Demagogue

This week's winner is a member of the federal bureaucracy who might otherwise have gone unnoticed. But, with this article, the Washington Post brought notoriety to Mark Weber, a spokesman for an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Weber was handed a rather unpleasant task -- explain why his HHS agency was pressuring organizers of a federally funded conference to remove the words "gay," "lesbian," "bisexual" and "trangender" from a session on suicide prevention among (can you guess?) gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Reported the Post:

So it came as a surprise to Ron Bloodworth -- a former coordinator of youth suicide prevention for Oregon and one of three specialists leading the session -- when word came down from [agency] project manager Brenda Bruun that [conference presenters] should omit the four words that described, precisely, what the session was about.

Bloodworth was told it would be acceptable to use the term "sexual orientation." But that did not make sense to him. "Everyone has a sexual orientation," he said in an interview yesterday. "But this was about gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders."

... "Unless you use an accurate term, the people you are trying to reach don't recognize themselves and don't attend," he said, adding that the agency told him he should not use "gender identity."

... The title rewrite was one of several requested changes. Another was to add a session on faith-based suicide prevention, said Weber, who said he believes the brouhaha is all a misunderstanding ... besides, he added, [the title change] was only a suggestion.

Asked how strong a suggestion, Weber replied: "Well, they do need to consider their funding source."

In other words, the ideologues in the Bush administration have conference organizers by the balls. But, of course, that's not how P-R professionals are supposed to talk.