Subscribe to Breaking NewsWithers: Where are the optimistic warriors?
Yesterday we had two stories. The first was about a gay rights resolution passed by the National Education Association and the other covered some nuttiness spouted by Oklahoma lawmaker Sally Kern. The responses to both were disappointing and make me wonder if it’s time to stop reading our comment section.
Kern’s ramblings are silly. Few will dispute that; however, too many of the responses to Kern were sexist. Why people feel a need to call Kern out with language that only middle school boys use (or a certain gay gossip columnist) is beyond reason. Please spare me any lines about how the revolution won’t be televised or whatever radical keyboard phrase people use now. It is possible to point out the large holes of logic in Kern’s diatribe without calling her names no one would ever call his/her grandmother. We gain nothing by taking down an opponent with sexist rhetoric. If you cannot be critical of Kern minus bigoted language, you and her are part of the problem. Both of you drink from the same well of ignorance.
As for the NEA resolution, the nation’s largest professional employee organization comes out for gay rights and says the marriage debate should be handled by the states. I guess if marriage rights is the only goal then the NEA is wobbly, but the organization’s resolution also asked for “passage of a federal statute prohibiting federal discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and expression.” That’s a huge get for gays and lesbians and we should hold it up proudly to our enemies. I’m sure it makes them gnash their teeth.
If you spent your day looking at the comments left here and other gay political sites, you would think our lives were pre-Stonewall . Should we be singing songs of jubilation? No. The stories of August Provost and Chad Gibson should remind us of the work that needs to be done; however, like columnist Dan Savage said after the California Supreme Court’s Prop 8 decision: we are winning. Sure it’s a long slog and there are setbacks, but we are winning. And if you know anything about this country’s history, people respond best to optimistic warriors.
Mr. Withers
Thank you so much for your commentary. I am 100% behind you in calling on our community to balance its rhetoric. I cringe at the middle-school nastiness that shows up in the comments on this site, though I appreciate getting a reasonable roundup of news and views.
I also appreciate your acknowledgment that our fight for equality will take more time. For that long-haul struggle, we need stubbornly optimistic voices – not just the fury of the flighty Perez Limbaugh. We will burn out too quickly if rage is our only fuel.
Thanks for addressing these 2 important issues.
J Bruce,
“Be very careful about how you are judging me and my behavior- it reflects on your own belief structure. I am the thorn in their side. And yours.”
Whatever. If you think calling a woman a “bitch” is some type of high-minded political calling, have fun. We are clearly not fighting the same battles.
James
James-
Sometimes you fight fire WITH FIRE. You can disagree with this statement for eternity- but it will still hold true.
People like Sally Kern have been raised with a belief structure that they refuse to question- usually provided by a religion/culture in which they’ve decided to label me/us as shall we say- the DEVIL’S SPAWN. I am in fact an accomplished human being with feelings- but as the devil’s spawn I am reduced to a non-human with NO FEELINGS.
This is in fact- A JUDGMENT- but rarely can they see this as such- because their BOOK told them so. They are so immersed in their belief structure they can’t see their way out of a paper bag.
What they expect is that all fags are victims living in shame and guilt- and therefore- such guilty faggots would never think to do anything like get all up in their faces and hand their shit right back to them- BUT I DO. And I do because I CAN. And it shocks them.
I love myself- thank you. Internalized homophobia is self-hate. Ms Kern and her ilk think we are all running around loathing ourselves because they base their ASSumptions on their own beliefs. The last thing I’m doing is loathing myself. I like me sexuality. I like my orientation- and my gender expression and my actual sexual behavior- and I am completely committed to how my sexuality and my spiritually and my creativity are all at play in an unfolding way.
But guess what? In fact- since you are obviously ALSO still caught up in the judgment-based situation where you are judging me as a bigot because I ’seem’ to be behaving JUST LIKE THEY ARE- because I have the balls to hand their shit back to them- well you can see where that’s going.
They base their behavior on the idea that NO faggot is going to push their buttons- that in fact- NO faggot could.
I am not a victim. I don’t tolerate intolerance. I don’t need them or their shit. I don’t have to play nice. AND- I can quite easily shove their shit right back up their own asses.
Thanks.
Be very careful about how you are judging me and my behavior- it reflects on your own belief structure. I am the thorn in their side. And yours.
And I’m having fun with it!
Juicing the Fruits
by James Nimmo
(OKLAHOMA CITY) I’m sure the sham of appearing at the Capitol and giving the impression this is a legislative procedure is exactly what was intended when GOPer Sally Kern and Krew planned their morality proclamation ceremony on July 2 in Oklahoma City.
If she were interested in promoting only morality and not instead, introducing her personal religious restrictions, why isn’t she using her own church, Olivett Baptist, as her backdrop?
As always with the mentally unbalanced words and actions are morphed into absurd definitions and shapes. Lies to support other lies are always invented, regardless of how holy the intent of the lies is supposed to be.
She speaks of divorce as contributing to national decline. How short her memory is for anything except bible verses.
Kern’s patron saint, Ronald Reagan, was divorced, as is Newt Gingrich and Rumbaugh twice each. Sen. Vitter of LA likes diaper sex with paid escorts and Gov. Sandford of SC abandons his family and state duties to amorize in Argentina. Gov. Palin of AK can’t teach her eldest daughter to say simple words like, “No”.
When you don’t set yourself up on a high soap box in the first place and then mistake it for a psychiatrist’s office you don’t have to fall so inevitably far when you come up short in your own life.
Kern should spend more time looking at the fruit falling close to her family tree ( http://tinyurl.com/krahr9 ) before she tries to juice the private lives of others.
J Bruce,
“James- why is handing right back to them what they are putting out not ok?”
Because you don’t fight bigotry with more of the same.
James- why is handing right back to them what they are putting out not ok?