Fighting The Jabberwocky
36 Queers, Oh My! Oh My!
36 Queers, Oh Fabjous Day!
36 Queers, Oh My Oh My!
36 Queers, Calloo Callay!
Doesn't it seem as if we're in some bizarre Lewis Carroll poem with weird political undertones? Take the month of June, for instance. I've always loved it, partly because I'm a Gemini (15th, but don't ask the year!) In my youth, it was also the time of fireflies and everything in full bloom. It was the month we kids were freed from the clutches of the nuns (BVMs - Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but we called them "Black Veiled Monsters").
In Chicago, June could be an exciting, even dangerous month. I remember all the warning signs for tornadoes (skies were always a rather sickly-looking green). It was also the time when kids risked being roadkill for the "Good Humor" man and those tinkling bells every kid was genetically disposed to run towards.
Junes are (for me) now synonymous with rainbow flags and gay tourists from around the globe reveling in San Francisco's diversity. The City is (literally) bursting with PRIDE in June and everyone wants to celebrate in the place that has always been in the forefront of everything gay. It's a whole month when people are celebrating diversity, creativity (e.g. film fests), love and compassion. I celebrate compassion in particular by reflecting on the initial Age of AIDS and how the City was beckoning to people: within four years, (in 1986) there were dozens of model AIDS-related agencies, some even "faith based" (at that time there were no "faith-based" agencies outside of San Francisco and the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and to date, there are none associated with the Southern Baptist Convention and some other "non-denominational" groups). People were coming to the City - while they were sick and dying - desperate for help or a peaceful, dignified death, both of which were denied to them even by their own friends and families.
Lesbians and gays across the country have made June their own month, not only because of the Stonewall riots in New York that sparked the gay freedom movement, but because June itself seems to symbolize a time of freedom. The Fourth of July is also a time for celebrating freedom, but does that feeling extend to the whole month of July? Hardly. On June 1, President Barack Obama became the first President to recognize the month of June as LGBT PRIDE month.
Of course, Tony Perkins of Family Research Council didn't like that one bit:
Considering the moves by this administration, every month feels like "gay pride month." But in keeping with the liberal tradition, President Obama did single out the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement for special recognition yesterday, signing a White House proclamation that officially designates June as "LGBT Pride Month." President Bush had refused to acknowledge the hype, saying repeatedly that the White House shouldn't "politicize people's sexual orientation." In the proclamation released Monday, his successor makes no secret about the upcoming policy push.
"I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world," President Obama writes. "Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions, and ending the existing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy..."
If, as the saying goes, people are policy, then we have no doubt where this White House stands. At last count, the Obama administration employed 36 open homosexuals.
Thirty Six! Such a ENORMOUS number! Horrors! Why it's a "road to perdition" number! Surely, the whole world is in its last days when a Muslim anti-Christ recognizes so very many homosexuals!
Now there's Dick Cheney and his revelation that he approves of gay marriage. NOW doesn't it seem like we're living in a Jabberwocky world? The "Torturer's Apprentice" throws a bone to Gay Pride? Weird! Is he campaigning to be called ChenEVIL by EVERYONE?
From Pam's House Blend:
Bam Bam Barber on Cheney: 'he's virtually endorsing incest and bestiality'
Last, but never least is, of course, Pat Robertson, who recently chimed in on The 700 Club that gay marriage and the passage of the hate crimes bill would lead to legalizing "sex with ducks."It didn't take long for Dick Cheney's carefully parsed statement about marriage equality to send Liberty Counsel's Matt "Come Hither" Barber over the edge...A conservative Christian political activist accuses former Vice President Dick Cheney of advocating "sexual anarchy."
...Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs with Liberty Counsel, says Cheney's love for his lesbian daughter has "clouded his judgment." "If freedom to marry means, as he said, that people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, well then, he's virtually endorsing polyamory and polygamy, and incestuous marriage, and bestiality," Barber claims. "[There are] no holds barred here."
Now There's and Attractive Duck!
So this June is a Jabberwocky month of torturer-turned-benign-father-of-a-lesbian, an administration rife with new gay blood, new gay marriage states, old anti-gay marriage Christofascists, and sex with ducks. And we've still got 25 days to go! Always on the ready, creative gays and friends never miss a chance to poke fun out of someone like Pat Robertson (it's just so easy!). Enjoy this latest tome to Rev. Robertson. I don't think he'll enjoy it.
Then again, he may not even get it!
