They’re here. They’re queer. They will not live in fear.
But the gays who marched over the weekend in Portland should remain respectful of fear, instead of reducing it to a party chant. Rational fear can help them see things as they are, not as they want them to be.
“There is nothing but good in Portland,” a young man told me a couple of blocks after the march began late Saturday night at the Old Town bar CC Slaughters.
This young man wanted to make a statement condemning hate and praising acceptance “of everyone,” but when asked if the cheery revelry wasn’t a little out of place considering what had just happened in Norway, he looked confused.
“What’s that got to do with Portland?” he asked.
He had the same blonde good looks as Anders Behring Breivik, and he seemed hurt that anyone would even suggest that such people might live here.
“What happened in Norway has nothing to do with Portland,” he said.
The world is full of men like Breivik. Fortunately, most of them will not build fertilizer bombs or start shooting. They will seethe and find other outlets.
When it was announced on Friday that an arrest had been made in the explosion and shootings, I e-mailed a friend of mine: “Want to bet he turns out to be a religious nut who couldn’t get laid?”
These guys always have women issues. When news Web sites started posting some of Breivik’s writings and links to Web sites associated with him, I visited one and searched these words: feminists, women, birth control. And, of course, they were all there. Breivik holds some unsurprising opinions on feminism. (It’s weakened the church and patriarchy and the nuclear family. Breivik has soulmates in the Right to Life movement even if they don’t want to publicly own men like him.)
Also, not surprisingly, he doesn’t think much of homosexuality.
Portland’s gay we-are-not-afraid marchers meant well. Who can blame them for wanting to party and enjoy life on the first Saturday night in Portland that actually felt like summer? However, if they think winning high-fives from the line outside the Barrel Room and receiving shouts of “Nice work!” from strangers are going to protect them, they will be disappointed.
How many national Take Back the Night marches have feminist groups organized over the years? To what effect? Last week, a sex offender in Cleveland was convicted of killing 11 women. Unless you live in Ohio, it was only a news brief.
Considering the daily violence that men do to women, “gay bashing” hardly seems worth a special event.
“We have the power to effect the change we want to see in the world …,” drag marshal Bolivia Carmichaels told the marchers before setting off to hit the bars. “We are free to be who we are. We are not going anywhere. We are not going to be quiet. … We are not afraid.”
If they are serious, they might do more than post “Q” placards in Portland bars, designating which ones can be a safe place for gays.
They could get interested in efforts to weaken some of the state’s sentencing laws, which have helped keep crime down. They could get interested in the deterioration of Old Town, much of it related to crime that has nothing to do with gay bashing.
They might even read some of Breivik’s compendium. At last count, he killed at least 77.
– Pamela Fitzsimmons
For me, the absurdity was of the news coverage: dozens of people had been slaughtered in Norway and the 3 main network news programs in Portland despicably led with this idiocy, putting those deaths at a distant second as if they were less important then the colossal waste of time of this propaganda exercise masquerading as a march of some sort.
Has anyone ever heard anyone say or do anything different as a result of this kind of nonsense? Has anyone ever been a gay-basher who suddenly, miraculously stopped because of this kind of insensitivity where their political shtick outweighs the slaughter of dozens of innocents… frankly, much more offensive then any characterization leveled at those with homosexual proclivities who’s entire lives are wrapped in the mantle of their sexuality?
Of course not. And the in-your-face aspect of the gay mainstreamers is part and parcel as to why I despise them so throughly.
I noticed that some media apparently relied on march organizers’ estimate of the turnout. At most, there were 100 people (if that) marching. Nowhere near 400.
Pamela
I have friends who assert that they are open minded conservatives. All go to private colleges/universities.
All are also very supportive of gay matters. This is typical of the conservatives that I know. However, here’s where they are different from most conservatives that I know.
The only military issue that they are passionate about is repeal of DADT. That is not fine.
They have no concern for the foolish ROE under which our troops operate, they were not outraged or concerned by the poor care at Walter Reed. They have no interest in the effects of repeated deployments to combat zones. They have no interest in the weak round our infantry weapons fire. I could go on. Part of my point is that they can not imagine themselves in the position of others at a remove.
Reality and its priorities have long lost their luster in Portland and with much of our educated young people.
The TV and newspaper people are not interested in that part of the LGBTQ community that doesn’t dress in costume or doesn’t spend our weekends and nights in bars. If you’re going to be gay, the TV people want you to be GAY so anyone can see it. I’m not in the closet. I’ve got better things to do with my time than hang out in a bar with people desperate to show how GAY they are.