From: jakec@ralvmm.vnet.ibm.com (Jake Coughlin)
Subject: Freedom (was Re: Gay Homophobia)
Originator: jakec@ralvmm.vnet.ibm.com
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 20:45:30 GMT
Organization: IBM T. J. Watson Research

bobsarv@microsoft.com (Bob Sarver):
>If you would just take responsibility for your own actions, that would
>be more than enough.

>Defending bizarre practices by calling them freedom of expression,
>and then mysteriously wondering why gays are still oppressed.

i choose to rename this thread because i will not address the paucity
of intellect from which the original spawned.  indeed, the original
conception reminds me closely of what happens when you give a gun to
two rednecks.  this time, a meager ten dollars sent the children to
the sandbox.

i choose to respond, not to address the children, but to address the
adults.  there are people who read soc.motss, looking for empowerment
to step into the world, out of the closet, and homophobes like sarver
are pressed up against that door.  for it does feel like a door, i've
been there.  but now i'm here, and looking back, the truth is that
there is no door.  there is nothing for the homophobes to lean against
to keep you imprisoned, except yourself, and this is where sarver gets
his power.  not from the door, but from *you*.

all of his attacks are against the grain, the effeminate, the radical
faeries.  he highlights the line drawn by society, expects you to
march by it, and whispers about the boogy monster.  (have you been
checking under your bed?  you should because according to sarver, all
the world knows where you lie.)  he hands you his flashlight, and in
the surrouding dark, you catch the sick, the degenerate, the
perverted, the effeminate in your little spotlight, and when sarver's
not looking, you secretly examine yourself, cut off the barnacles, and
silently step back into line.

if you're black, will you swim in Instant Paper?  if you're
effeminate, will you buy Nike clothing?  if you're masculine, will you
throw away your purse and lipstick?  what will you sacrifice to escape
sarver's scrutiny?  and how now are you to measure freedom when it's
drawn by the quill pen of sarver and his ilk?

listen up, deary, because it's *your* life not sarver's -- this is the
first step to coming out of the closet.  it's the first step in
recognizing that you aren't sarver's plaything, and when you come out
of the closet and declare to the world that you're here, you're queer,
and you're fabulous, you're taking responsibility for all of your very
own actions.  every morning that you wake up and walk out of your home
as an open homosexual, you are making a political statement, raising
your finger to sarver, bush, reagan, falwell, robertson, the little
old man with grey hair walking his poodle and mumbling "faggots,"
"nelly queens," and "dykes."

in their world, you're abnormal, but in *your* world, baby, you're
beautiful, and just who owns your reality anyway?  you do, hon,
because it can't be rent-controlled.

jake, who really has *nothing* to say to sarver...
-- 
Jason Coughlin ( jakec@ralvmm.vnet.ibm.com )
Queer Without A Cause!
"I find myself suddenly in the world, and I recognize that I have one
right alone: that of demanding human behavior of the other." -- Fanon
Newsgroups: soc.motss