Embittered old queens

OR
I started a fight. Surprise surprise….

For a couple of weeks now, I’ve been fighting the good fight on the DL. I am on the board of the statewide queer organization, Equality New Mexico. Our organization took a stand against a ridiculously bad political move by Barney Frank and HRC-supposed leaders of the gay community.

I have always wondered why Barney Frank gets all the media attention, and hype for being a Queer leader in congress, when he was out-ed during a sex scandal, and has since made banking and credit a bigger issue than queer issues. I’m not saying that a gay member of congress can’t have a broad agenda, in fact the opposite, they should. But Barney Frank is no leader on queer issues. He definitely isn’t someone to be PROUD of within the community, not to mention he’s an absolute asshole, as I’ve had the misfortune of having to deal with him personally on numerous trips to New Mexico.

So my favorite new blog to read, Queersighted has a few authors who write from their various perspectives on multiple issues. I like this blog a lot, and have had the utmost level of respect for most of the authors. Except Richard.

When I first started reading Richards posts, I found them a little interesting. Then I began to be bored with his constant hammering away at the religious right for their intolerance and bigotry, then I was just flat out annoyed. The things, for me, complaining about the Religious Right is like bitching about cold winters. It’s a fact. It’s the truth. It’s not going to change. Does it suck, sometimes yes. But I prefer to spend my time worrying about the middle ground, those people worldwide who haven’t made up their minds about queers for example. Because why bitch about Jerry Falwell when I can spend my energy working to make sure he isn’t influencing the opinions and morals of oh I dunno, an entire generation of upcoming citizens?

That’s when things got worse. I was annoyed, I stopped reading Richard’s posts, and I moved on.

Then Richard started acting like the Religious Right. Sure he was friendly about it, sure he said things like “I personally don’t have anything against… I just worry about the PR repercussions on our community… blah blah blah”

See Richard was angry about Sissies. Yes Sissies. The thing that so many of us were called growing up, the reason that most Fags are accused of being fags in the first place. Because we don’t fit the perfect stereotype of what it is to be a man in today’s society.

I ignored those posts too, for the most part. Occasionally I would send the links to someone I knew would appreciate them, and we would discuss the posts while smoking.

But then, Richard came out with his most ridiculous blog ever. And I blew up!!!
Richard decided to defend Barney Frank’s spineless stance on the ENDA bill, that is that passing a useless bill through a US House that wants easy votes, onto the desk of a President that quite frankly will not sign the bill anyway.

My position is clear: On top, preferably you looking into your eyes….OK OK not that position!!!

My position is clear: ENDA is a worthless bill unless it includes Gender Identity for a number of reasons.

First of all, what is the point is selling out on a major portion of our community? It gets us no political capitol, and in the end we can’t sleep at night either. Well I Can’t sleep at night, knowing I left a half a boatload of people down the river, and cruised up here with plenty of room for them.

Secondly, sexual orientation isn’t provable in these discrimination cases anyway. When was the last time you said to your boss “Hey guess who I fucked the hell out of last night?” NEVER. Well if you did you were fired for sexual harassment, or your boss (like mine) wouldn’t’ fire you for being gay anyway! There is no way that an employer can prove your sexual orientation, unless you have their penis in your mouth (even then its questionable, read: we all had those few experiences with “straight” guys down the hall in the dorms…)
Now, chances are, you are going to get fired for being, say a dyke. And the reason you got fired, not because your employer knows you are out munching carpet all day, but rather, because you have spiked hair, you wear boots, and you don’t have any make up on. Those aren’t qualifications that fall under sexual orientation, but rather under Gender Identity. They “dyke” didn’t get fired for munching carpet, she got fired cause “my custmers dunno how to take a gurl with short hair.” And then, the fucker gets off in court. Why? Cause we wrote a lousy law. The reality is that without Gender Identity in this bill it won’t do any good anyway.

Third, we aren’t going to get the bill signed. This is what we call advocating periods. WE put the bill in, try to get it passed, and use it as an opportunity to educate lawmakers about the issue. So what if we don’t get the sill passed because we include GI in the bill? If we get to have the conversation with fifteen more legislators and bring a couple around on it, then we are good to go. At least we still have our spines.

But no no no. Richard, in all his political idiocy decided to decry those of us attacking Spineless Barney Frank on the issue, and make us out to be the evil doers. Well this time around he caught his share of backlash. And he didn’t take it well.

My posts were a little bit personal in nature, but it hurts, as I said. Richard asked me to give up the insults “childish and personal” as they were according to him, and to instead provide a strategy for passing said bill the way I wanted it, in the real world.

Well I did that, in a second comment on the blog. But got no response to it. Interesting I thought, so I waited a day or so, and then I asked Richard about it. His response was ridiculous. “Read my original post thoroughly, you will understand my position.” I guess Richard got his feathers ruffled that someone a third of his age was able outsmart him politically.

Bitter old queens, take this warning. It’s time to retire your bitchy tiaras, and rest your weary elbows/wrists from the wave. A new generation has come forth, and we are ready to stand up for what is right, more so than you give us credit for.

And for the record, the T isn’t silent in GLBT!!!