Will Gays Bring Down The Great American Military?

Following the events that will hopefully result in the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell has always been frustrating. But lately it has been almost too much to bear. Had this much time, energy and money been focused on regulating big business, creating an even tax structure and reinstating The Fairness Doctrine, perhaps we might be in better shape. But what gets scrutinized, pulled apart and picked over? Whether or not an openly gay person will bring down the great American military. I guess we're more fragile than I was taught. So much for American exceptionalism.

For the record, everyone accepts the fact that there are gays in the military. The current conversation is about whether or not knowing who's gay would be too much to handle for those who dislike us. I'm guessing that the John McCains of the world think bigots make great soldiers, because this entire conversation centers around ensuring that they're kept happy and comfortable.

It's astonishing what we focus on.

It's astonishing to listen to this debated earnestly. To listen to the serious tone the hearings are taking. This is clearly something that we need to parse and splice - to look at from every conceivable angle. Something requiring a year long study and, if you listen to our opponents, many more months to review that study's findings. We didn't have this much debate before we started the fucking war! You can almost hear the Wicked Witch of the West rubbing her hands together, saying, "These things must be handled delicately," not referring to the war itself but to which sexuality is better qualified to get shot at, fly a helicopter, drive a tank or file paperwork. As if gay people are more of a threat to morale, military preparedness and unit cohesion than a lying president, an unconscionable amount of strategic bumbling, inadequate body armor and the almost guaranteed eventuality that if you are lucky enough to return home you'll find that your job has evaporated. As if gay people are more of a threat to the military than terrorists armed with explosives, bullets and the belief that dying is preferable to living. Dear Senator McCain et al, message received - What poses the greatest threat to the United States? The out homosexual.

You know what I think those opposed to the repeal of D.A.D.T. are really afraid of? What they really can't handle? I don't think that these people can wrap their heads around the fact that this dyke or that faggot might just be a war hero. Just like all the other veterans they embrace. Just like all the other soldiers who return home with a broken body and a broken spirit. Or the soldiers who don't make it home at all. It must be difficult to take us out of the bedroom. For as much as our opponents seem dismayed by what we do there, they seem equally obsessed with it. If we are to serve openly, we will be heroes openly. One day we will have openly gay war heroes in our history books! Our schoolchildren will learn about them. And before you wonder how being gay would come up in an elementary school history book I will tell you that George Washington was married to Martha. We all read it. And it's just that simple. And it's just another way that we will no longer be excluded from society, which must be a horrific thought to people who have only ever seen us as one thing. I don't think they can come to terms with the fact that they will have to forward to our gay veterans the same respect, deference and thanks that they instinctively forward to our straight veterans. Of course, with that same respect, gratitude and thanks, one must forward the same money.

The money faucet seems to gush freely, almost violently when it comes to the persecution and prosecution of gay people. Never have I heard one word uttered from the fiscally conservative right regarding the ridiculous, avoidable cost of waging a war on our military's gays. Never have I heard one word of complaint about the cost of investigating those "accused" and then routing those found "guilty." Not one word about the cost of retraining soldiers to fill the empty spots left by those who have been unceremoniously separated from the military. Not even during our current economic implosion. You'd think that there would be an outcry, a clarion call to conservatives that this could be a great way to save money - repeal D.A.D.T. But no. Better to cut funding for food stamps and unemployment benefits than to deprive these witch hunts of their financial oxygen. Gay hunting is necessary spending.

And yet - and yet! - mark my words - it's only a matter of time until someone comes up with the notion that caring for our gay troops is cost prohibitive. It is going to happen. Bet on it. Watch the narrative unfold: Those activist, progressive, Un-American homosexual veterans are going to bankrupt the nation with their outrageous demands. For equality.

And here, I think, is the final piece of the hate and fear - What happens when these men and women return home? Having fought for our country - having marched directly into harm's way, having faced separation from home, comfort and loved ones, having sacrificed so much to keep us safe, so the propaganda goes - will they be content with a system of laws that does not protect them with the same vigor that it protects their straight counterparts? Will they be content with the possibility of eviction based solely on their sexual identity? Of being fired from their job? Will not being able to legally marry the person they love be an acceptable fate? Oh my! Letting them come out of the closet opens up a whole Pandora's Box, doesn't it? And what of their husbands and wives? Of their widows and widowers? Might they stand up and scream, "We exist!"? Might they demand that their fears, their pain, their struggles and their horrors deserve legal recognition and support? Imagine!

If we let gays serve openly, how will we know where they become unequal?

That's what I think our opponents are most afraid of. Not the repeal in and of itself. But of the ripples that will surely come after. Of the repercussions. These people who claim to want to do anything and everything for our troops and veterans will now be caught between a rock and a hard place. They will no longer be able to chant their support for the military while preaching hate against gays. That will become an impossible political position.

What is possible is that D.A.D.T. is a staggering dinosaur and that its repeal, should it happen, when it happens, will be one giant, lurching step towards the end of the systemic, institutionalized bigotry that this country currently practices.

Tiger Woods

Tiger seems to have captured our national attention.  He is everywhere.  In magazines.  On the internet.  In the papers.  On television.  His exploits have been studied and dissected from every conceivable angle.  Of course there is the obligatory distancing angle.  This is when the media, in an attempt to save face, shakes it's head and wags it's finger at all the media attention.  They perfunctorily put on disapproving faces, complete with furrowed brow and slightly downturned lips in a mask vaguely resembling human concern, and wonder aloud about the toll all this attention might be taking on Tiger Woods and his wife; how having cameras shoved in their respective faces could be psychically damaging.  They do this while showing us footage of them having cameras shoved in their faces.  The media washes their hands of any seeming impropriety by covering the coverage, not the story.  

It seems this circular logic serves two purposes - two obvious purposes.  The newscasters get to pretend that they are removed from the feeding frenzy - that they are somehow above it.  At the same time it allows them to propagate it.    The signal this sends is that they know they've got actual stories to report on, but they're going to spend their time, and ours, on the whereabouts of Tiger Woods' dick.  Health care reform?  Later in the hour.  Two wars.  Later.  The economy.  Later.  The global warming extravaganza in Copenhagen.  Boring - but wait, there's some violence.  So that's a little better.  But still later.  Despicable.  

Why are we so fascinated?  

I think that the root of our fascination lies in the fact that we think we know Tiger Woods.  We have come to know him on the golf course and in thirty second commercial snipets.  We've seen his picture myriad times in magazines and on billboards.  They all repeat the same basic mantra:  Tiger Woods is a stand up guy - honest.  He may not be our friend, but he would be if he lived next door to us - if he weren't arguably the greatest athlete of all time.  We may not have ever met him, but we have come to believe that we know him nonetheless.  And that is the definition of fame - the people who know you outnumber the people that you know.

But we don't know him.  We know his image - his carefully crafted image.  He looks young and wholesome.  He's attractive, but not in an off-putting way.  He's seems open and friendly.  He looks kind.  In no way does he look like a cheater.  Of any sort.  His eyes convey a sense of honesty.  Add to that his comportment on the golf course.  In control.  Together.  Classy. 

All of these variables have been skillfully whittled and harnessed.  Ads were created and words were put into his mouth.  Words that we would believe coming out of this pure, honest looking guy.  And they were repeated.  Over and over.  And over again.  Until we began to think that this two dimensional figure - a creature of publicity machine magic - was a full and complete human being.

We were sold the idea of a man who would never cheat.  On the golf course or in his marriage.  And we bought it.  We live in an age where marketing is truth.  And we're fascinated when we peek behind the curtain to discover that these cartoon characters don't exist.

I think that is why we're so fascinated by how many women Tiger Woods has slept with.  Would we be half as fascinated if it were a pre-Annette Bening Warren Beatty?  I doubt it.  His stock in trade was his dick - which he supposedly happily shared with every woman in Hollywood.  Except for Shirley MacLaine.  The interesting story there would be if he actually didn't sleep with all those women.

Iconization doesn't lend itself to subtlety.  It is borne of repetition and gets its traction with broad strokes.  It is, by nature, simple.  Iconization shatters under the weight of the complex or complicated.  And certainly can not withstand the pressure of human contradiction.

Clearly we didn't know Tiger Woods.  Of course now we think we do.  Most of us still haven't met him, but we have this new piece of information which, once digested, will give us the impression that we know him now.  But the truth is that most of us will never meet him and will never know the slightest thing about him.  The truth is that it takes a lifetime to know friends.  A lifetime to know lovers.  A lifetime to know ourselves.  So how can we possibly know someone we've never even seen in person?

And lest anyone think that I've gotten so wrapped up in the felling of Tiger Woods that I've momentarily stopped being an angry gay male, consider this: his marriage is perfectly legal.  In all fifty states.  I've yet to hear even one of the "defenders of traditional marriage," one of the clergy who fight so virulently to ensure that my marriage remains lesser, one of the leaders of the National Organization for Marriage voice concern about teaching Tiger's marriage to young children.  I've yet to hear even one of them condemn his marriage or challenge it's sanctity.  Or legality.

He's fucking the right people. 

 

Visibility.

Tonight I find myself typing with trembling fingers.  It seems that the marriage equality fight might finally come to New Jersey.  And, if it does, there's a possibility that I might get the chance to marry my best friend, my love, my lover, my partner, my occasional tormentor, my comic relief, my shelter, my shield, my fan, my smack upside the head, my so many things.  I am grateful for all that he is to me.  And I am grateful for all that he allows me to be for him.  Sometimes I think the most loving act is the gleeful, gracious acceptance of love.  That he has fallen in love with me, and thus given me the opportunity to spend my life loving him, is a blessing I am not talented enough to express in words.  And while it's quite clear that in the apprehensive, skittish world of politics anything or nothing can happen at a moment's notice, it seems at this moment that New Jersey's number is about to be called.

I find myself frustrated, depressed, angry, horrified, driven to distraction by our recent losses.  The truth appears to be neither as flashy nor as seductive as fear.  It feels that we simply can not break up that generations old bedrock of ignorance that our opponents have built their house of cards on.  

It's a game of fear.  Our opponents use it to their advantage, brilliantly.  Marriage equality isn't even up for a vote yet (a despicable idea if ever there was one, yet here we are, voting on my relationship while peeking into Tiger Woods' marriage without the slightest thought that it should be put to a referendum) in New Jersey and already I've heard a horrific yet effective radio ad denouncing it.  At the end of the ad is a disclaimer from the station that the "views expressed may not necessarily be the views of the station."  Well, that's not entirely true.  I doubt they would take money from anyone who would advocate reverting to spousal ownership - a truly traditional idea.  So while they may not agree with the ideas expressed, at the very least they don't find them offensive enough to forgo that advertising money.

Fear.  On another level our politicians vote their own personal fears.  Although I think it is often the case that they fear marriage equality less than they fear winding up actually affected by the current "recession."  Like the rest of us, they are afraid of losing their jobs.  Unlike the rest of us, when they play politics, it's for real.  And the consequences of their fears are catastrophic.  

This is why I find myself occasionally overwhelmed with what feels like an impotent anger.  Their fears, to some extent, dictate my life.  Their fears place boundaries around some of us - around me - but not around others.  So I have to step back from my emotions.  When I read things day in and day out about myself that aren't true but which clearly resonate with the fearful and ignorant - when hypocrisy struts around with grandeur and arrogance - when religion is called upon to do the dirty work for those who's abnormal, fetishized obsession with gay people propels them to crisscross the country spewing bile and providing a breeding ground for intolerance, ignorance and hate, all the while disavowing any violence that might take place in their wake - I must step back and look at the bigger picture.

The bigger picture is, in a word, visibility.  As hurt and disgusted as I am on a daily basis, I must remind myself that even if it seems that we are losing, and even as those righteous defenders of inequality gloat in their momentary victories, they are a mercifully short-sighted group.  Visibility.  This is about the long haul.  Visibility.  This is about being on the news every single night.  Fighting.  Winning some.  Losing too many.  But still fighting.  And visible.  Visible on television.  Visible in our everyday lives.  Visible to kids who are struggling with being gay.  Visible to their parents.  There's not a more powerful political statement than being out of the closet.  That simply can not be overstated.  To paraphrase Harvey Milk:  When they know us they don't vote against us.  

Visibility.

Things will change when our elected officials fear not voting for equal rights.  When the negative repercussions to their livelihood stem from voting "no" on marriage equality.  I pray that the fury we felt this week when the New York Senate voted to deny us our civil rights will not ebb, but instead will fester and propel us to the voting booths come election time.  If that happens - if those cowardly men and women lose their jobs because of the vote they cast against equality - then last week will have been a victory for us.  Because their successors will understand that bigotry is no longer a bankable voting block, but equality is.

Save the Children

New York isn't getting marriage equality and it looks as if New Jersey won't be getting it either.  Thirty one states have already allowed the rights of LGBT Americans to be voted on.  And thirty one states have voted to deny LGTB Americans their rights.

Why are our opponents so successful?

Fear.  They manipulate it brilliantly.

That is not surprising.  They know exactly what chords strike maximum horror in their listeners.  They know exactly what to say.  They know exactly how to say it.

Children are their weapons.

The children.  Fear for the children.  Teaching the children.  Protect the children.  Inappropriate for children.  Children.  Children.  Children.

What I have found more and more frustrating is the response to these charges by our gay leaders.  Largely, silence.  They stick to the legal matters being debated:  "We're not talking about children and schools.  We're talking about marriage equality."  Or, "What about protecting the children of gay families?"  I find this utterly maddening.

By not respecting, listening to and responding to their central and most powerful arguments, we're leaving ourselves open to having already existing fear and prejudice easily manipulated.  We must confront the fears being stirred, not ignore them.  We're not doing ourselves any favors by turning our backs on their most potent weapon.  Quite the opposite.  By not discussing it, we're giving it tacit approval.  They talk about the children, and we try to get back to the facts:  adults getting married.  It sometimes gives the impression that we're the ones changing the subject.  

I'll never understand why we don't delve into it head first.

Our opponents are forever repeating the mantra that they don't dislike gay people.  That they would never condone violence against an L, G, B or T person.  And that old chestnut:  They have gay friends.  On the surface, they wish us well.  This has a specific purpose:  it absolves guilt.  It allows those who wish to deny us our rights to feel good about their hate. Or at least not feel bad about it.  This is a vital part of the emotional chess game they are playing.  People might harbor prejudices, but they feel guilty about them.  Remove that guilt and it's open season.

But they are lying.  They do not wish us well.  They wish us gone.  

This isn't about marriage equality.  And this isn't about workplace discrimination.  It's not even about protecting religious freedoms (another red herring they throw out into the ethers to great effect).  These are just window dressing.

Their goal is to eradicate homosexuality.

If you think I'm taking too great a leap here - if you think I've lost my mind and have gone off the rails, consider this simple question:  Why is it bad to teach our children homosexuality?  (Whatever that means.)

There can only be one answer:  because homosexuality is bad.  Right away, their "we love gay people and are just trying to maintain 'traditional marriage'" argument is shattered.  They outwardly wish us well, yet their arguments are based on the notion that homosexuality is some kind of affliction.

The second unspoken and, frustratingly, unquestioned tenet of their "don't teach homosexuality to children" argument is that if we don't talk about it, don't allow it into acceptable society, don't make it commonplace, don't allow it to exist where people can see it, don't give it legal backing by repealing DOMA and enacting ENDA, keep it in the shadows and away from impressionable children, it will cease to exist. 

Succinctly: homosexuality is immoral and can be taught.  If we don't expose our children to it, they won't grow up gay.  No more gay children, no more gay adults.  

That is what they are saying.  That is what reverberates with people who have limited or no experience with the LGBT community.  And that is what never gets addressed.  

While we are busy sticking to the issues being debated, they are winning the emotional war.

Terrorism, Hate Crimes & Hypocrisy

Terrorism.  Hate crimes.

Both acts aim to send a message through violence.  They are the same crime, differentiated by scope.  Terrorism is a hate crime against a society.  A hate crime is terrorism against a minority.

Roughly one month ago I watched as some of our Representatives and Senators stood on the floor of Congress and argued passionately to exclude LGBT Americans from hate crimes law.  Inclusion, they said, would be tantamount to thought police.  It would lead to censorship.  These Congressmen and women explained that a violent act is punishable; the intent behind it is not.  Punishing intent, they said, is unconstitutional.

Punish the action.  Not the thought.  

That is what they firmly, steadfastly believe.  

Or is it?

For the past week, I have been glued to the unfolding story of the shooting at Fort Hood.  I have watched as we, as a nation, attempt to understand the horrific events that occurred there.  We want to know whether the shooting was a random act of violence or terrorism.  

To that end, we have delved into the shooter's psyche.  We have looked into his past.  Into his religion.  Into his connections.  Into his emails.  His work history.  Past PowerPoint presentations.  His anger.  We are desperate to know the reasons for his actions - the why.  We demand to know if his violence had a specific, broader purpose.  

To those who voted against hate crimes protection for LGBT Americans, I ask these simple questions:  Why does investigating intent not lead to censorship when the crime might be a terrorist act?  Why is it only unconstitutional to take intent and speech into consideration when the violence committed might be a hate crime against a member of the LGBT community?  Why haven't I seen even one of you on t.v. decrying the unconstitutionality of investigating this man's motivations?  How are your deeply held moral beliefs so easily altered?

I fail to see a difference between harming Americans because they are Americans and harming gays because they are gay.

I do not fail to see your hypocrisy; your bigotry.

All things being equal, his intentions ought to be irrelevant and off limits, right?  

If a man were to walk into an LGBT Center and open fire while screaming, "The Bible tells me that faggots burn in hell," you would argue to punish his actions, not his motivation; citing freedom of speech and religion.   

If the same man walked into that same LGBT Center and opened fire while screaming about Jihad and American fascists, you wouldn't be quite so torn about trampling his inalienable rights.

If an American gets killed because they're gay, not so bad.  If a gay person gets killed because they're American, look out.

Your message is crystal clear:  hatred of country is neither understandable nor acceptable.  Hatred of gays is both.  Hatred of country that turns violent harms innocent people.  Hatred of gays that turns violent just harms gays.  

 

Are We Willing?

I think it's time to change the fight.  Aren't we all tired of waiting for our politicians to do the right thing?  Doing the right thing is not enough to motivate politicians.  They will be motivated when they have no choice.  Aren't we all tired of complaining to ourselves on facebook?  Of being angry and upset and offended every time some jackass goes into a voting booth to decide whether or not to extend to us a full set of rights?

I think it's time for us to start filling up the jails. I think it's time for us to put ourselves in harm's way. I think it's time for us to break some laws and get arrested. I think it's time to fill up the army recruitment centers with the intention of joining the army and then refuse to leave when we tell them we're gay.  I think it's time to fill up the court houses from coast to coast and then refuse to leave when they tell us we can't get a marriage license.  I think it's time to stop paying our taxes until we receive every benefit that others enjoy.  I think it's time for us to stop working for companies that don't extend benefits to our partners - companies who hide conveniently behind the protective shield of the fact that we can't legally get married in most places.  I think it's time to stop giving our money to companies that support causes or politicians who are hellbent on keeping us from achieving equality.  

I think it's time for us to wake up and stop being complicit in our own second class status.

I think it's time that we use non-violent, civil disobedience to cripple our country in every way that we can until our country treats us as equals.  

I just wonder if I have what it takes.  I wonder if we, as a group, have what it takes.  The Montgomery bus boycott lasted 13 months. 13 months of walking. To work. From work. Getting up early. Getting home late. Doing it again tomorrow. And tomorrow. And tomorrow. And tomorrow. 13 months. Cold. Heat. Rain. 13 months. Their opponents did every disgusting thing they could think of to break the boycott from physical intimidation to bending laws, breaking laws & passing laws.  13 months. I wonder if we have the gumption to live with discomfort and fear and possibility of jail or violence or death in order to get what we want.  I wonder if we're willing to be cold.  Or hungry.  I wonder.  I wonder what we're willing to give to ensure that no longer will our rights be up for a vote.

I wonder - are we willing?

A Message Sent

Gay people confuse me.

Today the Senate passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.  

I've been reading for months, if not years, some voices in the LGBT community expressing the opinion that this is not a worthy battle.  That this law isn't going to stop anyone from committing a hate crime.  That we have bigger fish to fry.  That it's simply a waste of time and won't matter.

They leave me scratching my head in exasperation.

To me the passage of this law (the president has promised to sign it) is cause for celebration.  A giant fucking celebration.

It is one step forward.

And I can't help but wonder:  how is any forward motion is bad?

Will it stop anyone from committing a hate crime against a gay person?  My guess is no, probably not.  We have a lot of laws and they tend not to prevent a lot of people from doing a lot of things.  Should we just get rid of all laws since it seems that people break them anyway?

Equality is about one thing and one thing only:  I have the same set of rules as you.  That's it.  No more.  No less.  It's very simple.

This is why anti-marriage equality gay people confuse me so much.  I know plenty of straight people who have been with their partner for years or even decades who have chosen not to get married.  I've yet to hear any one of them express the opinion that because they don't want to get married, it should be illegal for any other straight people to get married.

I'm equally perplexed by the cynicism or even downright anger towards the Hate Crimes Bill.  It's importance isn't in its stiffer sentencing.  It's importance lies in its message.  When the president signs it, he will be sending a message, a specific message, that it is not o.k. to attack a person because he or she is or is perceived to be L, G, B, or T.  And the LGBT community will be that much closer to equality.  Much in the same way our legal inequality is part of the collective unconscious of this country, this law will become part of our collective unconscious.  One day it will be taken for granted.  And that will be a good thing.

The road is long and slow.  And requires a shift.  A shift in understanding.  In sensitivity.  In thinking.

Today that long, slow road towards equality was smoothed out a little, making it easier to take the next step and the next step and the next step.  Until there are no more steps to take.  Until this is all a boring history lesson.