The good, the bad, and the ugly… we endure them together.
One of the interesting stories in the news this week was that of Utah state senator Chris Buttars and his radically offensive comments about gays:
What is the morals of a gay person? You can’t answer that because anything goes.
Actually, Senator Buttars, you can’t answer that because the question is grammatically incorrect.
Anyways, I posted this video on Twitter and Facebook, and a friend remarked to me that it was because of stories like this that he doesn’t have much hope for society improving in the way it relates to gay people. I was proud to share with him news today that Senator Buttars was getting a little taste of justice:
Utah State Sen. Buttars Axed from Committees Over Anti-Gay Remarks (Towleroad)
Take a few minutes and watch the video of the press conference. As a member of the queer community, I definitely feel at least a little vindicated by the actions Senate President Michael Waddoups took today. If Buttars ends up resigning, I wouldn’t pity him much for that either.
I think this is an important reminder that even though there are a lot of vocal, hateful, ignorant people out there working to demonize the queer community, we do have allies. There are people who are willing to react to such hurtful comments and stand up for us, their friends and neighbors. I don’t like that we have to rely on them sometimes, but I like knowing that they will support us.
The more important lesson to consider is that we endure these challenges and successes as a community. Not everybody might be as vocal an advocate, but the pain of defeat and joy of triumph is much more a universal experience. I’m currently reading Howard Zinn’s You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train and I found this quote quite appropriate for today:
The reward for participating in a movement for social justice is not the prospect of future victory. It is the exhilaration of standing together with other people, taking risks together, enjoying small triumphs and enduring disheartening setbacks—together.
I’m glad to know that there are so many of us willing to speak out for change, whether on our own behalf or others’. We can all work together to make the world a better place and support each other on the way.
Friday Fundamentalist Farce File #1
I mentioned last week that one of my readers signed me up to receive updates from OneNewsNow, a joke of a news organization associated with the American Family Association that provides the most conservatively biased accounts of news you can imagine. Now, you don’t have to.
They claim to pull their stories from AP News, but it is SO easy to see from the language that quite a bit of bias is injected. It has been so amusing to read these newsletters throughout the week that I thought I’d start a new feature where I showcase some of the most absurd articles so that my liberal, freethinking blog audience can experience the same laughter. All of the following headlines appeared in emails I now receive daily from the OneNewsNow Editor. Here, now, is the first edition of Zack’s Friday Fundamentalist Farce File.
2/14/2009 – Young woman booted from team for being straight
She claims the coach, who is allegedly lesbian, took issue with her heterosexuality.
Also worth noting is that 63.40% of OneNewsNow readers are most concerned “that the mainstream media would be all over this if the roles were reversed (i.e., scholarship revoked because player was gay).” Of course, the OneNewsNow version omits the fact that an appeals committee upheld the decision.
Click here to see the original AP story.
2/15/2009 – Pro-life pastor prepares for sentencing
“His approach was simply to carry a sign that said ‘Jesus Loves You. Can We Help?’ and offering those who wanted it some information about alternatives to abortion,” Howard explains.
If you do a search for Walter Hoye, you’ll find a whole lot of folks praying for him. It was hard to find news about the story that wasn’t overly biased. What actually happened is he violated “The Bubble Law.” Even though this source has its own bias, here is an article detailing what happened a bit more objectively:
Pro-Life Pastor Walter Hoye Sentenced To Jail (The Voice)
02/16/2009 – Transgender janitor shocks elem. school parents
Camenker believes parents are also fearful of liberals in the community and finds it troubling there is a climate of fear against speaking out. He adds that on the reverse side of the letter, school officials listed radical homosexual websites in order for parents to get more information on “transgender issues.”
The worst part is probably the survey about how the school should deal with questions about transgender employees: 37.38% feel the school should “Avoid the issue – dismiss employees who undergo sex-change surgery/therapy”. I have to at least give the article a little credit for using the appropriate language to discuss transgender identities, minus all those obnoxious quotes, of course.
02/17/2009 – Why no ‘nuclear’ push in stimulus package?
“So the government wants to force wind and solar energy on us,” she deduces — then explains some negatives associated with the two technologies.
“The frightening thing is these are two energy sources that have not proven themselves to be efficient or reliable — and the people who are going to pay for this is the American public,” says Watson. “Especially if President Obama is able to bankrupt the coal industry, as he has indicated during the election that he would like to do.”
I don’t think I need to say any more. Wait, there’s one more little gem:
With nuclear energy, Watson says one does not have to worry about cloudy days or days with little to no wind — as one obviously would have to with solar or wind energy.
There seem to be a lot of bright folks over at the Independent Women’s Forum. I don’t know how you can advocate for feminism without challenging gender roles and patriarchy, but they must have convinced themselves that they can.
02/18/2009 – Book appeals to atheists, Christians alike
“And all I want [is] for people…to be open-minded – if they’re sitting on the fence – to realize that it’s very easy to prove God’s existence. You cannot have a creation without a Creator; you cannot have a painting without a painter.”
Sorry, Ray, inductive reasoning does not equate to evidence. This man has absolutely no understanding of science or atheism. If you need more evidence of Ray Comfort’s insanity, watch this enlightening interview if you dare.
02/19/2009 – NASA official ‘off the deep end’ on coal
Another article about foolish perspectives on sustainability!
James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, recently called coal-fired power plants “death factories” and the trains that transport coal “death trains.” The remarks — made in an article published in The Observer – included the statement that “the dirtiest trick that governments play on their citizens is the pretense that they are working on ‘clean coal.’”
Strong words, but it makes sense, right? Apparently, Hansen was pretty far out there by suggesting this. Just how bad were these comments? Tell us, why is he so wrong??
The comments are shocking, Morano points out, because coal is one of the greatest liberators of mankind in the history of the planet. “If you look back in time, carbon-based energy has brought lower infant mortality, longer life expectancy, modern infrastructure, running water, electricity,” he notes. “It’s brought modern dentistry; it’s brought a whole host of medical advances.”
Great, so we should keep destroying our environment for the sake of teeth. Clean coal is pretty amazing technology…
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Wasn’t that fun? It actually took a while to compile just one article per day, but I am happy to contribute to the wide world of debunking and mocking propaganda!
Why I Work in LGBT Affairs
It’s simple, really. I want people to be happy.
If you have time, watch yesterday’s episode of Tyra. Jeremy has the videos laid out nicely over at Good As You (via JMG).
Basically, we’re introduced to a lot of gay self-haters. These are the poor folks that those cruel Ex-Gay Camps try to recruit to drain all their money and traumatize their emotions.
The basic problem is this: society sucks. We have a long way to go in terms of all kinds of equality, respect, and appreciation. But the problem isn’t any person’s identity.
You should be able to be yourself, be happy, and have meaningful relationships. The guy in the third clip, Elian, who had been married for five years is a great example. While part of me feels like he is just tapping heterosexual privilege, I also respect that he’s found some happiness outside of the norm. He knows he is gay, but he’s happy with his wife. He knows he doesn’t have to be, and ultimately he doesn’t recommend it. It was a special circumstance, he went with it, and he’s happy.
Being gay means I know what kind of relationship will bring me the most happiness: one with a guy. It means life is harder. It means I will spend my whole life defending my family from prejudice. It means being scared to hold my partner’s hand in public. It means a lot of things, but the most important thing it means is being HONEST with myself about who I am.
I think the guy in the second clip (Gregg) is the best example of what so many young gay people need to see. Your sexual orientation does not have to define who you are, how you act, who you spend time with, or any other stereotypical nonsense. I think I’m pretty lucky to be gay, because by overcoming the challenge of coming out, I can be more open and honest about who I want to be without feeling so compelled to conform to the gender binary. Many times I do, but I do for the sake of being me, not of being “straight-acting.”
I also understand how challenging it is to find monogamy in the gay community. I don’t think percentage-wise it’s any harder than the straight community; it’s just that our numbers are a lot smaller and we have a lot more negative media messages to fight against. Here I am: I’m 23 and gay and single… and I want commitment! I know that scares away a lot of gay men, but I don’t care, because I don’t have to conform to a hook-up culture to be happy. I have to find someone who is confident enough to resist those gay cultural pressures the same way I and so many others do.
It was my college experience that helped me find comfort with myself, and the confidence to be myself in the face of an adversarial society. I look forward to the opportunity to help young people like Shane (clip 1) realize that they don’t need to change who they are, only how they feel about themselves.
We should all be free to be ourselves. What is gained by not?
A podcast w/ Peterson Toscano!
