Bitch Did NOT Fucking Say That

Ah, but she did.

Valerie Jarrett:

Jarrett: Well, I think what we've seen over the last few months are some very tragic deaths of young people, our children. And avoidable deaths. They were driven to committ suicide because they were being harassed in school, and driven to do something that no child should ever be driven to do. And in many cases, the parents are doing a good job. Their families are supportive. Before I spoke at the HRC dinner, I met backstage with Tammy Aarberg, her son Andrew. These are good people. They were aware that their son was gay. They embraced him. They loved him. They supported his lifestyle choice.
(Source: Petrelis Files)

Take it away, FDL:

If the closest adviser to the President on LGBT issues — the one he sent to make nice with the Human Rights Campaign’s black-tie supporters last Saturday — describes a 15-year-old suicide as having "made a lifestyle choice" we are absolutely doomed.

Number one: it’s not a lifestyle.

Number two: it’s not a choice.

Number three: Valerie Jarrett is an idiot.

Yeah - we are absolutely doomed. I don't know how much more of this "fierce advocacy" I can take. I know a few posts ago I couldn't comprehend how people could even compare Dubya and Obama, but here I go: Which is worse for us 'mos? Dubya and company's very very thinly-veiled hostility, or Obama's faux friendship and increasingly frequent (and extremely obnoxious) scolding for not loving him enough for all his broken promises?

UPDATE 10/18/10 9:43PM

Very good post by Jane Hamsher.

There are a lot of factors that contribute to the choices people make about language, and I don’t see any reason to think that Jarrett did anything more than use words that are atavistic and reflect cultural isolation from the LGBT movement. She put herself out there to comfort the parents of those teens and spoke out against the bullying that led to their deaths. That counts for a lot more.

The much greater problem is that the comments do reveal Jarrett to be unfamiliar with the discourse in the LGBT community for the past 40 years. Which doesn’t make her a leper either — it’s hard to be up on the crosscurrents of every community all the time. But Jarrett is ultimately in charge of LGTB relations at the White House.