Greetings little creatures, near and far! I’ll be hosting “GENDER PANIC! – literary excursions into otherness”, a reading at Nowhere in the East Village that will focus on writers and writing reflecting gender variance. That’s on Wednesday, February 25th, 8pm, 21+, free. For more info, go to www.firekingpress.com.
Fellow queer writer Vince Sgambati sent me this terrifying link the other day, and although I’ll surprise you with something funny someday, today is not that day. I’m not being a drama queen either—these are the “Lizard People” if ever there were any. I’m certain that this frightening crusade, as perpetuated by no other than fear-driven, desperate conservative Christians, hits closer to home for Vince and his partner, as they adopted a beautiful little girl, who I was lucky to meet at one of the Queer and Catholic readings last September. If she wasn’t happy to have two sweet fathers who love her, then I’m the Virgin Guadalupe! There are people out there working to do anything they can to dissolve, what they consider, “untraditional” families.
For your viewing (dis-) pleasure: http://www.silencingchristians.com/
Speechless: Silencing the Christians (can you believe it?) is an hour-long documentary chronicling the “abuse” being served to Christians who actively challenge the “Homosexual Agenda”; it is brimming and over-pouring with their familiar brand of fear-splattered propaganda. These right-wing Christians claim that this war against the Bible is being perpetuated by the liberal and secular media (maybe this has something to do with the fact that the media is educated?). I already knew how I would react before watching it and would like to share my thoughts—and hopefully hear yours—on this controversial battle between “moral traditionalists” and the queer equality movement.
Speechless: Silencing the Christians immediately throws out a call-to-arms to fellow conservative Christians, claiming that Christian morals, the church itself, freedom of speech—and even children—are being imperiled by the advancement of queer equality. This hysterical heap of privileged white Christian horse-crap is nauseating on every front. These people really believe that they speak the absolute truth and that all opposed to them are hell-bound sinners and criminals. They are unenlightened and trapped in the Dark Ages; they insist that they can save queers with tactics that will turn any queen into a straight, woman-chasing suburban husband. Um, sure. I’ve read various articles on this “deprogramming sensation” and the failure rate is high. Suppressing your sexual desire doesn’t change your sexual orientation, but they can keep believing this if they want to (it complements the rest of their nonsense).
They warn that “traditional values” are under siege and they’re feverishly opposed to gay adoption. They are outraged by the possibility that gays may one day openly serve in the military and claim that if a queer person were to ask for a job at a Christian bookstore they might happen to own, they could be penalized for refusing him/her the job. Watch it if you don’t believe me! Their problem is that they’re not changing with the times, with the rest of the contemporary world they forget other people live in. The narrator (who looks like a girl’s gym teacher) announces that Barack Obama is promising to be a catalyst for the dismantling of these Christian traditions, with his promises to loosen restrictions on gays in the military and elsewhere. This suspiciously sounds like the 22% of the population that supported George W. to his last day. Who else can it be?
Desperation breeds audacity. During the course of the documentary they martyr themselves by using children and old ladies as a means to enrage fellow Christians who really believe that queers are out to hurt cute little Sally and frail, innocent grandma. Seriously. And the men–I’ve never heard a lowlier pack of emasculated, frustrated morons and closet cases in my life. (My boyfriend also pointed out a possible future gay sex scandal candidate, but I will let you decide should you feel the urge.) These people are so hung up about sex that it constantly surfaces in their attempts at proving that all queers are immoral heathens. Their small-mindedness is just pitiful.
So what is their obsession with gay sex, or shall I ask Ted Haggard? Sadomasochistic footage (The Passion of the Christ?) of the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco, of course, surfaces, as does the arrest of Christian protesters at a pride event in Philadelphia, where, as they claim, two 75-year-old women were arrested and almost spent “years in jail” for trying to spread the gospel. Um, take a hint, people. They say that their “freedom of speech” is in jeopardy because of hate crimes legislation, but I doubt that they realize that this kind of legislation came into creation because of unjustified crimes committed against queers that their “teachings” helped to perpetuate.
The word “tolerance” also gets used a lot throughout the film, but you have to wonder how many of these wackos even know the meaning of the word. Going to prison sounds worse than beating someone’s head in, so you tolerate them. Tolerance is used to suggest “acceptance”, but these are two very different words (hint: read other books once in a while). They believe that everyone should live by their archaic, Christian principles, even if you don’t live in Tupelo, Mississippi, and happen to live in, say, Los Angeles. The reason they’re falling behind is that they don’t believe in evolution, to any degree: evolution of their scriptures, in natural history, or in this lifetime.
They’re also projecting all of the violence of their church’s legacy onto the queer rights movement. You have to wonder how many of them know the actual history of their own church. Christianity’s history of justifying violence to spread the gospel and increase the number of Christians in the world is something that they will never be able to shake off, considering how un-Christian it really is. Christian violence is a darker and more sinister stain than any queer version they try to invent and inflate.
Their emphasis on LGBT folk and our “special rights” underscores the basis of their short-sightedness, what people who are neither queer nor conservative Christian are finding bigoted about them. According to them, we do not deserve equal rights because we are not equal to begin with. We are somewhat human, but not deserving of equality. So when laws elevate our rights to match theirs, they’re considered “special rights”. Well, I’ll be damned!
But what I think frightens them most is the diversifying of America; they are adverse to other religions and ravenously xenophobic (afraid of foreigners). White supremacy is masked with religion. These people live isolated, narrow-minded lives, and this is their choice. White America (which was always a bigoted illusion) is becoming increasingly ethnic, with Latinos chopping the charts. People move to the USA from all over the world—Buddhists, Muslims, atheists—non-Christians. Their white Christian privilege is what is really under siege and the confines of their teachings do not allow for reform. As religious strictures lose their power of persuasion amongst more educated generations, the weight of their arsenal is reduced.
But to claim that queers are responsible for what they see as “the disintegration of society” and the “corruption of children” is simply intolerable. They mean to say they breed perfect children? My youngest brother’s father died shortly after he was born and my weekly time with him is the closest to that relationship that he has right now—I am an asset. These evil and divisive folks are on the same crusade they started hundreds of years ago, except that this time, they insist the violence is being hurled at them. They claim they’re protecting the safety of the public by fighting queer equality and whatever they seem to think they have in common with a shy, miraculous and compassionate Jew eludes me. And although these conservative “Christians” are far from harmless, I suspect that their latest calls for action signal large-scale changes in the country and world around them, changes that they are not accepting. Evil.
To receive my weekly Thursday posts straight to your email, register here:
http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=CharlieVazquez
I recently made the mistake of starting a religious debate with a friend of mine who is a Christian Scientist. It was truculent of me, but to be completely honest I’m only half repentant. He compared his religion to my (homo)sexuality and said liberals often have the double standard of promoting gay rights while practicing religious intolerance. On the one hand I can see his point, but on the other, I DO have that double standard and there’s a reason for it: I can see valid reasons to oppose organized religion and to think that overall it does more harm than good, while I don’t recognize any valid reasons to oppose people because they are gay rather than straight. Is that just because I’m gay? Well, I have straight friends who seem to feel the same way. Has my friend ever had someone yell “faggot” out a car window at him because of his religion? Was he beaten up or persecuted in high school? I don’t think he was. So, I’m uncomfortable with the comparison of religion and sexuality, and I remain only half contrite (and a pantheist at best).
Quoting you Glam Rock, “Has my friend ever had someone yell “faggot” out a car window at him because of his religion? Was he beaten up or persecuted in high school? I don’t think he was.”
Um, exactly. And churches are exempted from paying taxes as well, they should have less room to gripe than most. The problem is that Christians in America have enjoyed a long period of privilege and cannot handle the fact that queers have flown out of the closet en masse to say “no more”. If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen is what I say. I don’t feel in the least bit sorry for people who choose ignorance over common sense, and people who have doled out so many horrible actions to gentle people the world over, going back a long time. Thanks for your comment darling.
And I don’t mean all Christians of course. I am fortunate to have been raised by very kind and conscientious Catholics
Yeah, I’m not a religion-basher either. I was partly raised through a good section of my childhood by Seventh-Day Adventist babysitters who lived on a dairy farm (vegetarians, so no slaughtering) on the edge of the small Minnesota town I grew up in. I remember them very fondly and their simple, earthy existence forms a sort of ideal in the background of my mind and memory. I don’t remember them ever pushing religion on my nonreligious, single mother, who worked nights as a bartender while putting herself through college and raising me and my sister. Those are the kind of religious people I love. They don’t preach, they just practice.
Good news! Station announced it was pulling the program:http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/campaign/thankstomi/x7sbxuu9aj5jk35d?
But they still keep coming: http://www.pamshouseblend.com/
Scroll down to Focus on the Family Pushing its Ani-Gay Adoption Agenda
Christians have enjoyed a long period of privilege in America, and they’re still enjoying in other places. In Spain they don’t say homosexual families are “untraditional families”, they say they aren’t families.
It’s ridiculous. Christians are bullying queers. Although I hate conservative Catholicism (sorry, but that’s the way it is), I don’t hate anyone just because he/she is catholic. The extremist catholics hate every homosexual. They hate people. Queers don’t insult catholics, catholics do that.
In a Spanish blog I read this: “Pobres homosexuales, todo el daño que les estamos haciendo al no hacerles ver que NO son normales…” What the fuck!!! I wanna have the rights every person should have, but I don’t wanna be normal, I don’t wanna be a clone…
Ah, and in Spain, there are some designers, they make posters. One of them, talking ’bout tolerance, says:
“No nos toleren. O nos respetan o se van al carajo. Buenos días”. Respect is more important than tolerance.
Other one says, talking about normality: “Soy puta. Soy negro. Soy marica. Soy moro. Soy sudaca. Soy mujer. El diferente eres tú, imbécil”.
http://herederosdejuanpalomo.blogspot.com/
Tolerance gets thrown around a lot as a synonym for acceptance, but they are not the same. I tolerate my roommates inability to get dishes into the dishwasher, but I accept her for the forgetful person that she is.
To those who are so humble as to grace me with your tolerance, I say fuck you. I do not want to be simply tolerated. Tolerance includes a connotation of annoyance or unwantedness, and if tolerance is the best you can do then forget it.
Ooh, you guys are cooking now! Thanks so much, more fun stuff to come!