HRC Punts, Football Kicks Back
HRC holds a ‘State of the Movement’ panel tonite at the HRC Headquarters in Washington, DC. The Panel will be moderated by Sean Bugg of Metro Weekly.
The problem is many think that HRC is a notorious Blue Team memeber pretending to be a GLBT rights organization.
While this is debated, “kevinbegood” a regular blender at PHB came up with a scathing and undeniably on point argument against the HRC or any other group that pretends to be doing a lot for the GLBT community but doesn’t have much to show for their efforts.
Comments after the flip.
When I read this stuff it makes me wonder if some of these people are living under a rock . . . . . .like “Gay and lesbian voices are being heard in the media and throughout corporate America. And the militarys Dont Ask, Dont Tell policy may get revisited in Congress.”We are? You could have fooled me. Maybe these people need to get out of the city and visit more of America, because in my neck of the woods, gay and lesbian voices are NOT being heard in the media. Instead, what we get are constant debates among heterosexuals about our “rights,” as if we are some house servant banished to the goddamned kitchen who isn’t even awarded enough human dignity to participate in the discussion. I don’t know about the rest of you, but in my area, any right wing nutcase who likely hasn’t knowingly ever met a gay person can get an op-ed in the local newspaper openly defining our lives as vile and dangerous. . .but any gay person with the courage to respond is told to water it down so as not to offend the con-servatives.
Where are these leaders getting off saying that OUR voices are being heard in the media? Just because the heteros decide we’re a nice little issue to bash around for awhile (like Britney or Anna Nicole) doesn’t mean they are doing it with any sense of ethical justice or journalistic commitment to “fair and balanced.” My own local newspaper has a wingnut columnist who was ranting about the evil gays before he ever met one. And the double standard is quite clear - heteros have the right to an “opinion” about a subject without any goddamned knowledge or information, but the gays have to show a reason (which must be screened by heterosexuals) to respond to whatever manufactured crap that newspaper wants to publish about us.
In practically every state which had a constitutional amendment for the heterosexuals to vote on our rights, there were no gay voices being heard outside the gay enclaves of the cities. From the very beginning, when Missouri passed their horrid amendment, the places where we did the BEST were St. Louis and Kansas City, while we were treated as space aliens in much of the rural press. The failure of our own organizations to recognize this and to do something about that situation just caused it to repeat over and over in other states - and our answer? Well, we need to better “educate” people about our basic “humanness” and how not having “rights” somehow damages our lives. Excuse me?
So I’m supposed to run around like some beggar child or some fucking house servant hoping that some heterosexual elitist who claims I chose to fall in love with another guy can come to grips with the notion that I had no more choice in the matter than his peepee did getting excited over a set of boobs. And then I’m supposed to believe they are gonna buy it when they made it all up for themselves to feel superior in the first place?
This is how the state of affairs has unfolded for our community. The Right (particularly the Religious Right) makes up any little creative, manipulative, deceptive smokescreen they want and it gets publicized all over the place. . .and if we are granted the right to respond, we get a nice little defensive quote in the story. How, exactly, are we supposed to “educate” people that we are fucking American citizens and human beings who have had our bodies robbed from our graves and been denied the goddamned dignity of visiting our partners in the hospital? It isn’t like we haven’t tried that angle, over and over and over and over - and it just ain’t gonna work when the public is more interested in having a dramatic scapegoat.
What we don’t have enough of are people who are willing to stop standing in the kitchen making dessert to serve the heteros while they talk about us at the dining room table. Just exactly how much progress have we really made when stupid Tim Hardaway can publicly voice that he doesn’t think a gay man should play basketball because the breeder boys can’t protect their own peepees in the showers? Isn’t that EXACTLY the same excuse - the same argument - used 15 years ago when the stupid “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was put into effect to appease the insecure heterosexual men?
You know, at some point we are going to have to be willing to stand up and make the statement “Look - we are either full American citizens or we aren’t. This isn’t about your chosen cafeteria “religious” belief - this ain’t about YOUR stupid peepee insecurity. We are either equal citizens are we aren’t, and if we aren’t, then stop running around telling the world how FREE Americans are and how we have all the same goddamned rights as you.” Period.
There should be no more of this pandering bullshit that “our voices are being heard” when I’m supposed to be forced to rely on some sympathetic straight person to represent me in the media and then the comments have to be tempered so not to offend the con-artist con-servatives who can lie with impunity and make up anything they want about us in a headline. To me, this is the same travesty that allows these fucking constitutional amendments to even get on a ballot in the first place - the lying argument about “this ain’t about the gays - we are just trying to “protect” marriage” as if hundreds of statutes will somehow lose their effectiveness in governing their rights and their lives if WE have any access to them. Our media has cooperated with that charade time and time again, in state after state, and we have been reduced to hoping for a few heterosexual writers who “get it” enough to speak out on behalf of our lives.
It isn’t because we aren’t articulate enough or educated enough to represent our own voices. It’s partially because we have a cabal of mealy-mouth organizations who try harder not to offend the straight white little massa than they do to ever take a real stand. . .and as long as we play that game, our progress is going to be limited and we will always be second-class house faggots.
by: kevinbgoode @ Tue Feb 20, 2007 at 08:33:29 AM EST [ — Do parent link –>Reply ]
This could not have been better said. Thank you “Kevinbegoode” for this stand up pearl of thought and wisdom.
RSS 20. February 2007 (11:16)Filed under: Cross-Posted, Debate, HRC, Pam's House Blend
