Yesterday was a big day for the intersection between politics and gayness! In this report, Rachel covers it all, from crazy John Sheehan just cold lying and saying that the Srebrenica genocide was caused by gays in the Dutch military (by the way, the Dutch are PISSED — see below the video), to Dan Choi and Jim Pietrangelo handcuffing themselves to the White House fence to protest DADT, to the GetEQUAL sit-in at Pelosi’s office over their seeming inability to get anything done on ENDA. It’s all here in this clip, in case you were sleeping yesterday.
“The remarks were outrageous, wrong and beneath contempt,” [Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter] Balkenende told a news conference. The Dutch Defense Ministry called Sheehan’s claims “absolute nonsense” and added that gay Dutch soldiers routinely cooperate with the U.S. military in the NATO mission in Afghanistan. Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen called the claim “the bizarre private opinion of someone without an official function”. Renee Jones-Bos, the Dutch ambassador to the United States, said in a statement, “I couldn’t disagree more” with Sheehan, adding there was no evidence of his claims in the extensive record of research on Srebrenica. Military unions were equally angry. Dutch news agency ANP quoted the head of the military union AFMP as saying Sheehan’s comments were “out of the realm of fiction”, while the head of the gay soldiers’ group SHK called his comments “the ridiculous convulsion of a loner”.
OOOH. ”The bizarre private opinion of someone without an official function.” ”The ridiculous convulsion of a loner.” I thought I could snark, but I have to go take lessons from the Dutch!
We spend a lot of time rebutting the lies and manipulation of the Religious Right, i.e. not the movable middle. But it’s good to remember that a large number of those who haven’t supported our equality in the past simply need a nudge, a little help seeing it from a human perspective.
Jamie Kilstein is one of my very favorite comedians. He and his wife Allison Kilkenny (who I link here from time to time) run Citizen Radio, and they’re one of the few duos I’ve seen who truly bridge the gap between politics and comedy, without either side suffering. Jamie’s insanely funny, but he actually knows his stuff. And if he doesn’t, he can always ask Allison, because she’s scary smart.
ANYWAY.
The other night, Jamie performed in Chicago, and he just cold went off on Rick Warren, Ted Haggard, anti-gay fundamentalist bigots, and made one of the boldest, most raw arguments for LGBT equality I’ve ever seen.
So! You should watch it. But not at work. Unless you have headphones. Because it’s, as Jamie just said on his Facebook wall, “beyond offensive.”
So here’s your warning, in red, in case you missed the last paragraph:
DIRTY LANGUAGE IS AHEAD!!!
Okay, that all clear? Oh, and handling the objection before I get it, in the parts where Jamie’s talking about God, we should all remember that the construction is “IF God is like they say, THEN we should…”
The kid in the audience — he seems a kid to me, just 20 years old — asks me a question:
“You say gay marriage will lead to the use of the law to repress traditional faiths including Christianity. But I was raised in a Southern Baptist family. When I came out, I lost my sister. What is wrong with the idea that religions will be pressured to be less anti-gay?”
(…)
So the question from this gay kid — this clean-cut collegian who I’ll call “Phil” — hits me like a ton of bricks. What can I say to Phil? I just pointed out the ways that “marriage equality” will lead to the repression of traditional religious faiths by government. And here he is asking me: Why is that a bad thing?
(…)
But tonight, this is a different kid in a different state. And behind his question, he makes clear, is a world of suffering — a family torn apart by the deepest moral and religious disagreement.
And the first thing I want to tell him is: I’m sorry for your pain. I’m sorry for your sister’s pain, too. Family to me is the place where love is an obligation. Your family are the people you didn’t choose to love. But you still do.
Can we build a world where people like Phil and people like me will both be OK? Where people who disagree about the meaning and purpose of human sexuality can somehow not only tolerate but love one another?
Maggie, listen up! Gay people have been trying to explain this to you for years now. I know Jeremy Hooper has probably worn out a few keyboards trying to get through to you. This gay kid, this hurting gay kid, would probably not be hurting quite so much if people like Maggie Gallagher Srivastav weren’t dedicating their lives to fostering a climate of fear, lies and hatred about gay people like “Phil,” like Jeremy, like the readers of this site, and like me! You see, one of the only places “trickle-down” actually works is in anti-gay animus (and other race, gender and class-based bias)! You are apparently human, as you were able to see that the kid is hurting, but somehow you’re unable to make the connection between that pain and your life’s work! Maggie, we all have our own beliefs about things. That’s fine. No one is threatening to take that away from you. This is the United States. You are free to oppose homosexuality all you want, insofar as it involves your own life. But what you do is different! The second a law is passed that adds greater protection to our families, to our children, the same protections your family enjoys, you take your toolbox and your undisclosed donors and you run off to make sure those protections are taken away. I do not know what has happened in your life that is so painful that you are redirecting that pain and anger toward an entire class of people. I’m truly sorry, but the first step in recovering from that victimization is to stop using it as an excuse to victimize other people and to stop trying to remake the world in your own biased image. We have no desire to ruin your marriage. It is beyond me why you would want to do the same to me.
So, to answer your question, “How can we build a world where people like Phil and people like me will both be OK”? It’s quite simple, Maggie. Live your life and make it beautiful. Have a happy marriage. Live out your belief system. But have the courtesy and the decency to realize that your beliefs are not shared by everyone else, that your religion is not the arbiter of law in this secular nation (the law which allows you to practice that religion freely in the first place!), and allow your LGBT neighbors the space and freedom to live our own lives to the fullest and to be treated equally under the law.
The other day, I wrote a piece about Liberty Law’s withdrawal as a co-sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), due to the fact that the conservative gay group GOProud was also a sponsor. The fundamentalist freak-out, was, of course, inevitable, because groups like Liberty Law don’t believe that gay people deserve to be treated as human beings, much less as equal co-sponsors at wingnutty political conferences. I also pointed out that I find it strange that any group of self-respecting LGBT people would even want to align themselves with groups that see them as inferior, and who fight against their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Daniel Blatt at GayPatriot took issue with my piece, suggesting that the entire thrust of the piece was my antipathy to gay conservatives. Here’s part of what he said:
Gay activists should welcome this news; it shows that Americans of all stripes are becoming increasingly tolerant and accepting of gay people. And shouldn’t their goal be an America were gay people are welcome in all endeavors? But, it seems that trashing conservatives has become such a part of the modus operandi of some gay leftists that even as the facts change, their prejudices do not.
It would be one thing if GOProud’s inclusion in CPAC represented a legitimate opportunity for LGBT people to open hearts and minds among the CPAC set. But this is not that.
It might be helpful here to review who else is a co-sponsor at CPAC, for anyone who might be unaware of what kind of a scene CPAC is. Jeremy helpfully pointed out a few of the other groups on the roster:
-The National Organization For Marriage’s entire existence is built around hurting gay families.
-The Alliance Defense Fund goes to court to fight even the most basic pro-LGBT benefit or protection.
-Concerned Women For America’s most pressing “concern” of the past decade or so has revolved around the possibility that society might accept LGBT people.
-Focus on the Family is, well, Focus on the Family.
So, those four groups are very much still co-sponsors, along with GOProud. Now, lest anyone say “But Evan, maybe this is a good opportunity for the group to offer a voice of LGBT support to compete with those voices,” it’s useful to remember some other information. David Keene, who heads up CPAC’s organizing group, specifically stated that GOProud would not be offered a speaking spot at the conference and that, because of the CPAC consensus against LGBT people and issues, the subject of rights for our families wouldn’t even be “open to debate”:
In his e-mail response, Keene admitted GOProud “has signed on as a CPAC co-sponsor, but will have no speakers and we told them that, in fact, since opposition to gay marriage, etc are consensus positions (if not unanimous) among conservatives, these topics are not open to debate.”
(…)
…Keene’s e-mail defended the agreement, explaining GOProud’s “interest is in demonstrating that not all gays are liberals rather than promoting their life style.
Okay, so…GOProud can come, but they cannot talk. They can’t try to advocate for LGBT people being treated as equal citizens, because “opposition to gay marriage, etc. are consensus positions (if not unanimous).” They can come, as long as they don’t “promote their life style.”
?!?!?!
Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but my sense of dignity as a gay man doesn’t put up with people who refer to my advocating for my own equal rights as “promoting my lifestyle.” My sense of dignity would be offended by a group saying that I can come to the party as long as I keep my faggoty mouth shut. (And that is exactly what CPAC said, when you translate it out of wingnut and into the slurs they prefer behind closed doors.) It would seem to me that GOProud has so deeply internalized the idea that they don’t deserve equal treatment that they are merely over-the-moon at being invited to breathe the same air space with the people who hate them the most. Some might call that progress, but I don’t buy it. I would have called that progress in 1975, but it’s 2010, and we’re dealing with real issues of equality now, having moved far beyond being simply thrilled to be invited.
So yes, Daniel, “an America where gay people are welcome in all endeavors” is indeed a worthy goal, and you be sure to let me know the second that CPAC offers you all a true opportunity to reach their people with the message of full equality for LGBT citizens. But as things currently stand, the anti-gay forces of NOM, Focus on the Family, the Alliance Defense Fund (currently fighting against us in California, in case you hadn’t heard) and Concerned Women for America have the microphone at CPAC, and GOProud is little more than a wallflower, content to play second fiddle to bigots in their desire to be included.
I, for one, have moved far beyond being excited that people will “tolerate” my “lifestyle.” Perhaps GOProud has not.
The words of Carl Sagan, who, as PZ Myers points out, was a poet.
“Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.”
It kind of puts things in perspective, and, to my mind, validates the struggles of all oppressed peoples, including the LGBT community around the world, against forces as ultimately insignificant as those who wish to dictate the terms of life on this tiny speck of dust we call home. Those who would appoint themselves moral emperors have no clothes, indeed. Our lives are not theirs to live.
As a straight man I really have nothing to gain by standing up for equal rights for Gays, Lesbians, Bisexual, and/or my Transgender friends. Except for the fact that I have many friends who are still subjected to hurtful comments by a society that hasn’t yet embraced fully the nature of… nature.
Supporting a limiting system of rules for specific people to follow is prejudice. It’s the Antithesis of Christ Consciousness and (like smoking) it’s Soooo last century.
Allowing love to freely flourish will only enhance the life experience – For All.
Toward the end, he makes a salient point about how important it is for those who aren’t directly affected by this issue of civil rights and justice to plug in and speak up:
I understand many people who stumble onto this blog are already dialed in and ready to transform the world. Much of my community is too. But there are some who still don’t care one way or the other about the ways of being in the world. Thereby, it’s up to us to share our positive outlook on our favorite issues.
That’s the key, really. The more that we can encourage our friends and families to make like a Diane Savino and speak, the closer we’ll be to a place where LGBT equality is a foregone conclusion and the voices of hatred are not silenced (because this is the United States, of course), but are so marginalized as to be rendered irrelevant.
Read the whole thing.
In other news, I had a love affair with this Jason Mraz song a few years ago, so I think I’ll post it.
UPDATE: Egad, most of the comments over there are pro-equality and pro-humanity, but there are a few backwards fools in there. I’m trying to set them straight as long as I have patience, but any of you who want to go lay the smack down, be my guest.
My dad, a progressive, pro-gay, and very proactive Mainer left the following comment on the Bangor Daily News website:
During the campaign I made a practice of stopping at homes where Yes on 1 signs were posted and performed a small act of ‘bearing witness.’ I would ring the doorbell, excuse the interruption, and make the point that I wanted to see what a voter in contemporary America looked like who would publicly announce that they thought neither my son nor my god-daughter was equal to them in civil terms. The responses were as telling as the nastiness and smugness of so many of the comments posted here. Some people were simply stunned that I would perform such an act of conscience on their doorstep. Some cited Romans I to me. Others smiled their broad, born-again smiles seemingly treating me like a little child who didn’t know any better and could therefore be forgiven, or facilely informed me that God loved the sinner but not the sin.
Given the work of the Catholic (oxymoron!) Church and all the other so-called christians in Maine and elsewhere who would seek to impose their personal religious views on members of my immediate family by denying them civil rights most of the rest of us enjoy, I take this first opportunity to renounce my Calvinist baptism. It won’t stop me from working to achieve the end of equality for all, but I can continue to do it without a designation that has, in recent years, become deeply objectionable to me because of the decidedly un-christian attitudes and acts of those similarly designated.
