In the Rainbow Room yesterday we wrote letters and drew pictures to send to Ahmed Zaoui. One of the kids wrote a beautiful poem. I’m going to bundle it all up today and send it off, and a letter to the PM too. It only takes a few minutes, so if you haven’t already put pen to paper, check out the Amnesty site for info and suggested actions.
Russell Brown has blogged about “the astonishing case of the private voter registration firm, funded by the Republican party, which has been soliciting registrations, and then shredding the forms of those who registered as Democrats. It gets worse: a Republican state judge has said that those whose forms were shredded cannot re-register.” Check out this and more madness here. The Pentagon seems to be doing everything they can to make life difficult for overseas voters too. Well, their behaviour appears to be justified; one survey shows that showed that voters with passports support Kerry over Bush by a margin of 58 to 35 percent. The world is such a depressing (and frustrating) place to be.
Public Address is having a party! But unfortunately it’s the same day as Hinemoana’s CD/Book launch. Unless I use up my airpoints to fly up after the launch… I guess I’m not going. Sigh. Cheap booze and complimentary coffee. And poetry, even. Sigh. Never mind, I’d only drink too much, and that never ends well.
Russell also blogged about Mary Cheney. I can understand some of the fuss. I’ve never liked the word lesbian. I came out as bisexual initially, because I couldn’t bring myself to say the L word. And then it turned out that I could have good times with boys as well as girls, so that was ok. I’m remembering Sir Ian’s enthusiasm for outing people, which I’m still dubious about. Though it seems to be irrelevent in this case, as Mary is quite happy to be out when it suits her, or daddy’s campaign. What I really hate is when people are in a position where they can get on with their lives, happy gays, lesbians, bisexuals, living a normal life, nice job, circle of friends, house with a white picket fence. And they forget. They turn a blind eye... to the kids who are getting kicked out of home. The guys who are being used as human punching bags. The people taking a daily battering of hateful words. Losing their jobs. Being raped. Seeing their kids taken away from them, or not being able to hold the hand of their dying partner. Wake up Mary, and smell the oppression.
The high school I went to was the most liberal and safe in the town. There, I found some sort of pseudo-acceptance; though really, it was tolerance at best. The third formers used to call me names, but the senior students weren’t openly homophobic. The girls were scared of me (that I would come on to them? That they would be seen as lesbian by association?) and they avoided me like the plague. The guys thought it was great that I was a lesbian… as long as I looked at soft porn with them, and dressed in a way that they found attractive, and entertained their fantasies about two women having sex for their own pleasure… then they were just fine with it! They all seemed to think I would need a man to truly make me happy. At the end of 7th form I was raped by a guy who was “proving” to me that I wasn’t really a lesbian. All I needed was to be fucked by the right man.
Things are so much better now. I am surrounded by friends who truly accept me. I have a great job in a workplace that is utterly supportive. I don’t even need a white picket fence to fit in – the greenies and hippies and queers I surround myself with are cool with most of my queer quirks. But I know it’s not that easy for everyone. For kids still in school. For trannies and queers not quite managing to pass. Not quite fitting into the nice little squares. I just have to go with my tranny tendencies, put on a suit and moustache and walk down Lampton Quay, to be reminded how painful the world can be. Take a step outside the box and feel the hate.
“Until all are free, we are all oppressed…”
Destiny et al. have actually done us a favour. See, there is a weird paradox created when gay/lesbian/bisexual people gain a level of acceptance. Because when opposition diminishes we lose the benefits of community. A community is defined by its boundaries – alliances tend to be based on similarity of oppression. The gay and lesbian community is defined by what it is opposed to – homophobia. There isn’t a heterosexual community as such, because there is no external threat or opposition to form against. A reduction of oppression is accompanied by a loss of community.
If the more equality we gain, the less community we have, is there a point at which the two reach a state of equilibrium? Do we get to a point where there is still homophobia, but not enough for anyone to bother doing anything about it? We have come dangerously close to that point, but perhaps the current hostilities will be our wake-up call. Bishop Vercoe, Pastor Tamaki, the Presbytarian General Assembly... perhaps they will turn out to be our saviours, after all.
Posted by Fionnaigh at October 19, 2004 12:54 PM