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11/13/2007

It's you who do the 'tricks', MassResistance; we just bust up your hoaxes!

by Jeremy Hooper

The reliably unhinged folks at MassResistance have today posted an article on gay acceptance that was featured in this past weekend's Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, along with their own pithy and snarky running commentary in the margins. And while we could have chosen any number of passages from their posting to highlight their duplicity, we think this one will do the trick quite ably.

On the right is the Boston Globe magazine article; on the left, MassResistance's claims:

Picture 3-83

Okay, so they're of course trying to make it sound as if Kevin Jennings, a tireless advocate for gay acceptance in public schools, employed sneaky tactics in his campaigns, right? Well, look at the 1995 speech to which MR refers and see what Mr. Jennings ACTUALLY had to say about his side's strategy:

"In Massachusetts the effective reframing of this issue was the key to the success of the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth. We immediately seized upon the opponent's calling card-- safety--and explained how homophobia represents a threat to students' safety by creating a climate where violence, name- calling, health problems, and suicide are common. Titling our report 'Making Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Youth,' we automatically threw our opponents onto the defensive and stole their best line of attack. This framing short-circuited their arguments and left them back-pedaling from day one."

So yes, while Jennings did fully admit in the speech to reframing the issue, he didn't at all say that he tried to "trick" anyone. And he didn't say that he's made any "claims" that the matter was about safety. What he is saying is that in order to help his push for gay acceptance, he and his team had to show that the TRUE threat to safety in public schools was anti-gay bias, not pro-gay acceptance! He's saying that he had to seize the right wing's common "line of attack," and show people how THEY are the ones who have truly always been on the offensive! Such is not an underhanded or sneaky tactic -- it's simply a smart and accurate strategy employed by a movement who is sick and tired of the far-right's lies!

But of course since MassResistance's M.O. is to try and make the gay community look unsavory, they instead try and steer their readers in supporting their interpretation of events rather than the truth. It's sort of like the childish strategy the far-right employs in terms of the word "gay". They routinely accuse the homosexuals of adopting the term as a sort of tricky, insidious PR move. However, the reality of the situation is that while it certain was done as a way of de-stigmatizing homosexuality, the term wasn't adopted out of cold, calculate deception -- it was adopted as a righteous way to fight the cruel and unjust treatment that had up to that point plagued (and still to this day plagues) a vibrant sect of the population!

With groups likes MassResistance, the gay community cannot do anything without it being bastardized by them into some sort of unrighteous endeavor. Now, this really comes as no surprise, since the entire "pro-family" movement is built on employing duplicitous logic in order to justify discrimination. It would seem the movement's proponents are so ensconced within this world of socio-polititical trickery that they can't even fathom how other groups could operate without also employing bullsh*t. But what they fail to see is that our side DOESN'T NEED TO TAKE SUCH STEPS because we have the truth of the human condition on our side! Sure we have to be smart in the way we push for acceptance, as the "pro-family" side is large, powerful, monied, and hellbent on seeing gay rights kept at bay. But we don't have to lie or misrepresent the matters at hand; we simply have to connect the dots for a world that has been using queers as scapegoats for longer than any of us in the LGBT community would care to remember! Happily, we can leave the hat-dwelling rabbits and men who hide behind curtains to our opponents.

Boston Globe celebrates homosexual school clubs persuading kids to "come out" as teenagers (and earlier).[MR]

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Your thoughts

'They made an argument about safety?... but... but... thats CHEATING! Only we are allowed to argue about safety. God said so. Somewhere. Homos are all going to die of AIDS in a few years, so they arn't allowed to say we are dangerous.'

Posted by: Suricou Raven | Nov 14, 2007 2:32:09 AM

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