From: adolphso@mizar.usc.edu (adolphson)
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Re: Gayspace
Date: 27 Jul 1992 10:38:41 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: mizar.usc.edu

In article <1992Jul27.025707.2068@macc.wisc.edu> 
anderson@macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) writes:
|
| In article <2A733D51.5586@noiro.acs.uci.edu>
| cedman@714-725-3165.nts.uci.edu (Carl Edman) writes:
|
| I've sent Carl Edman an email copy of this, because I doubt
| he saw Arne's article in soc.motss, rather in one of the
| other groups to which it was cross-posted.  Arne, you might
| keep that in mind, especially as we've been invaded by two
| threads from hell that are cross-posted like crazy lately.

I cross-posted my article to all the newsgroups involved
in both threads from hell -- the inane libertarian hoo-haw,
and the *revolting* TV trip down faulty memory lane.  I suppose
it was a stupid idea, but I felt like invading straightspace.
What surprised me about Edman's response was not his moronic
attempt to draw an analogy between gl demonstrations for
civil rights and Operation Rescue's attempts to close down
women's health clinics, but rather his total cluelessness.
Did he not stop to ask himself why that article, with that
title, was cross-posted to those newsgroups?  

[...]
| >adolphson writes
|
| >>So, anyway, in today's LA Times is a little article that my
| >>city council (the West Hollywood City Council) last week
| >>approved a monument commemorating last fall's street
| >>protests against California governor Pete Wilson's
| >>veto of AB 101 (a gay-rights bill).
|
| What sort of monument?

"An inscribed bronze-and-steel triangle perched atop a gently 
curving post.  The plaque will cite the protests over the bill, 
known as AB 101, and declare: 'We will prevail.'"

It's my understanding that the city council approved placing the
monument on city property, but that the monument itself was
paid for by gl organizations.

| >>I took part in most of
| >>the street protests, and I am *very* glad to see that the
| >>city council stood up to some homophobic resistance --
| >>yes, even West Hollywood has its phobes.  They, the
| >>phobes, complained that the city "places too much
| >>emphasis on gay and lesbian issues".
|
| This is another variant of "you homos should stay in your
| place."  It's of a piece with our "flaunting it" if we hold
| hands in public or do other things that the majority
| straight population does all the time.

Precisely, although it *could* be argued that West Hollywood 
does indeed emphasize gl issues, and for the reason I give
below:

| >>I say a big "fuck you"
| >>to them.  The city places emphasis on gay and lesbian
| >>issues because we are the single largest voting block in
| >>the city.
|
| I endorse the "fuck you" but not the reason.  The reason is
| *not* that the council should emphasize LG issues; rather,
| it should argue that this "emphasis" is a figment of
| homophobic consciousness.  The council should do its part to
| promote a just society, not because one segment of the
| society has the largest voting block, but because it's the
| right thing to do.

The emphasis on gl issues is not a figment of homophobic
consciousness -- it does actually take place, and the city 
council has always been explicit about it.  Now, whether they
act out of a desire to promote social justice (remotely
possible) or to keep their seats on the city council (more 
likely, say I) it doesn't really matter to me what their
motivations are.

| If you're going to feel comfortable only when you can outvote
| the bigots, you're in real big trouble.  A just society goes
| out of its way to respect and value minority interests and to
| do so on principle.

This is all well and good, but I do feel more comfortable
when "we", however defined, outnumber "them".

| >>And if the phobes don't like it, they're welcome
| >>to move to a city 35% of whose residents are not gay.  I'm
| >>sure they'd be able to find such cities. 
|
| Carl is right to call this a bigoted remark.  It's analogous
| to "If those folks are annoyed by the Stars and Bars, let
| 'em get up north."

Perhaps it was a bigoted remark.  I'm not terribly concerned, though.

Newsgroups: soc.motss