So I'm well aware that y'all are enormous Oprah fans who never miss a show. But just in case your DVR broke down yesterday... on the Oprah show, a reverend, in response to a question from a gay man, said that "being gay is a gift from God." According to the linked article, this set off quite a discussion at the Oprah Winfrey show message boards.
And because I have much less of a life than I'm sure you do, dear reader (all 5 of you), I waded through some of the comments. The thread begins with a woman from the UK expressing her disapproval of the statement. It then, as I'm sure you would expect, turns into a veritable clearinghouse for Bible-thumpers, with an occasional reasonable voice poking through.
What almost interests me more, however, is that the 18th post was from one of the moderators of the message board, reminding everyone to respect each others views... and that the terms and conditions of the website prohibit people from defaming or insulting people, or posting abusive or hateful comments. Again, that was post #18.
(The following are a random assortment of comments, helpfully paraphrased by me... unless I use quotes... obviously):
Post #26: Leviticus gets dragged out, queers get called an abomination.
Post #30: More like a gift from satan.
Post #34: Knows a lot of gays, all of them are miserable! Can't be a gift...
Post #36: "Women have a whole [sic]... Men have a stick." Not really offensive, but couldn't resist mentioning it.
Post #61: Lifestyle's a choice!!!
Post #63: "Grave sin."
Post #74: Mentions murderers, rapists, child molesters, cannibals... I have to admit I had a hard time following this one. But abomination was definitely in there.
Post #77: "This is like giving [gay young people] a green light."
Post #78: Queers compared to alcoholics and people with anger management issues.
Post #120: More rapists and child molesters.
I could go on (really, I could... there are like 18 more pages of this), but I think you get the point... and the site keeps crashing anyway.
Ok, so here's my question: In what universe are the above comments not insulting, abusive, or hateful?
And I don't mean to just pick on Oprah... this happens on a lot of other sites that have comment sections and message boards and happen to post something about the queers. But what really kind of aggravates me about this is that a moderator felt the need to reiterate the terms of the site because it was obvious that people were/were about to post unkind things... but since that moderator's post, there's been no enforcement of any kind (at least not that I can tell).
I always find myself coming back to the notion that maybe poster #34's legions of gay friends are miserable because they have to continually see and hear crap like this.
Thanks, Oprah.
***
Moving right along. I have to give this article a mention because one of the author's arguments against giving gays the right to marry is this:
"There is also the danger that misusing terminology long agreed upon in western thought will impoverish the language to the point that it is incapable of expressing nuanced thoughts and concepts."
Gays marrying will destroy the English language as we know it and lead us all to become idiots.
Yeah.
***
Obama watch! Our next president has appointed another gay! This one will serve as the deputy director of the White House Office of Public Liaison.
I like to consider myself a fairly intelligent human being, but I'd kind of appreciate it if Obama would appoint a queer to some position where I could understand what the hell the job is.
***
This has been floating around for a couple days, but from the AP: 9 men in Senegal have been sentenced to 8 years in jail for "unnatural acts and criminal conspiracy."
(That means they're gay.)
While admittedly an improvement over the Gambian president who wants to decapitate all gays, I can't say I'm exactly encouraged.
One of the problems with the LGBT rights movement... wait... One of the MANY problems with the LGBT rights movement (at least in the US) is that it tends to be focused on only the US. Perhaps understandable, but a lot of really bad things are happening in a lot of places, and the fact that no one is aware of it is kind of frustrating to me.
***
And finally, something not gay. So I received my student loan check today, and am somewhat ashamed to admit that my first thought was: What can I buy? I managed to restrain myself somewhat, but did end up downloading "Visiter" by the Dodos. I had been a bit wary of the cd from the snippets I had heard on the iTunes. But enough people recommended them to me that I decided to check it out... and it's all kinds of awesome. Although it incorporates a lot of elements from the music I love, it still manages to sound very different... and I mean that in the best possible way. If you're interested in learning more, here's the Pitchfork review.
Until some other time.
Cheers.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Today in depressing gay news
Alright. Since I've started this blog, I figure I might as well use it. Normally, I would post these things to Facebook, but let's take this format for a test drive, shall we?
In Ohio just after Xmas, Nathan Runkle, 24, was attacked outside of a gay club. Nathan started his own non-profit animal rights organization, Mercy for Animals, when he was 15. That organization issued a press release, stating that Runkle sustained "two facial fractures, a broken nose, a deviated septum, and severe facial bruising." You can see the rest of the press release, which includes more details on what happened, here (the man who assaulted him has not been found yet):
http://queeranimals.wordpress.com/2009/01/02/gay-animal-rights-activist-attacked
I think that it's a really sad state of affairs when my first reaction to this horrific attack was "At least he's still alive." And I can't help but think of my old friend, Mike Huckabee. For those of you who don't remember, Huckabee made the incredibly asinine statement a few months ago that gay rights aren't civil rights because not enough queers have been assaulted or killed. You can refresh your memory of that here:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/18/huckabee-gay-rights
Since Huckabee made that statement, there seems to have been an upswing in violence against LGBT individuals. Perhaps some of the Huck's followers took his comments as a challenge?
If you're interested in reading more, a blogger at the Huffington Post wrote an essay discussing the attack on Nathan and other recent assaults. You can see that here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mikko-alanne/a-hate-crime-you-wont-see_b_155665.html
***
Speaking of hate crimes, in 2007, Sean William Kennedy was attacked outside of a South Carolina bar. He died from his injuries. His attacker was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, and sentenced to an extremely short prison sentence (5 years, which the judge suspended to 3... and time already served would count). You can read about that here:
http://www.foxcarolina.com/news/16570367/detail.html
When I originally posted about this on Facebook, I said "Evidently murdering a queer in South Carolina only gets you a slap on the wrist."
Well, I was wrong. It gets you even less than that.
Word came today that, thanks to South Carolina's early parole system, the man who murdered Sean Kennedy could get paroled as early as NEXT MONTH. Total time served? 8 damn months.
8 months. That's... so unbelievable to me that I don't even know what to say about it.
There's a lot of things going on here, but, honestly, I have a hard time faulting South Carolina's parole system. If that's how it works, that's how it works. What I DO have a hard time with, however, are the aspects of our society that caused a grand jury to refuse to hand down an indictment for murder for what was obviously a hate crime (after all... I don't know how much more clear-cut it can be when a person attacks a gay man while calling him a "faggot") and a judge to sentence the murderer to a ridiculously lenient sentence. That I have a problem with.
Other things that I have a problem with? A media that steadfastly ignores these crimes (although I guess I should be thankful for this, or I'd have to listen to some evangelical nut on the news talking about how queer=sin... since the media can never cover anything LGBT-related without allowing someone who believes that I'm worse than Hitler to have air time), people like Mike Huckabee (I know, I know... but he has it coming) who manage to scapegoat and then marginalize a whole community of people being assaulted and killed all around the world for political gain, and LGBT individuals who pause for a moment (if even that) upon hearing of a murder like this and then retreat back into their worlds of clubbing and sex. One of the things that I'll never understand is how hearing about things like this doesn't motivate more people to get involved in the LGBT movement.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I really feel like every single LGBT individual (and our straight allies) needs to be a part of this struggle. Equal rights can't be procured by a small handful of people "doing all the work." It's not just "activists" who need to be involved. Everyone does. This is supposed to be a MOVEMENT. As it stands now, it's more like a gentle rustling in the breeze. If that.
But that argument is for another day. (I bet all three of you who read this can't wait for that posting!) I'm getting off my soapbox now.
Anyway, Sean Kennedy's mom is trying to start a letter writing campaign to keep her son's murderer in jail. If you're interested in learning more, click here:
http://seanslastwish.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/action-alert-from-seans-last-wish
***
In other news, Obama's picked a gay to be a secretary! Awesome.
I'm being a bit facetious here. I'm thrilled that Obama can include queers in his administration in positions that have no impact on policy-making.
I'm probably being a bit harder on him than I really mean to be, but I think the above items made me a tad grouchy. If you're interested, read more here:
http://www.gaypolitics.com/2009/01/05/obama-names-gay-director-of-office-of-management-and-administration/
Cheers.
In Ohio just after Xmas, Nathan Runkle, 24, was attacked outside of a gay club. Nathan started his own non-profit animal rights organization, Mercy for Animals, when he was 15. That organization issued a press release, stating that Runkle sustained "two facial fractures, a broken nose, a deviated septum, and severe facial bruising." You can see the rest of the press release, which includes more details on what happened, here (the man who assaulted him has not been found yet):
http://queeranimals.wordpress.com/2009/01/02/gay-animal-rights-activist-attacked
I think that it's a really sad state of affairs when my first reaction to this horrific attack was "At least he's still alive." And I can't help but think of my old friend, Mike Huckabee. For those of you who don't remember, Huckabee made the incredibly asinine statement a few months ago that gay rights aren't civil rights because not enough queers have been assaulted or killed. You can refresh your memory of that here:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/11/18/huckabee-gay-rights
Since Huckabee made that statement, there seems to have been an upswing in violence against LGBT individuals. Perhaps some of the Huck's followers took his comments as a challenge?
If you're interested in reading more, a blogger at the Huffington Post wrote an essay discussing the attack on Nathan and other recent assaults. You can see that here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mikko-alanne/a-hate-crime-you-wont-see_b_155665.html
***
Speaking of hate crimes, in 2007, Sean William Kennedy was attacked outside of a South Carolina bar. He died from his injuries. His attacker was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, and sentenced to an extremely short prison sentence (5 years, which the judge suspended to 3... and time already served would count). You can read about that here:
http://www.foxcarolina.com/news/16570367/detail.html
When I originally posted about this on Facebook, I said "Evidently murdering a queer in South Carolina only gets you a slap on the wrist."
Well, I was wrong. It gets you even less than that.
Word came today that, thanks to South Carolina's early parole system, the man who murdered Sean Kennedy could get paroled as early as NEXT MONTH. Total time served? 8 damn months.
8 months. That's... so unbelievable to me that I don't even know what to say about it.
There's a lot of things going on here, but, honestly, I have a hard time faulting South Carolina's parole system. If that's how it works, that's how it works. What I DO have a hard time with, however, are the aspects of our society that caused a grand jury to refuse to hand down an indictment for murder for what was obviously a hate crime (after all... I don't know how much more clear-cut it can be when a person attacks a gay man while calling him a "faggot") and a judge to sentence the murderer to a ridiculously lenient sentence. That I have a problem with.
Other things that I have a problem with? A media that steadfastly ignores these crimes (although I guess I should be thankful for this, or I'd have to listen to some evangelical nut on the news talking about how queer=sin... since the media can never cover anything LGBT-related without allowing someone who believes that I'm worse than Hitler to have air time), people like Mike Huckabee (I know, I know... but he has it coming) who manage to scapegoat and then marginalize a whole community of people being assaulted and killed all around the world for political gain, and LGBT individuals who pause for a moment (if even that) upon hearing of a murder like this and then retreat back into their worlds of clubbing and sex. One of the things that I'll never understand is how hearing about things like this doesn't motivate more people to get involved in the LGBT movement.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I really feel like every single LGBT individual (and our straight allies) needs to be a part of this struggle. Equal rights can't be procured by a small handful of people "doing all the work." It's not just "activists" who need to be involved. Everyone does. This is supposed to be a MOVEMENT. As it stands now, it's more like a gentle rustling in the breeze. If that.
But that argument is for another day. (I bet all three of you who read this can't wait for that posting!) I'm getting off my soapbox now.
Anyway, Sean Kennedy's mom is trying to start a letter writing campaign to keep her son's murderer in jail. If you're interested in learning more, click here:
http://seanslastwish.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/action-alert-from-seans-last-wish
***
In other news, Obama's picked a gay to be a secretary! Awesome.
I'm being a bit facetious here. I'm thrilled that Obama can include queers in his administration in positions that have no impact on policy-making.
I'm probably being a bit harder on him than I really mean to be, but I think the above items made me a tad grouchy. If you're interested, read more here:
http://www.gaypolitics.com/2009/01/05/obama-names-gay-director-of-office-of-management-and-administration/
Cheers.
In which I pause to reflect on withstanding another year.
Alright, so I’m a tad late in posting this, but I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the past year before I abandon it in a trash bin and move on with my life. What follows is a brief synopsis of the lessons/important points I’m going to take away from 2008. These are in no particular order, but I will say that I do think Number 1 is a particularly keen insight.
1) If you have a panic attack while driving on I-40, it’s best to pull off the road.
2) I’m a sucker for a man with a guitar, a nasal singing voice, and ridiculous amounts of tape hiss. (On the off chance he ever stumbles across this, I’d like to take a moment to formally offer my hand in marriage to John Darnielle. Just let me know John! I’ll be waiting!)
3) The fact that I had to actually utter the phrase “I’m not saying I’m against the restorative power of song” in one of my classes was probably the final nail in the coffin of what was left of my respect for social work.
4) More people came over to my house in the first two months that I had a Wii than in the entire year before the purchase. Yet another indication of where I place in the hierarchy of fun things to do. (And no, I don’t mean that in a sexual way. Mostly.)
5) If you make your Facebook status updates long enough, and update them often enough, they’ll eventually amass a following.
6) As evidenced by Obama’s win, real change can happen. As evidenced as by his selection of Rick Warren, it’s never as much change as I’d like.
7) Every single year (and 2008 was no exception), my ability to engage other human beings in a conversation drops dramatically. At the rate I’m going, by the time I’m 30 I’ll be communicating solely in non sequitors and saliva bubbles.
8) Certain members of the LGBT community need a real swift, hard kick in the ass… and I’m doubtful that Prop 8 is going to be enough for any real, sustained change in attitude.
9) If enough people bother me about something (i.e. not cutting my hair, starting a blog, etc), I’m apt to do it. Evidently, I’m remarkably susceptible to peer pressure.
10) I’m an old, sad, hopeless nerd. (Though I kind of knew this already, it was constantly reinforced to me throughout the year, so I think it’s valid to include it.)
Well, 2008 certainly was action-packed, wasn’t it? (Note to self: must find way to denote bone-dry sarcasm in blog form.)
As for 2009, I’m not really one for resolutions, as mine generally stay the same every year (which should indicate how much progress I make on them). However, I do think I’m going to try to take the advice of one of my professors. After the class I referenced in Lesson #3, she pulled me aside and told me that despite the fact that she was not my mother, she felt like she needed to tell me to “lighten up.”
So we’ll see how that goes. Anyone willing to guess how long it’ll last?
1) If you have a panic attack while driving on I-40, it’s best to pull off the road.
2) I’m a sucker for a man with a guitar, a nasal singing voice, and ridiculous amounts of tape hiss. (On the off chance he ever stumbles across this, I’d like to take a moment to formally offer my hand in marriage to John Darnielle. Just let me know John! I’ll be waiting!)
3) The fact that I had to actually utter the phrase “I’m not saying I’m against the restorative power of song” in one of my classes was probably the final nail in the coffin of what was left of my respect for social work.
4) More people came over to my house in the first two months that I had a Wii than in the entire year before the purchase. Yet another indication of where I place in the hierarchy of fun things to do. (And no, I don’t mean that in a sexual way. Mostly.)
5) If you make your Facebook status updates long enough, and update them often enough, they’ll eventually amass a following.
6) As evidenced by Obama’s win, real change can happen. As evidenced as by his selection of Rick Warren, it’s never as much change as I’d like.
7) Every single year (and 2008 was no exception), my ability to engage other human beings in a conversation drops dramatically. At the rate I’m going, by the time I’m 30 I’ll be communicating solely in non sequitors and saliva bubbles.
8) Certain members of the LGBT community need a real swift, hard kick in the ass… and I’m doubtful that Prop 8 is going to be enough for any real, sustained change in attitude.
9) If enough people bother me about something (i.e. not cutting my hair, starting a blog, etc), I’m apt to do it. Evidently, I’m remarkably susceptible to peer pressure.
10) I’m an old, sad, hopeless nerd. (Though I kind of knew this already, it was constantly reinforced to me throughout the year, so I think it’s valid to include it.)
Well, 2008 certainly was action-packed, wasn’t it? (Note to self: must find way to denote bone-dry sarcasm in blog form.)
As for 2009, I’m not really one for resolutions, as mine generally stay the same every year (which should indicate how much progress I make on them). However, I do think I’m going to try to take the advice of one of my professors. After the class I referenced in Lesson #3, she pulled me aside and told me that despite the fact that she was not my mother, she felt like she needed to tell me to “lighten up.”
So we’ll see how that goes. Anyone willing to guess how long it’ll last?
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