I’ve noticed (and by noticed I mean have been told) there is a lot of bigoted behaviour going on in the queer community, and I, for one, am against it. Now I’m not trying to be like the Dalai Lama and say ‘love is good’ and ‘hate is bad’ because the word ‘duh’ automatically springs to mind. Rather, I’m urging people to look beyond themselves and become active and junk. Not physically active mind you (who has the time) but perhaps politically active.
We, the queer people, may be a minority group preaching about human rights until our throats hurt, but there are still all of the ‘isms’ exist among our ranks; sexism (e.g. misogynistic fags and lesbian separatists. It’s so easy to be sexist when you don’t need to rely on the opposite sex for romantic and sexual validation), racism, ageism, and yes, sometimes even homophobia(ism) and class(ism). We may be awesome, but we’re not perfect. We’re still human, and as Scott Adams stresses in his book ‘The Dilbert Future’, humans are stupid, selfish, and horny (note: horny could be defined as always desiring something).
Because of this, people find it difficult to think outside their box, and can only identify with themselves, or other similar things. Therefore they can “afford” to be unenlightened about issues that do not directly affect them. Like the parent who is anti-queer until their child comes out, and suddenly becomes a pioneer for queer rights. Or more cynically, like the parent who is anti-queer until their child comes out, and then tells all their friends about it over tea and biscuits, emphasising how much they love it, but become quietly passive aggressive when girlfriends and boyfriends are brought home. Maybe I shouldn’t be condemning those who genuinely reform after they realise what idiots they have been, but the point is that they did not do it until they were forced to confront the issue, and experience it firsthand, instead of arriving at the conclusion due to their own voluntary reflection.
What I’m trying to say is that it is hypocritical to fight for one’s minority group but be insensitive to others. How can we demand rights for ourselves, yet be ignorant of the rights of other minority groups? Haven’t we learned anything from our own struggles? Even being apathetic isn’t justifiable; it just shows that you have no social conscience towards anything that’s not directly related to you. Anyway, wasn’t it the acquiescence of the German people that allowed the slaughter of millions of Jews, not just the Nazis’ actual actions?
Equality is something everyone is striving for, isn’t it? So I urge you, my queer brethren, look beyond your own self, we are all in this struggle against oppression together – so why not unite? I understand that this could easily be dismissed as the unoriginal ranting of a bitter liberal suffering from “liberal guilt” or “post-colonial-arthritis”, but I’m not, it’s as simple as that. As a gay icon (i.e. my icon) Alfred Hitchcock once said, the worst part of the human condition is complacency. So, people all over the world join hands… start a love train (or something).
By Pazuzu and Clobberella