Feb 01, 2005 23:44
I've heard people say that two women holding hands on daytime television is obscene. Personaly, I think that bigotry is obscene.
When I went to high school in the suburbs, I accepted as granted the way things were. I accepted as a fact of life that the fag kid gets cussed at and spat on, and I thought of growing up in West Texas or Wyoming or fifty years ago and thought "at least it's not that bad for me; it could have been worse." And then I came to college, a town where people are more educated and rational, and therefore more liberal, and I was treated as a person with dignity. I didn't have to watch my back anymore. I was treated as if I deserved the same respect that everyone else did, and the fact that I was gay and different slipped into the back of my mind to fade away. I stood up straighter and strengthened my voice. It was in college that I realized the way that things could and should be. So when I look back at my old situation, I now see it with much more anger than I did then, because I now realize how wrong it was. And when I'm around those intolerant people, I don't feel like making life one bit easier for them. Thinking about it makes me want to approach them, talk loudly in front of them with an exaggerated lisp, flit my wrists at them, lick my boyfriend's tonsils in public and talk about how much my ass hurts from last night, to, in a phrase, "flaunt it," to a degree much more extreme than would ever come naturally to me. I want to flaunt because I'm angry, and I hope it makes those people uncomfortable when I do. If it makes them uneasy, if it makes them nauseous, if it makes them crawl in their skin with agony, then good. Good! If I can make them feel so upset by leading my life in a way that doesn't even relate to them, then good, that's what they deserve for being bigots.
The College Republicans at CU are planning to have a "Straight Pride Celebration" sometime this year, date to be announced. At first I almost liked the idea, thinking "hey, if they can be proud of who they are, more power to them; that's what gay pride is all about!" I thought I might even drop by, which I knew might piss some of them off but I would be going to make a point, to show that gay pride isn't what they think. But then I read more about what they had to say about their celebration, what their specific statements about "straight pride" are, and realized that they are definitely planning a hatefest, planning to "promote normalcy and morality" and "protect the sanctity of marriage." Honestly, how could I not have assumed it would be that way?
I hope they do it. Forty years from now, people will look back at the old photographs of the Campus Republicans and see burning crosses and clan robes. The protest is supposed to be a matter of intellectual freedom, a matter of diversity of opinion and thought. Let me ask, then; since when was bigotry just a matter of personal opinion? We are not talking about Social Security reform or adjusting an income tax bracket. This is personal. It's a personal attack against real, living people who have already faced a lot of shit in their lives. They're going to stage this event and it's going to start a riot.
I wouldn't say that Republicans are bigots, because each individual is different. But the official party platform is very bigoted, and anyone who votes for or supports the party knowing its platform is essentially saying that they either 1) agree with the bigotry or 2) believe that bigotry is something that can be overlooked to other issues. There is no way around it; it's a tautology, in the most rational sense.
Bullshit.
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