News/Commentary

‘Why does it read like a threat?’ Liberals turn on Bette Midler for declaring gays are ‘next’

June 25, 2022 | | Print Article

Bette Midler began her career in the bathhouses of New York City, playing one of her most famous concerts in the Continental Baths in 1972 — the year before Roe v. Wade entered the American zeitgeist — and she has been a gay icon ever since.

So when the 76-year-old singer reacted to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark decision with a menacing tweet warning gays they’re “next,” it was surprising to see how quick users with rainbows in their profiles were to call her out for her nasty tone.

“GET READY, GAYS. YOU’RE NEXT,” she warned, using all caps so everyone knew she really meant it.

It is unclear whether or not Midler was referring to a solo consenting opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas, in which he suggested that, going forward, the now-debunked “Due Process Clause” at the heart of many Court precedents should be “reconsidered,” or if she was just virtue-signaling to her “gays,” but the tweet hit a surprisingly flat note.

“No, actually, the decision specifically says that this is NOT the case,” replied BASEDPolitics Co-Founder Brad Polumbo. “Nice alarmism tho.”

https://twitter.com/brad_polumbo/status/1540366252711059457?s=20&t=K0_tO1F5xJd3Y9Zize-FFA

And, of course, Polumbo is correct.

Justice Thomas’s solo opinion aside, Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, made a point in the decision by stating: “To ensure that our decision is not misunderstood or mischaracterized, we emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”

But it wasn’t so much the substance of The Divine Miss M’s tweet as it was the tone that bothered most of her critics.

“Why did she word it like this HELP,” lamented one user.

“Why would she say it like this?” echoed another.

“This is so bizarre,” a third stated. “Also entirely unhelpful. Why does it read like a threat? What are we getting ready for, exactly? Watch as our rights get stripped away by an unelected group of octogenarians because the ones we did elect failed to do literally anything.”

It is hardly the first time Midler’s mouth has gotten her slammed on social media.

Just last month, she was taken to task for callously suggesting — again in all caps — that mothers desperate to find baby formula should “TRY BREASTFEEDING!”

“It’s free and available on demand,” she quipped.

As BizPac Review reported at the time, the response from furious moms wasn’t warm.

In fact, Midler received such a slew of angry tweets, she issued a lackluster apology.

“People are piling on because of former tweet,” she said. “No shame if you can’t breastfeed, but if you can & are somehow convinced that your own milk isn’t as good as a ‘scientifically researched product,’ that’s something else again.”

Needless to say, the tweet did little to smooth things over, but it appears that the singer learned nothing from the fallout, and now some members of her largest fan base have had enough of her ugly manners.

“A cishet white woman, part of the demographic where the leaders and founders of the ‘pro-life’ come from, does not have the right to talk to gay people like this,” one fed-up user stated. “[I don’t care] if you’re a gay ‘icon.'”

Melissa Fine
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