Tea for Tomorrow

Of the comments I received on Wednesday's post concerning the relative ignorance, real or studied, of "gay rights" groups toward the amendment process and how it negatively affects our strategies, one in particular, from Gryph of Gryphmon's Grumbles, stands out:

As far as your statements on the gay community and public relations, there is a great deal of truth to it. But you also seem to think that if everyone just sits down together and has a nice cup of tea and discusses the issue that everyone will come around to your point of view. Thats unrealistic.

Just as there are some really nasty people out there that really would do deliberate harm to kittens, there really are people that "hate" gay people. And they are for the most part not wearing sheets and swastikas.

Of course there are. Probability, logic, and psychology dictate that there will be people out there who have an irrational fear of homosexuals; even more so, there will be people out there for whom hatred and loathing of gay people are so integral a part of their philosophy that changing that would be akin to dynamiting the foundation of a house to fix a structural problem. They'll be found in every clothes type from haute couture to hayseed, every education level from preschool to postgrad, every location from sea to shining sea, and every skin color across the spectrum.

Thus, it's perfectly logical to say that you can't bring everyone around to your point of view.

The problem with "gay activism", though, is that it is fixated on the small minority of those genuinely-dangerous antigay people who abuse religious or political ideology as an excuse for bad behavior.

To respond directly to Gryph's point, no, I don't expect everyone to come around to my viewpoint with a nice cup of tea and conversation. But I don't need them to come around to my exact viewpoint; all I need them to do is realize that the antigay folks are fixated on the small minority of genuinely-dangerous gay people who do abuse gay rights as an excuse for bad behavior.

Does that tactic sound familiar?

Real change in this country will not come until the vast middle realizes that we're being manipulated by con people on the left and right. Joe Solmonese, Elizabeth Birch, and other so-called "gay leaders" are no different than Jerry Falwell; all are unscrupulous and hypocritical con men who play on the fears of others to coerce behavior that enriches them and increases their power. Their calls for "unity" and their demonization of "the other side" are nothing more than cheap propaganda attempts to keep us chained and dependent so they can sell us and our votes to desperate politicians and unpopular interest groups.

Thus, I will continue to advocate for teatimes with straight people in the hopes that I learn from them and they from me. I will gladly gamble that I will meet far more erudite than extremists, and in the process tear numerous leashes from the fumbling fingers of the Falwell-esque.