| Real Politik |
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| News - Global Warning | |
| Written by Lisa Jain Thompson | |
| Tuesday, 16 May 2006 | |
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Crossdressing MCs and “Transgender” Teens
Springfield, VA, USA. Somewhere on the road to suicide prevention, the Massachusetts Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth made the decision to embrace diversity at the expense of good governance. Trouble was, they did not ask Mitt Romney, the Governor of Massachusetts, and their boss.
The commission expanded its role as a program to prevent teen gay suicide to the sponsorship of a Wizard of Oz-themed rally hosted by a cross dressing Master of Ceremonies with the goal of celebrating “gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer youth and their supporters.” In the end, diversity swallowed them whole.
Diversity is fine and good as a goal, even desirable in a multiracial, ethnically complex democracy -- but not if it overrides mission and purpose, not to mention common sense. If you are funded by the government (local, state, or federal), your first requirement is to follow the guidelines that were attached to your funding: you don’t buy motorcycles with money intended for food programs; you don’t hold conferences at a ski resort.
And, most importantly, you keep the person who gave you the money informed of what you are planning to do with the money.
While you can debate whether a parade helps prevent gay teen suicides by fostering better self images (I suspect it does to some extent), the commission failed miserably on keeping the Governor informed of their intentions.
Especially the bit about the drag king MC and the transgendered teens which is not something the Governor is normally associated with.
Nor is middle America. They are the ones paying for the commission. This is how the Governor found out:
No wonder Governor Romney instructed the commission to refocus on its core mission of suicide prevention. He was blindsided by political naiveté and cultural idealism.
This is how the parade was described by MassResistance (what appears to be an anti-gay Massachusetts activist organization):
This is what commission chairwoman Kathleen Henry said about the press release that sent out without being vetted by the Governor’s office (the release included the Governor’s and the Lt Governor’s names, the state seal, and the commission’s name):
No matter how many times the commission had held the parade before, not informing the Governor of the press release during an election year painted him into a corner and forced him to react. The usual cast of Pride Parade suspects was once again the focus of a media hunting for a freak show to televise to middle class America.
Not exactly what is needed to convince the rest of America that queers are just like them.
By the way, did the media just miss the lesbians or was the parade another excuse for the adolescently gay boys club to act out?
This is not how we win elections. This is not how we elect a gay friendly congress. This is not how we counteract the Family Councils and Jerry Falwells.
The problem is not endemic to Massachusetts. Every Pride Parade in the United States (and possibly the world) suffers from the same shortsighted political arrogance. You don’t thumb your nose at the people you need for your cause to succeed.
Real Politik requires the Gay Rights Movement to appeal to good sense of the American public. Doing so requires that we deemphasize the drag queens, rid ourselves of the half naked bodies on parade, and emphasize our common humanity, not our queerest eccentricities.
Most gays and lesbians are not cross dressers. Most gays and lesbians do not engage in public displays of affection like we were still in high school. Most of us are clothed and act much like our fellow Americans. Most of us have steady jobs, some of us are professionals, just like our fellow Americans.
Until the Pride Parades starts emphasizing our common humanity with the rest of America, we will never achieve full equality. Until we make the effort to remove the freak show from the media eye, we will never be taken entirely seriously.
Diversity is a fine goal, but equality is a better one. Let’s make sure our rights are secured before trying to convince the rest of America they should accept teen boys in high heels and make-up as an everyday occurrence.
We may be right to hold to our diversity, but we will never be free until we finally convince America we should be.
If I had to choose between acting out my queerness or passing a law making same sex marriage legal, I would give up acting out for the short term and spend my time working on getting the law passed. Once we have our freedoms secured, we can be whoever we want.
Our opponents are here for the long term, we should be also, even if that means toning down our act for political gain.
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