Meet The Tea Partier Who Gave Thousands to Dems & Warned DC Visitors of The Yellow & Green Metro Lines
Hit & Run regulars and folks who attend Reason's DC events may know Bruce Majors, who haunts the comments section at this here blog like Banquo's Ghost at the dessert section of a Golden Corral buffet.
Majors, an openly gay real estate agent who has lived in the nation's capital since 1980, was near the center of a bizarre Glenn Beck rally mini-scandal when a visitor's guide to DC he penned was interpreted as evidence of racism on the part of Tea Party types. Majors suggested that newbies unfamiliar with DC steer clear of certain neighborhoods and Metro lines and was pilloried on, among other outlets, Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show.
The Daily Beast caught up with Majors, who is nobody's idea of a conventional Tea Partier:
Already notorious on a number of progressive sites for posting inflammatory comments, Majors responded to attacks this week with a steady stream of profanity-laced insults aimed at Maddow, Robinson, The Atlantic, the American Prospect, and other progressive news outlets and writers.
He defended the guide from charges of racism, saying it was "overly cautious" by design and only intended for "people from Shreveport, Louisiana, who are in town for 36 hours." He said its parameters included a number of black neighborhoods, such as the affluent Crestwood. Majors, a DC resident since 1980, said he didn't mean to suggest all the off-limits areas in his guide were inherently unsafe—he frequents the nightlife scene on U street, off the Green and Yellow line, for example. Ironically, the only times he's been mugged or seriously threatened in DC were in the wealthier neighborhoods, which are approved for Tea Party consumption….
According to OpenSecrets.org, he's donated about $15,000 to Democrats since 2000, including a $10,000 donation to the DNC in 2000, a $500 donation to Howard Dean in 2003, and a $1,000 donation to John Kerry in 2004. His only recent contribution to a Republican candidate was $250 in 2002 to retired Rep. Jim Kolbe, then lone openly gay Republican in Congress.
"I kind of wish I hadn't given tens of thousands of dollars to Democrats, especially with the real-estate business what it is today," he said. "Now I can only give a few hundred a year to libertarians to try to make up the balance."
Majors says he also donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT advocacy group, and once won a role as an extra in the sitcom Will & Grace at one of their charity auctions….
While he's faced some homophobia from Tea Partiers online, where he frequently participates in message board discussions, he says he's found activists are often willing to hear his views and question their assumptions about gay rights. And if they aren't, that's OK. He sure loves an argument.
Reason.tv's take on the Glenn Beck rally.
