Hatred and Bigotry for 400, Alex.

[captainsblog]

One of my LJ friends, yachay, linked to a blog post from the weekend which is just.... OY! The poster is from Canada, and her profile says she's an artist. In this case, An Artist Formerly Known As Tolerant. Beneath a screenshot of a Jeopardy! contestant and a Wikipedia link about the rampant proliferation of same-sex marriage in the Western World, she says this:

I like watching Jeopardy. It is a light, all-round quiz show. The contestants are usually ordinary people, teachers, businessmen, housewives, who tell us brief biographies about themselves prompted by the unrufflable host Alex Trebek.

One of the contestants last night said something with "my husband" in his commentary. This contestant happens to be a man. It threw us all for a loop. Trebeck (sic) (or possibly suc) didn't (couldn't) react, since there is no time to ask detailed questions, and to do so would be "homophobic" in our brave new modern world. The TV crew couldn't bleep it out since, like Trebek, they have to be as PC as possible. The audience, like me, was given unsolicited information about a controversial social arrangement during a normally pleasant evening show.

This creepy guy, and his movement, won hands down with no contest. I ended up turning off the TV.

I was really disturbed. We now live in a world where homosexuals will accost you with their aggressively upfront "my husband" and "my wife" information, unsolicited and disconcerting. What do you say when a man talks to you about "my husband" and a woman about "my wife"?

I don't know, ma'am. Maybe ask where they met him/her, how they fell in love, how happy they are together, how much of a family they have? You know- things that civilised people talk to each other about in casual conversation.

The Heroine of our piece then closed by telling of how she is now shunning "a neighbor with a cute French bulldog" (I guess she has no gaydar, huh) since finding out that he writes for an online gay magazine. Yeah- that'll show him.

Comments are disabled on her piece, but I suspect she's been hearing from an offended reader or thousand.

The Mister Husband in question won that game, and apparently last night's as well, although Emily isn't sure if  he'll be on the show tonight.  Yes, she recognised him from the creepy picture posted by the blogger (she even remembered a specific question he got wrong), but the whole "husband" thing sailed right past her. To her, and her generation, and to her mom and me at least, that's normal. And that's what the 'phobes fear the most; that someday they're just going to be left all alone, choking on their own hate-filled vomit, with nobody left to listen to them anymore.

Yet as I told the Friend who originally tipped me to this, I do try to be respectful. If I find this woman trolling around this journal, I shall henceforth refer to the spouses of my male gay friends as being their "Santorum-dripping life partners." Just to be polite.

Comments

[audacian.livejournal.com]

I like her other post, where people's polite smiles and obligation to do their job and not get fired is tacit agreement with her bullshit.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

I started reading it, but after still not being quite recovered from last week's Rush stupidity, I had to stop before my brain started pouring out of my eye sockets.

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

(Goes, looks)

Oh, my *goodness*.

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

Charming. *shakes head* Gods forbid two people who love each other should pair-bond... < / sarcasm >

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Let me introduce you to the other readers, btw, as the young woman more-or-less in charge of maintaining a very touching tribute site in Cardiff to a gay male character killed off in a previous season of Torchwood. Which site is routinely vandalised by homophobic yobs and has resulted in you being harassed by them.

Yeah, we need to work on that, too.

[thanatos-kalos.livejournal.com]

Well, to be fair, it's only been vandalised twice (that I can prove) and only one of those by homophobic yobs. The other time was by my ex-housemates and, as they're gay and I'm straight, doesn't quite work as a hate crime there. :P

We could certainly work on the people disparaging the site, though, for any reason. *sigh* Between the casual homophobia and casual pathologisation of fans, I frequently want to start punching people. :P Still, it's been nice to see that a lot of parents have explained the site to their children using terms like 'partner' or 'couple' or something relating to a romantic relationship.

As I understand the position --

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

Apparently, God -- the creator and ruler of the entire Universe -- spends most of Its time watching us to make sure we don't touch each other's peepees. It's all a matter of priorities.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

I'd love to know what she'd think of the conversation I had with one of my closest friends recently, during which she said, "Is it weird that I complain to my husband about not spending enough time with my second, third, and fourth sex partners?"

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

She'd probably keeled over dead on the spot from apoplexy.

[likethewatch.livejournal.com]

I think that theory should be tested. Meanwhile, I'll go around trying weaker hearts by continuing to refer to my husband in casual conversation. Maybe I should try out for Jeopardy!

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

I, on the other hand, want to know more! We're not at that point at my house. We're more at the "Wait, but I said I would spend these days with you, but I really want to go hiking and then have a movie night with _him_, but you're going away for a month or two fairly soon, but it's harder for me to hang out with him on weeknights than to hang out with you, and... argh!" point around here right now.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Coming soon to CafePress: the Polyamory Dart Board!

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

love!

digitalemur, I have no further information for you, as her comment sent me into gales of laughter, and by the time I recovered, the topic of conversation had changed.

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

Hee! Frankly, I might not even ask, myself. Even when you're doing that crazy stuff it's hard to say "So, uh, yeah, how's the time and energy sharing in your relationships going?" Cuz it ain't _easy_. The theoretical basis is that love isn't limited, but time and energy _are_, but that doesn't necessarily mean everybody gonna be happy with the distribution of time and energy.

[bill_sheehan.livejournal.com]

She's just obeying God's Word. Except that part about shellfish. And wearing mixed fabrics. And forbidding cheeseburgers. And selling all she has and giving to the poor. And feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned...

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

At least she's spreading it on a blog and not on a tat. That I know of, anyway:

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Although, come to think of it, she posted it on a Saturday.

My really observant homophobe friends wouldn't EVER fucking roll on Shabbos.

[targaff.livejournal.com]

But The New Covenant!

Really, I'm told that's the excuse.

[bktheirregular]

How awful that someone must be confronted by evidence that the world is as it is, not how she wishes it to be, and that it has changed in ways she wishes it would not have changed.

[bktheirregular]

Oh, and an a propos counter-quote:

"My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God's plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation's fears and prejudices have given way, and today's young people realize that if someone loves someone, they have a right to marry.

"Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the 'wrong kind of person' for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people's civil rights."

- Mildred Loving

For those in need of the cite:

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

That's Loving as in Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court case that threw out race-mixing statutes in the 1960s.

Which, today, Frothy would likely denounce as the work of activist judges opposing the will of the people.

[cluegirl.livejournal.com]

I have often wondered what it is about gay men that frightens women like her. Because it IS fear, this intolerance of hers, it's fear dressing up as righteous indignation and pretending to be wrath. Underneath, it's still yellow.

Men being afraid of gay men being accepted in society, I can understand; it opens them up to being treated as sex objects, the way they have traditionally treated women as sex objects. It opens them up to the same kind of street-calling, back alley stalking, well what was he wearing, he probably liked it harassment that they've been dishing out for centuries. But a woman being so afraid... I wonder what the tiny, quivering creature inside her breast is really afraid of.

[stress-kitten.livejournal.com]

What does she mean, unsolicited? Trebek (or however his name is spelled) usually asks brief biographies about the person. Is not the person who they are married to therefore implicitly (or even EXplicitly) inquired about?

Gods, I'm embarrassed to find out she's from Canada.

[uninvitedcat.livejournal.com]

There's a 'debate' rumbling on on this side of the pond at the moment, with a suggestion that 'civil partnerships' get called 'marriages'. I say 'debate' because I'm seeing a lot of froth from the Bishops complaining that calling a life-long commitment to another person a marriage will undermine marriage and frankly I don't get it. Just like I don't get how mentioning you have a husband or wife can be described as accosting someone aggressively.

One recent declaration from a Bish objected to 'equality' trumping 'faith'. To me, that sounds about right.

[tilia-tomentosa.livejournal.com]

LOL LOL LOL poor little sensitive soul!

Feel free to refer to me as "a notorious fag hag". :D

[throbinson.livejournal.com]

I understand how reasonable minds can differ on the point of marriage vs civil unions (my son is gay, I'm a past president of our local PFLAG) because my husband staunchly believes that marriage is a man/woman only institution. He thinks gays should be content with civil unions. (FTR, it's not his son, but mine and my ex's -- and he loves my son very much and isn't weird or squeamish, at least to me, about him being gay.)

But this woman's reaction to watching Jeopardy! the other night is just a symptom of her own pathology. 'If I think teh gay is icky, then maybe it will just go away.'

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

Ha.

I did catch the reference -- I think he was talking about a past or future vacation -- and thought that there was some hope for the future that he can calmly say "my husband" in the same tone I would say "my wife", and no one gasped or shrieked or had fantods; they just nodded that he and his husband were going someplace nice, and let's hope the weather is good for them.

Every victory is a nose under the tent, bearing in mind that it's a tent of inequality, ignorance, and darkness.

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

I can't believe that she got that caught up in one word. Ridiculous. She probably boycotts "Jeopardy" now. I wonder if she all boycotts most classical music, movies with awesome costuming, and many finer restaurants. As for me, I boycott none of the above, nor do I boycott my fabulous (intentional wording) gay friends.