa Etheridge’s Hideous Breakup
What? I’d missed this news: Evidently, the rock guitarist’s lesbian divorce turned nasty and Daily Beast columnist Tricia Romano decided to write about it in the context of “what does it mean for the gay rights movement?”
This is retarded: When Charlie Sheen got divorced, did anyone write about that in the context of “what does this mean for the cocaine-and-hookers lifestyle movement”? I think not. For some reason, when two lesbians break up, that’s about political rights, whereas when Charlie Sheen breaks up with somebody . . . . Well, if he accuses the hooker of stealing his watch, nobody really views Charlie as a victim of discrimination or anything, you see.
A celebrity lesbian divorce, however, afforded this Daily Beast columnist an excuse to get political, and she interviewed Lorri Jean, CEO of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center:
“I think it just illustrates that our relationships are pretty much the same as straight relationships. A lot of them make it and a lot of them don’t.”
And, Jean said, the public’s reaction is a sign of the changing times. “I think that they’re not reacting nearly as bad as they reacted to the Kardashian breakup. There’s been some right-wing gloating about it, but I don’t think it’s been all that huge a topic of conversation. Which I think is probably more a reflection of ‘Well, yeah, just like anybody else, gay people get divorced.’”
“Right-wing gloating about it”?
Could you cite an example, please? Because I’m out here in the right wing every day, and I wouldn’t have even known about all this if it hadn’t been for the Daily Beast columnist writing about it. Where’s the “gloating” and who’s doing it? Never mind: Just another liberal cheap shot, I guess.
Now that you bring it up, however, how about we look at the real emotional pain suffered by the ex-Mrs. Etheridge, huh?
Tammy Lynn Michaels was a promising young actress, having starred in the TV series Popular, when she met and soon married — what? was gay marriage already a legal thing in 2003? — Melissa Etheridge.
Etheridge was 42, and had already split with former longtime partner Julie Cypher (ex-wife of actor Lou Diamond Phillips). During her relationship with Etheridge, Cypher gave birth to two children conceived via artificial insemination supplied by folk-rock singer David Crosby. (Cypher eventually decided she wasn’t lesbian anymore and married a guy in 2004.)
At age 28 when the couple wed, Tammy Lynn was 14 years younger than Etheridge and subsequently stayed home as “stepmom” to the two Etheridge-Cypher children, then in 2006 gave birth to twin sperm-donor babies, a boy and a girl. During their union, Etheridge was stricken with breast cancer in 2004 and recovered. The couple split in 2010.
Kind of complicated, really. Anyway, Tammy suspected Melissa of cheating, there was some legal wrangling, and eventually Melissa agreed to pay $23,000 a month. When Tammy complained this wasn’t enough, it blew up in the gossip blogs a couple weeks ago.
Guess what? Tammy’s got a blog. Kind of annoyingly poetic and emotionally moody, but a blog nonetheless. In one of her posts, Tammy pointed out that she actually had a pretty hot career as an actress, making good money, before she met Melissa Etheridge. In another post, Tammy seemed to reference being “smeared” as a “gold-digger” by a “publicity machine.”
You see how this game is played, right? Melissa’s got the money, and Tammy is dependent on those payments. And if Tammy complains at all, the “publicity machine” goes into motion to make Tammy look like a pathetic whiner. Is that fair?
Tammy gave up what might otherwise have been the prime years of her career as a young actress to become “Mrs. Etheridge,” and now she seems to have been discarded by the woman with whom she shared nine years, two kids and a cancer scare.
Tammy might have been better off if she’d gotten married to an abusive cokehead misogynistic a–hole like Charlie Sheen, because if Charlie treated her like crap after their divorce, Tammy would get all the sympathy and Charlie would get none.
By contrast, Melissa Etheridge is an icon of “gay rights,” so that if Tammy complains, not only is she smeared by the “publicity machine,” but she’s also viewed as damaging the image of the “community,” to the possible detriment of their political rights.
Is this “right-wing gloating”? No.
Just some human sympathy for a single mother who was once a sort of “trophy wife,” but now has been abandoned, and is apparently being pushed around and publicly humiliated by her ex, with the cheerful assistance of the usual Hollywood hypocrites.
Tammy: You’ve got a potentially powerful story. Just sayin’ . . .
UPDATE: Linked by Lisa Graas, Bob Belvedere and Daily Pundit — thanks!

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