Chris Sanders of Grand Divisions has an excellent post on anger in the GLBT rights movement and what behavior will and will not be tolerated while they continue their struggle against mean-spirited legislation (like the anti-adoption bill Aunt B. schooled us on last week).
That’s the tension. GLBT folks in Tennessee are angry about the demeaning, discriminatory bills we are facing in the Legislature. But if we show anger for even just a moment, we’re suddenly the angry gays. As a minority group in a get-along/go-along culture, we have had to stay in a tight box of appearing gentle, reasonable, polite, perhaps even begging. If we stray out of that box, our words become completely eclipsed. I hazard to say that Jeff Woods at the Nashville Scene has expressed more direct outrage in print than any GLBT person in the state (in print) about these bills.
Makes one wonder how certain people in the state would react if Tennessee Equality Project’s Advancing Equality Day on the Hill had included some in your face chest-poking. What if Sean Penn had called for armed revolution at the Oscars? What if the Huffington Post chose to poll its readers as to what form of such a revolt the revolutionaries would prefer?
What if Harvey Milk had incited his followers instead of calming them down?
(HT: Post Politics)
