Arnold Schwarzenegger's hypocrisy

[sasha_feather]

I seen a few people praising this exchange from Arnold's facebook page. The photo is: He changed his user icon (an image of himself as the Terminator) to the rainbow-overlay, which many folks are doing.

A commenter says: "What's wrong with you Arnie? I have to unlike."

Arnold replies: "Hasta la vista."

I get it, people think this is funny. A lot of people probably don't know that Schwarzenegger blocked same-sex marriage in California when he was governor. He did so using his veto power not once, but twice.

This is no secret and not that obscure; for example, George Takei has spoken of Schwarzenegger's homophobic policies as part of his motivation for coming out publicly.

Links for sources (thanks eruthros)
http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_marl10.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_marl8.htm

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

I guess the optimistic view would be that he genuinely changed his mind (as did, iirc, Kobe Bryant -- I remember seeing some tweets from him where he called out a fan for being homophobic, the fan said, hey Kobe, you used to use these slurs too, & he said, exactly, but I learned & changed). Buuuut yeah, of course it could just be opportunistic & probably is. :/

[torachan]

My thoughts exactly.

[sasha_feather]

Perhaps you are more charitable than I! I didn't know that about Kobe Bryant, though, that is cool.

[amadi]

Enh, his new movie will make bank regardless, he didn't need to pander, and if he truly has had a change of heart as it seems, it makes him one of (vanishingly) few republicans on the right side of this. People can and do change their minds. That doesn't make them hypocrites, it makes them human.

[sasha_feather]

Well, I just want to be mad. I want to be mad at people praising so-called "allies" like him. And I do think he's a hypocrite; he fund raised with queer people before vetoing those bills. But I'm not here to convince you.