Ideas for 2007 by Paul Varnell

Ideas for 2007 by Paul Varnel
Copyright by Paul Varnell and The Chicago Free Press

The coming year will provide an all-too-brief respite from all-too-many people’s focus on politics. We do not have to face threats from a GOP Congress, but we aren’t going to get much out of a Democratic Congress since they don’t want to give the GOP ammunition to attack them with in 2008.

Instead it is an opportunity for community building, for attention to promoting social acceptance of gays and heading off future assaults from the religious right. Here are some possibilities. If you don’t like these, create your own.

We need far stronger gay organizations at the state level. Because of America’s federal system, many gay issues are and even more can be determined at the state level—marriage, civil unions, child custody, adoption, non-discrimination, etc. For years the national organizations appealed for funds to fight the GOP hegemony in Congress, starving our state organizations. Now that that threat is absent, it is important to build up state advocacy organizations and community centers, providing for a staff and adequate technical support. This is particularly important in states with a strong conservative presence.

We need a small specialty think tank of gay-supportive theologians to issue counter-arguments when the Catholic bishops or other religious groups condemn gays, gay relationships or gay sex. The religious roundtable of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force seems to limit itself to issuing feeble press releases praising this or condemning that, but it never offers sustained arguments against whatever conservative religious groups say. Over the years I have tried to respond to the Catholic bishops and other homophobic religious statements (in pieces now posted at the Independent Gay Forum), but I am a journalist, not a theologian, so I undoubtedly overlook many excellent arguments—and I am only one small voice.

We need a study of homelessness among gay adults. A new NGLTF study drew attention to the fact that a disproportionate percentage of homeless kids are gay. But we have little information on the proportion of gays among homeless adults. I was talking recently with a homeless man in his 30s. He said simply, “What about people like me?” I had no answer. I know of no studies of homelessness that indicate the proportion who are gay. Nor do I know what unique issues they face, nor where to suggest they go for help, nor how best to help them.

Many of us have urged gays to come out to more people. Let me be more specific: Come out especially to older friends and relatives. A larger percentage of older Americans vote than any other group. And older Americans are the most likely to be anti-gay. Born in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, they grew up when most gays were not open, so they may never have known a gay person when their social and cultural attitudes were formed. Since older Americans are living (and voting) longer, we need to try to remedy those formative impressions.

In states where it is most practical to advocate gay civil unions rather than marriage, we should start using a film clip of President Bush’s statement late in the 2004 campaign that if states want to offer civil unions for gays, “They should be able to do that.” What more effective propaganda could you offer to conservative voters than Bush’s own non-opposition? I do not understand why that clip hasn’t been used repeatedly.

Drop “queer.” The attempt to “reclaim” it has failed utterly. For most of us it sets our teeth on edge. Gabriel Rotello, a former publisher who once promoted “queer,” renounced it in an Advocate opinion piece titled “The Word That Failed.” (The literary allusion is obvious.) Some younger gays all full of youthful rebellion-without-responsibility adopted “queer” for a time, viewing it as “edgy” and “in your face.” But let me tell you, dear ones, gay liberty and equality are not going to be won by being self-indulgently “edgy” and “in your face.” You are just helping our opponents.

We need more heterosexuals to speak out for gay legal equality, but I have no idea how to go about making this happen. The Advocate recently featured comedian and talk show host Bill Maher, who regularly speaks out on behalf of gays, but can we somehow induce 10, 20, 100 people with a national reputation to take up our cause? Most prominent whites began supporting black civil rights only when the level of violence, intimidation, and denial of rights in the South was made crystal clear on television news shows. But how often is a gay-bashing broadcast? Or a child being yanked away from its lesbian mother or gay father? And how can you film a marriage ceremony that doesn’t happen?

Many of Paul Varnell’s previous columns are posted at the Independent Gay Forum (www.indegayforum.org). His e-mail address is pvarnell@aol.com.
Opinion

By Paul Varnell