A couple of headlines...
Last month Focus on the Family announced it was withdrawing its funds from Well Fargo because the bank supports "pro-gay" causes. Just today, Concerned Women for America announced its disgust with Mattel, saying a box on the company's website that asks children to reveal their gender gives in to the "homosexual agenda." The box asks children to check "boy," "girl," or "don't know." A spokesperson for Concerned Women for America says Mattel is trying to confuse children.
Does this make anyone else laugh? How about giving kudos to Wells Fargo and Mattel for allowing people to be who they are? Maybe Mattel was only being half serious. Evidently it was enough to grab the attention of the morality police and cause an uproar in the fundamentalist community. It makes me want to buy a Barbie Doll.
It's important to remember that phrases like "pro-gay causes" and "homosexual agenda" are PR terms created to put a negative spin upon ideas that come from the gay community, and that they do not neccesarily paint a picture of truth. I'm not "pro-gay" as much as I am gay. But if "pro-gay" means that I enjoy staying home with my spouse and four schnauzers on a Saturday night and watching an Adam Sandler movie marathon, then perhaps that is exactly what I am. Terms like "pro-gay" paint a picture of us gay folk as a militant assemblage of wild hooligans intent on imposing our "way of life" on the masses, but in reality we're just regular members of the community who want nothing more than to be happy and to have the space to live accordingly. It's unfortunate that there is such little room for an acceptance of the truth from these conservative religious organizations. Instead, they attempt to close in on us with sets of boundaries and pre-conceived notions about the validity of whom they imagine us to be, with the intent of isolating and marginalizing us.
The good news is, as statements from these religious organizations continue to surface, it is not the gay community that becomes marginalized, but rather the religious organizations themselves. Since homosexuality has become increasingly annexed by the mainstream in recent years, attacking the new mainstream does nothing but point out how completely absurd an anti-gay notion can be. Is everything that can be considered mainstream automatically acceptable in God's eyes? I highly doubt it. But would it hurt to consider for a moment that perhaps the mainstream is onto something here? Why not embrace individuals where they are and without judgment, just as God embraces us?
It's unlikely that these targeted condemnations will cease as we move forward in 2006, or even in the years to come as lawmakers begin to realize that there is no harm in offering civil rights to same sex families. As we move further toward equality, the outrage will grow. But so will its irrelevance. So in the meantime, let's open another account at Wells Fargo and scoop up loads of Barbie Dolls. It will be fun, and it's a positive step that doesn't signal defensiveness or demand attention. But the effect will be certain. The ability to marginalize works both ways.
Does this make anyone else laugh? How about giving kudos to Wells Fargo and Mattel for allowing people to be who they are? Maybe Mattel was only being half serious. Evidently it was enough to grab the attention of the morality police and cause an uproar in the fundamentalist community. It makes me want to buy a Barbie Doll.
It's important to remember that phrases like "pro-gay causes" and "homosexual agenda" are PR terms created to put a negative spin upon ideas that come from the gay community, and that they do not neccesarily paint a picture of truth. I'm not "pro-gay" as much as I am gay. But if "pro-gay" means that I enjoy staying home with my spouse and four schnauzers on a Saturday night and watching an Adam Sandler movie marathon, then perhaps that is exactly what I am. Terms like "pro-gay" paint a picture of us gay folk as a militant assemblage of wild hooligans intent on imposing our "way of life" on the masses, but in reality we're just regular members of the community who want nothing more than to be happy and to have the space to live accordingly. It's unfortunate that there is such little room for an acceptance of the truth from these conservative religious organizations. Instead, they attempt to close in on us with sets of boundaries and pre-conceived notions about the validity of whom they imagine us to be, with the intent of isolating and marginalizing us.
The good news is, as statements from these religious organizations continue to surface, it is not the gay community that becomes marginalized, but rather the religious organizations themselves. Since homosexuality has become increasingly annexed by the mainstream in recent years, attacking the new mainstream does nothing but point out how completely absurd an anti-gay notion can be. Is everything that can be considered mainstream automatically acceptable in God's eyes? I highly doubt it. But would it hurt to consider for a moment that perhaps the mainstream is onto something here? Why not embrace individuals where they are and without judgment, just as God embraces us?
It's unlikely that these targeted condemnations will cease as we move forward in 2006, or even in the years to come as lawmakers begin to realize that there is no harm in offering civil rights to same sex families. As we move further toward equality, the outrage will grow. But so will its irrelevance. So in the meantime, let's open another account at Wells Fargo and scoop up loads of Barbie Dolls. It will be fun, and it's a positive step that doesn't signal defensiveness or demand attention. But the effect will be certain. The ability to marginalize works both ways.
posted by Jen Austin at 4:51 PM
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