Mr. Brotman,
How someone can convey their ignorance so unmistakably using so few words is really a modern marvel, not one you should be proud of. You wrote something to me last year of comparable intellectual value, but not quite as ugly as your response to Jeff Pike. Your laconic argument was unnecessarily rude and misguided, and you show that you are clearly uninterested in hearing what the minority opinion thinks. And you do it in an awfully childish way. The fact is that not everyone who accepts gay people feel the need to hang banners, and that doesn’t make them homophobic.
While I strongly disagree with the religious element of Jeff’s argument (or the religious element to ANY argument, for that matter), his overall point about “gay pride” banners was on the money. He was right when he said that homosexuals are not special— they are just human beings like everyone else. So why is it acceptable to hang rainbow banners over everything and make such a crusade over homosexuality? If we can celebrate one sexual orientation in such a way, why can’t we celebrate the other? And should we even be celebrating something over which we have no control? The truth of the matter is, such constant distinction between “gay vs. straight” is what helps fuel homophobia in the first place. Gays, blacks, Hispanics, white folks, men and women are all just PEOPLE, and having “pride parades,” “history months” and “awareness weeks” over such truly insignificant distinctions is what encourages racism and prejudice (and makes straight white people think that they’re just, as John Lennon sang, “the nigger of the world”). I, of course, feel tremendously sorry for anyone whose sexuality, race, ethnicity, etc. has been viewed as a mark of undeserved dishonor simply because of how they were born. But hanging up rainbow banners or chalking “Wes loves queers” is not solving anything— just creating greater chasms between gay people and straight people. That and it’s friggin’ annoying.
And allow me to go further: such concepts as “Black History Month” are particularly egregious examples of racism, and the point would be made clear if someone were to suggest “White History Month” or chalk “Wes loves straight people” on the sidewalk. People should feel safe being whatever race or sexuality they are, but to constantly rub it in people’s faces and to rabidly fight for everyone’s “acceptance” is not only inappropriate, it’s counterproductive. Your absurd notions of “heteronormativity” do not say anything of import. Just because most people are straight does not mean that we should paint the world rainbow until the statistics even out. Are these gay-pride banners really an act of “assertiveness” on the part of the homosexual population? No. Everyone at Wesleyan acknowledges that homosexual people exist, whether or not they agree with homosexuality. If they don’t like who you are, rise above and forget them– who needs the acceptance of bigots, anyway? Banners, history months and pride parades do not do anything but endorse bigotry.
Maybe I should give you a taste of your own medicine and just tell you to “shut your fucking mouth” when the other point of view tries to assert its existence, but I truly believe that sunlight is the best disinfectant. And furthermore, Mr. Brotman, if you would like a more lucid idea of what “the dumbest shit a human being can utter” is, perhaps you should read your Wespeaks before you publish them.
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