Julaine Appling is terrifying.
No seriously.
I first encountered her in an article about same-sex marriage that ran in The Isthmus, the local alternative weekly in Madison. In this article, she actually said that “I think we’ve been extremely tolerant in allowing them to live wherever they choose”, them meaning gay folks. That quote has shown up in various places around the Internet, but what is missing is the context. I wish that The Isthmus had archives online somewhere.
In the article, she actually said that she thought that we (obviously straight folk) have been extremely tolorant in letting them (homos) live wherever they want unlike blacks during segregation and before the Civil Rights Movement. I don’t know why people don’t quote her whole bit because from the moment I read it, I was so shocked I didn’t know what to say. I’m paraphrasing of course, but I assure you, the original statement still hits you like a brick to the face.
Besides the obvious issue of othering going on here, the entitlement of this statement makes me nauseous. Here is a straight woman saying gays don’t have it that bad because we can share her drinking fountains. Because she has “let” us buy property instead of running us out of her neighborhood. Because we haven’t been hung from the highest tree for wolf whistling her or consorting with straights. It is all ok because the straights haven’t burned down our homes or excluded us from their colleges. Everything is hunky fucking dory because we don’t have to cross to the other side of the road when we see her coming.
What kind of fucked up statement is that???
I’ll tell you what it is, it is a warning. It is Julaine Appling’s way of saying that if she wanted to, she could treat us a whole lot worse. She could destroy our homes, she could exclude us from the neighborhood and beat, intimidate, and terrorize us into submission. It is her way of saying “Give me a fucking medal because I haven’t annihilated you the way I would like to”. She is saying “We straights deserve a big pat on the back for letting you exist”. She is saying to the gay community that we only deserve what she is willing to give us.
I say “fuck that”. I say “fuck you Julaine”. I get angry and I think she is batshit insane.
But I worry about people like her, because win or loose on the vote for this ban on same-sex marriage, what is going to stop her from taking this ideal further? What if she doesn’t want to “let” me have children? What if she doesn’t want to “let” me be a public servant? What if she doesn’t want to “let” me do my job or buy my sandwich or walk down the street unmolested? I’m terrified of the Julaine Appling’s of the world because I fight for the right to live a life that she doesn’t want to “let” me have, and I’m scared shitless that someday someone might take what little of that right I do have away. I’m terrified because her entire way of thinking can easily lend itself to something more sinister and I see nothing in her ideology that would hold her back from taking whatever action she thought necessary to not “let” us do whatever it is we could, would, or should be wanting to do.
And that is why Julaine Appling scares the all mother living shit out me.
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Trying to remain calm within chaos 
Just ran across your comment via a Google search.
She scares the shit out of me too. I think it’s interesting that many of her other interviews have talked about how she believes gay people can become “ex-gay” and be changed. I also think it’s curious in the extreme that she is Queen of Defending Marriage – an institution she has not invested in herself.
So to me, an unmarried Julaine + rumored female “roommate” at her house in Watertown + “ex-gay” comments + still single = Julaine is a serious closet case. Perhaps she can change her name to Juliane Appling Haggard-Foley. Has a nice ring to it….
She is on a power high post-vote, and is now going after divorce. That oughta keep her busy for a while.
Comment by Grumpus November 16, 2006 @ 3:48 pmThis is what happens when everything you know about sex has come from a book that was written hundreds of years ago and translated from another language.
Comment by Pepper March 3, 2007 @ 2:11 amCurrently, she is going after public breastfeeding because she feels that it’s “lewd”. What exactly is going through her mind when she sees a woman breastfeeding and thinks of it as an obscenity? How very odd…and telling.
I think that Julaine Appling is a self loathing lesbian who is soooooo far back in the closet that she is in Narnia.
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Wow, I just did a search for Julaine Appling, and this one post gave me more than enough information to fully support her. If her detractors have the same kind of logic and vocabulary as this “author” then I’m sure whatever Julaine Appling is saying must be closer to sane and raional thought. Not to mention that paraphrasing a quote from what you remember it to be when you clearly have a bias on the subject is no where near sound jouralism technique… furthermore we don’t have the context in which the response was offered… was it in response to a GLBT activist saying they are being treated in the same way that slaves were being treated??? (a clearly inane statement).
Comment by Dustin April 4, 2008 @ 5:44 amShe makes hitler look tame. People like that are scary.
and dustin has a small dick.
Comment by Upright Guy July 12, 2008 @ 3:05 pmJust came across your blog via google. This woman is insane and a deeply closeted lesbian. I live in a school district that she’s decided to meddle in because the district is revising its harassment policy to include sexual orientation. A few residents have voiced their concern and this Juliane chick has had a field day. She’s a female version of one dictator with the nickname of “der fuhrer” – she has to be stopped!
Comment by Scott July 14, 2008 @ 5:25 pmYou mean she’s NOT a lesbian. Good grief! Look at her picture! She’s as gay as the day is long! And she’s single as well? Wow, it’s amazing how miserable and self-loathing brainwashing can make people.
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Comment by Uneriainges March 18, 2010 @ 6:42 amFear not. Julaine Appling does not have the authority to “let” or “not let.” I read some of the picket signs yesterday where she was speaking. I wanted to speak with some of the folks on my way out, but they were gone. What I would have said in response to some of the signs’ messages is that their argument isn’t with any other person; it is with God, who is the only example of and actually IS pure love and is also the only ultimate all-knowing and completely just judge, with whom we will all have to deal.
Comment by Kathy May 6, 2011 @ 3:02 pmYou say that Julaine is a straight woman. But she’s never been married and she’s lived most of her adult life with another never-married woman. The two own a home together and they work together at Wisconsin Family Action. All that doesn’t sound straight to me.
Comment by Louis Weisberg August 8, 2011 @ 4:14 amI once responded to one of JA’s anti gay diatribes while she was a guest on WIPR…and she was a school board member here in Wttn. I find it fascinating that she does NOTHING to respond to the 3000+ parts of the bible that promote love, non judgment, helping others less fortunate- no she and her ilk waste time protecting marriage from gay marriage- which is hilarious considering she has never been married . She also has spoken out against single parent families , gay adoption etc, again with no real idea of child rearing….I personally think in 20 years sane people will wonder what the big deal was about gay marriage etc and people like her will be a punchline in jokes.
Comment by Natalie May 23, 2012 @ 2:11 pm*Thank you, Labradorite.*
Julaine, honey, who died and made you queen? Is that the royal “we” you used in your most (in)famous quote?
How would this arrogant, ignorant jerk respond if LGBTQ people and their “straight but not narrow” friends and supporters in Wisconsin started publicly telling *her* to consider herself fortunate that *we* have been extremely tolerant in allowing her to live wherever *she* chooses? The implications as well as the plain meaning of her insane words are indeed frightening.
I, for one, do not fear Julaine Appling. She is a disgrace to all of us in Wisconsin — and to the entire human race. I despise her and all she stands for. I’d love to debate her publicly, preferably in an event broadcast throughout Wisconsin live. What would this world-class whack job say if challenged to such a debate?
Scott Enk
Comment by Scott Enk October 21, 2013 @ 5:44 amsenk8105@sbcglobal.net