Doin' Time in Bartlett, TN
Wow, I feel so honored to have been able to attend the rally today outside of the Love in Action compound. What an amazing crowd assembled of all ages!
I met a father with his bisexual teenage daughter, Dr. Arnold Drake, the former national president of PFLAG, old friends (Jenness, Jonathan, Len) and new ones (Alex, Christopher, Michael).
I was especially impressed with the integrity of the protest organizers. When a TV camera man jockeyed to get a photo of Zach exiting the program, protesters discouraged him (and even distracted him) from getting the shot. The protesters I spoke with seek to protect Zach and his family's privacy. This is not about focusing on one teen, but on a system of injustice that seeks to target and recruit all queer teens.
Absent for the most part were people of color.
I see a racial divide when it comes to the "ex-gay" movement. From my experience the majority of people who run these programs and attend them are white males.
Why? Several reasons, some of which I don't fully understand, but when we look at the depth of hate and resistance towards same-gender loving people, we need to consider what fuels the negativity.
A few anti-queer verses in the Bible and the "ick" factor are not enough to sustain the extreme level of homophobia in the world. Other factors must feed the violence. I wonder what other folks think is behind it all.
Please leave your comments.
posted by Peterson Toscano @ 10:25 PM
8 Comments:
Haha! Love the T-shirt.
It's an interesting point you raise. I'm really not sure. I think there may be a fear of rape / losing control / hunters being hunted type thing going on.
Low to medium levels of homophobia are often expressed as "I'm fine with it as long as they don't come on to me," or similar terms.
Its good to hear about the protestors' integrity. Its important that Zach doesn't become some kind of poster boy for this issue.
I don't understand homophobia either. I suspect there is a fear of the unknown, the breaking of all the taboos we have been brought up with. I know for me, I was somewhat curious when I met a gay person for the first time at uni because I barely imagined such strange exotic creatures existed - much less, living next door and going to lectures with me!!!(They were talked about in church yes, terrible sinners, - but the concept was an alien to me as a foreign religion!)
But that was my whole university experience for the first year - suddenly realising that the rest of the world aren't Ulster protestants :D. (I'm sure there are gay Ulster protestants, but they tend to stay in their closets for obvious reasons!)
I suspect people are scared by something they find alien, imagining that gay people are somehow another kind of species. What most people need to see are gay people being themselves so as to realise that they are people too.
Perhaps it's just the continuation of strong-father modeled behavior? The only way to show their own worth is to oppress others, and we're the latest, greatest threat to God and Authority?
I also think it's easier to persecute gay people because we CAN go back in the closet and pretend to be something else; something women and racial minorities have a much harder time with. That's why exgay programs exist, and why they are such an important part of the fundamentalist antigay movement.
Congrats on attending the protest; wish I could've been there.
I read an article in the Village Voice a couple of years ago that touched a little bit on this issue -- not about people of colour but about the "gay predator" idea.
I blogged about it here.
These are amazing responses! They begin to reveal the complexity of the issue.
Others can speak to this better than I do, but actually I have found that in the black community, many LGBT people exist openly or nearly so, particularly in church.
Wendi Thomas of the Commercial Appeal said over lunch (and it is not the first time I heard the same statement), that if all the gay people left, the black church, the tenor section would be wiped out.
I think the black community has been called on to support gay marriage, another right and privilege for the gay (white) community and may be reacting to that in part.
I welcome the thoughts of wiser and sharper minds on this.
Regan, thanks for weighing in. Wow, ask and ye shall receive. I'm not only impressed with the clarity and depth of what you say but also with the logical way you present it. Yes, we must connect!
Um, Regan, I don't know how to reach you. You (and anyone else of course) can e-mail me at p2son@earthlink.net
That "father with the bisexual teen daughter" was my husband. I made the shirt for him.
(I, alas, had to work)
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