On Friday night, I took my son to see Blue Man Group. He (and I) enjoyed it immensely.
The Briar Street Theater, where Blue Man plays in Chicago, is in the heart of "Boys Town," the neighborhood where many of Chicago's gay men and women live and where there are plenty of gay bars and other gay-friendly institutions. As we walked to the theater, two people stopped us and handed us a pamphlet announcing the demonstration the next day in downtown Chicago against California's Proposition 8, or "Proposition Hate" as it's been aptly dubbed.
We didn't go, but we were glad to see news of a great turnout here and in all of the other cities. We have close friends and relatives who are gay or lesbian. Last night, I was talking about it all to co-worker Phil. He is, like me, straight and a parent. This is, he pointed out, the great civil rights issue of our time. We both puzzled over the opposition that some straight people have to affirming the basic civil right of marriage to same-sex couples. He also mentioned Vikki's recent post about how the owner of "El Coyote," a popular Los Angeles eatery, was begging gay folks not to boycott her restaurant. "Teh gays" are a big part of the clientele of the restaurant he and I work at, and almost any other. I think support for "Proposition Hate" is going to bite a lot of people in the ass.
A lot of the opposition to gay rights is religious-based. This hasn't done much to blunt my general contempt for most organized religion (there are many churches that do teach love and tolerance, to give credit where credit is due). It made me think of this scene in "The West Wing" in which President Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, punks a character who is a thinly-veiled Dr. Laura by suggesting that he take every word of the Old Testament literally.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
14 comments:
We know people who were beaten up by the LA police and jailed with a $20,000 bail EACH for "failure to disperse", while participating in a peaceful demonstration against Proposition Hate.
That is insanity.
I think that was my favorite moment of West Wing. I should try and memorize it.
I remember seeing that scene and thinking how great it would be to have a president with the balls to actually say stuff like that.
SWEET!! That's EXACTLY how I feel every time someone brings up the Bible as justification for their bigotry and hate. What a load of crap.
I love a state where it is now illegal to dock a dogs ears or declaw a cat but...if Adan and Steve want to marry now that's not a civil rights issue.
Nuts, just nuts, puddies and puppies rights over people. Don't get me wrong I love my pets but it just boggles my mind...
I always thought there was supposed to be a clear separation of government and religion. Apparently not. It's crazy.
Shoot, they didn't even get to my favorite part, where we kill our neighbors for eating shellfish.
Right on. Absolutely nuts.
awesome clip. Thanks for sharing.
Sweet. I would love to see more of that.
It's very difficult not to have general contempt for anything that engenders this kind of blind intolerance. It'd be nice to live in an age of rational thought rather than one of religious reactionary leanings. Isn't that what were fighting against in the supposed war on terror? America should be better than this.
Thanks for finding that clip. I have always loved it. I hope the new administration is a bit like the fake TV one.
Joe Biden, though, was immensely disappointing on this issue in the debate.
I share your general contempt over most religion and thank you for the clip, I hadn't seen it before. The whole Prop 8 thing just makes me so disgusted.
I LOVED that show...have the complete DVD set of it...whenever I grew weary of W I'd play a few and pretend Martin Sheen was MY President!
Post a Comment