From: anderson@macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson)
Subject: Re: Boycott Colorado
Keywords: hate activism politics election christian
Organization: Madison Academic Computing Center, UW-Madison
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 92 12:37:27 GMT


In article <38695@hoptoad.uucp> laura@hoptoad.UUCP (God)
writes:

>My two lesbian friends who run a resturant in Boulder like tourists,
>who give them the $$ to make a living.  If a boycott would
>work, they'd love to support it, but all they see happening
>out of a boycott is that they will lose their business because 
>their neighbours are jerks.  

Many of us have friends in Colorado who would suffer adverse
consequences if a boycott were highly successful.  Most of
my friends there don't see that prospect as "all" that would
happen, however, not by a long shot.

>When I hear from somebody who lives in Colorado who thinks it
>[a boycott] will [work] I'll take this more seriously.  

Am I mistaken in thinking you have heard this now?  Therefore
you are taking it seriously now?

>Otherwise it is just
>indignant out-of-staters pissing and moaning about intolerance
>in Colorado, and the bigots who live there, who, from an
>out of town perspective forget the Gaypeople who *live* and
>*work* in Colorado.

I think this is off-base in at least two ways.  It isn't
"just" indignant out-of-staters and we are not just "pissing
and moaning" about intolerance *in Colorado*.  I know
several in-staters who are indignant, rather more than that,
actually.  The concerns of millions of us who happen not to
live in the state itself are trivialized by your "just." I
think those concerns are legitimate.

Irrespective of whether a boycott would accomplish the goals
people envision for it, those goals are not about Colorado
alone; rather, they are about all of us, wherever we may be.
They are clearly about Oregon, which a quite nontrivial
number of people expressed support for an even more
hate-filled proposition; they are about all parts of the
country where homophobia has a negative effect on our lives;
they are about incipient fascism as a new world-wide menace.
To call such concerns "pissing and moaning" strikes me as
fairly insulting.

Even more insulting is the suggestion that those supporting
the boycott concept are doing so blindly and without concern
for the possible effects on LGBO people there.  It seems to
me there is ample evidence, more than enough certainly, that
despite our hurt and rage and despite having been put in
close contact with our fears of a new Holocaust, most people
are aware of and concerned about those of our number who live
in Colorado.

Knowing you these many years, I'm quite sure you care as
much as anyone about these things, so I'm equally sure you
didn't consciously insult anyone.  But it remains the
primary thrust of what you said, and what you said is read
by thousands of people who aren't fortunate enough to know
you.

-- 
Jess Anderson <> Madison Academic Computing Center <> University of Wisconsin
Internet: anderson@macc.wisc.edu <-best, UUCP:{}!uwvax!macc.wisc.edu!anderson
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