Friday, March 2, 2007

Al-Jezeera?

Day 7: My favorite news for the day: evidently Al-Jazeera contacted us today to do a story about our campaign. Not too shabby. I'm not exactly sure what their motivation is, but hell, let's give it a whirl! Also, evidently we've been shown on Ukrainian TV. Apart from that we were on the "front page" of the website http://www.interia.pl/. The article written is how homophobia is largely a problem of internalized homophobia and most homophobes are gayt themselves. There is a poll attached asking "How do you rate your tolerance towards homosexuals?"Last time I checked 35% were really high and as a whole, the "positive" responses were about 66%, so not so bad. Malwina's Curse: On this website and attached to other forums, people have been responding to this campaign. Like always, there are some extreme voices which claim to have agreed with Hitler on at least the issue of extermination of homos and that we have to hang gays from their balls. This kind of stuff I can kind of deal with. What gets me even more, however, is a posting like the one "Malwina" left . She is the epitome of those who are superficously gay-friendly. She writes that she's got a gay friend (you can ALREADY see where this is going). And that "I'm not prejudiced against anyone, seriously." In textbook style, she's already "outed" herself as a homophobe by trying so hard to prove to us that she isn't. In her opinion, the money for this campaign would have been better spent on psychologists who would help people accept themselves. Because she's slowly getting sick of this issue because if homos go out on the street and yell that they're homo then she demands a straight parade. We'll also will yell what we're allowed to do in the bedroom. She goes on, "I beg of you! Get a grip! And all you homosexuals, think about workshops to raise your self-esteem. You can change the world starting with yourselves. Best Regards!!" Yes, Malwina, best regards indeed. If I could only virtually roll my eyes at you, I would. Malwina is a bit frightening because she is like many young, urban, well-educated Poles I know (and Americans). They are nice to gays, hang out with them and will even go to gay bars (cause we dance so well). Yet somehow they just don't get it. They don't get that having an Equality Parade so that lgbt people have equal HUMAN rights is not the same as a hetero parade where you declare what you do in your bedroom. Last I checked, the right to not be harassed and beaten up on the street has little to do with my bedroom. Although it was very kind of her to offer us some wise advice as to the psychologist. After reading gems like her posting, I really start to wonder if it's me that needs the therapy. At least to drown my worries in something else other than alcohol.

3 comments:

Lisette said...

Sorry, forgot to fill you in on that one, but they already contacted us on Monday ;)

Anonymous said...

Sorry, forgot to fill you in on that one, but they already contacted us on Monday ;)

Anonymous said...

Every day is a straight pride parade. Every. Damn. Day.

Sometimes I just want to grab clueless "well-meaning" str8 people by the lapels and shake them until they understand.
Or until their heads fall off. Whatever works.