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All this attention

So I don’t know what to do with all this attention that we (the ‘gays’) are getting these days… I find it all really fascinating and overall I think its a fantastic positive step – even the negative stuff… For example:

– ‘Queer eye for the Straight Guy’ and ‘Boy meets Boy’: These shows are basically the same dreck that is on every other station. Personally, I find queer eye kind of fun to watch largely because I love the interaction between the victim and the guys – the straight guy always seem very open to whats going on and grateful… Boy meets Boy – less interesting.. for the same reason I didn’t like Joe Millionaire and the rest – just a mean manipulation of people’s emotions for money.. But both are just gay stints on formulas.. kinda interesting..

– Supreme Court Decision on Sodomy: FAN-FLIPPIN-TASTIC to hear the supreme court determine that the government has no business passing laws that set gay and lesbian couples apart from straight folks and invade people’s bedrooms. AND – on top of that to hear Scallia himself say that this opens the door to Gay Marriage.

– Dubbya’s and the Pope’s slams on Gay Marriage: This has created quite the furor on both sides of the debate for good reason but I’m not sure why this is surprising to anyone. Georgie was put in office by the christian right and he’s crystal clear on who will pay to keep him there. And the Catholic church is a well known opponent of homosexuality. This is just people drawing lines in the sand.

Why do I put 2 silly TV shows together with these two political milestones? Because the collection of this and all the other stuff going on lately has two important effects – first, it points out some realities about gays and lesbians that people may not have seen before (particularly folks that don’t THINK they know anyone gay). And, second, to force people to think about what their views are and why…. Its to easy for people to go along with what they learn at home and from folks at school without thinking about them. But with this much media and political attention one can hope that people will actually spend some time discussing and thinking about what they believe in rather than just taking things for granted…

Another thing that Elizabeth Birch pointed out in a talk at Apple some time ago is that, while Gay Marriage may be an ideal but perhaps unattainable goal, fighting for such a huge goal adds to the momentum of less difficult advances. Sure, while we may want gay marriage and completely equality for gays and lesbians, this may be something that will meet strong and possible insurmountable opposition. However, by fighting for something that people take this personally and seriously, that same opposition may be somewhat more supportive of things such as workplace non-discrimination laws. After all, their church teaches them that marriage is a sacred institution, it also teaches the golden rule and discrimination in other forms might seem less acceptable..

So we should DEFINITELY go for the gold (Marriage) but don’t forget that even if we don’t get that we’ll be a lot further along than we’ve ever been.

Just a set of observations… I just like the fact that people are thinking and talking these days – even if we don’t always like what they’re saying..

( Not to mention I think the guy that does skin and hair on ‘Queer Eye’ is REALLY DAMN HOT! 😉 )

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