I mean, just the way this meme was worded - pass along a no-thought statement that waters down an issue that many people including you personally may and do hold dear, or else be labelled a homophobe.
The spirit of support was almost enough to make me go along with the meme except for the "If you don't believe in gay rights, then just ignore this. Thanks" part. Because you know what, it is NOT okay for this to be ignored. Not at all. And saying would invite that stuff you wrote about here - about making something sound like a purely conceptual debate, something for "rational discussion" instead of looking at the very very real pain and suffering that not supporting full rights for glbt's brings about. And I'd rather be labelled a homophobe than contribute to bringing the issue down to such a trivial level. And I'd rather not object to the wording, either, because that carries the danger of causing arguement among people who essentially agree, to divide where there needs to be unified action and because unifed action is a much much different thing than acting with a unified voice.
So what are the choices. Risk being outcast for not following along. Silence your individual voice when you feel speaking as part of a group would hurt the group. Speak as an individual and be outcast and hurt the group effort.
I think memes like this in part try to remove the individual meaning. A unified voice is not a group voice. A group voice will have all sorts of varied tones and notes while singing the same tune. A unified voice loses complexity and power.
Which isn't to say that I support the silly assed notion of "human rights, not gay rights." Because the powers that be have created "gay" as a box, a unified group and imposed types of oppression on that group that have not been imposed on other humans. And what we need is a group effort of raising individual voices to show gay is just an arbitrary distinction that was drawn for the purpose of exploiting some at the expense of others. Stand together, fight the idea that those who stand together or who are oppressed together are "one" thing.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-10-05 12:07 am (UTC)I mean, just the way this meme was worded - pass along a no-thought statement that waters down an issue that many people including you personally may and do hold dear, or else be labelled a homophobe.
The spirit of support was almost enough to make me go along with the meme except for the "If you don't believe in gay rights, then just ignore this. Thanks" part. Because you know what, it is NOT okay for this to be ignored. Not at all. And saying would invite that stuff you wrote about here - about making something sound like a purely conceptual debate, something for "rational discussion" instead of looking at the very very real pain and suffering that not supporting full rights for glbt's brings about. And I'd rather be labelled a homophobe than contribute to bringing the issue down to such a trivial level. And I'd rather not object to the wording, either, because that carries the danger of causing arguement among people who essentially agree, to divide where there needs to be unified action and because unifed action is a much much different thing than acting with a unified voice.
So what are the choices. Risk being outcast for not following along. Silence your individual voice when you feel speaking as part of a group would hurt the group. Speak as an individual and be outcast and hurt the group effort.
I think memes like this in part try to remove the individual meaning. A unified voice is not a group voice. A group voice will have all sorts of varied tones and notes while singing the same tune. A unified voice loses complexity and power.
Which isn't to say that I support the silly assed notion of "human rights, not gay rights." Because the powers that be have created "gay" as a box, a unified group and imposed types of oppression on that group that have not been imposed on other humans. And what we need is a group effort of raising individual voices to show gay is just an arbitrary distinction that was drawn for the purpose of exploiting some at the expense of others. Stand together, fight the idea that those who stand together or who are oppressed together are "one" thing.