Modern Worries

I have it on vinyl!

Homophobe-phobia:  Fear of being branded as a homophobe

A generation ago, it took great courage to stand up against racism and intolerance. In my life time, blacks have been subjected to overt racism, homosexuals have been openly persecuted, and ethnic and religious minorities have had to bite their tongues while they were used as the punch lines for insensitive jokes. Everyone but the most ardent religious conservatives would agree that America is a more moral country than we were a few decades ago. It’s no wonder that guys like Rush Limbaugh long for the old days when fat white guys had it made. Oops, mustn’t say "fat," make that "gravitationally challenged."

Conservatives mock the current climate of what they call ultra-political correctness. I have never viewed PC as something negative, I think that people just got fed up with taking their acceptance a little at a time, over the course of decades, and decided that we were going to get enlightenment shoved down our bigoted throats all at once. To paraphrase the over paraphrased Nietzsche, “That which we don’t choke to death on makes us stronger.”

Where I live, in one of America’s most progressive cities, about the worst thing you can be called in the circles in which I move is a bigot. It would be hard enough to be a political conservative in Seattle; forget about being a racist or a homophobe—not to say that these things are related. I’m just saying that most people here are liberals of the flaming variety, vocal, and proud of it.

The new movie, Brokeback Mountain, is billed as a gay western. I haven’t seen it nor do I plan to see it. It’s not the gay part that keeps me out of the theater; it’s the complete lack of appalling violence in the movie that scares the crap out of me. I have no interest in seeing Brokeback Mountain but I don’t want people to think that I’m avoiding the movie because I’m homophobic. I’m boycotting the film because the body count is too low for a western. I’ll admit that the thought of watching two guys make out makes me slightly uncomfortable, but not nearly as much as the thought of watching a western that doesn’t leave a trail of dead bodies in its wake.

You know what, fuck it. I'm going to go see Brokeback Mountain by myself at a matinee. Are you happy now?