10 • The Lambda • January 1993
COMMENTARY
QUEER OVER HERE
T his first column of mine
was going to be about
Britain and America
and the differences in being
queer here and across the
pond. In some ways it still is,
in others it is not.
I am an exchange student
over from Britain for one year.
I live in Manchester, England,
the queer capital of the North.
I wanted to talk about what
it’s like there, what it’s like
here, comparing the two.
But a certain group of young
men have prevented me from
doing what I wanted to do; a
group of young men who have
really pissed me off big-time.
I’ve always been of the opin
ion that every person is en
titled to what I call public
privacy. So long as no one gets
hurt, what should prevent you
from doing whatever you like
in public? I refer mainly to
P.D.A.s — Public Displays of
Affection. I have never been
annoyed that straight couples
kiss and grope in public.I’m
M'iSweetman
quite happy to take the live-
and-let-live attitude.
I’ve been out for four years
now, and in all that time I too
have been afforded that pri
vacy. I could be affectionate
with a partner in public. Yes,
there would be stares. I can
deal with stares.
I think I’ve been spoiled.
Manchester is a queer city. Up
in the heart of the North of
England, the native Mancun-
ions are used to it. The city is
full of queer bars and clubs.
When I came here, my sis
ter said 1 should watch out for
queer-bashers. 1 scoffed. 1 said
Chapel Hill is known for be
ing a liberal town; I said I
won’t get abuse there.
Well, to my dismay, I
couldn’t have been more
wrong.
The culprits? Yes, FRAT
BOYS. Well, they looked like
Frat boys. You can tell, can’t
you? You know, they’re all
jocks, have short hair, Caro
lina Spirit etc. What? Me?
Judgemental?
I was with my girlfriend,
returning from the Red Clay
Ramblers show last semester.
“DYKES!”
I was talking as we walked
past. After we’d
gotten a safe dis
tance past
them, that’s
what I heard. I
double checked
that I’d heard
right. I had.
and one things 1 wanted to
say. But none of them were
there for me. Half of me is
happy that I said what I did.
The other half is annoyed that
1 didn’t say all the million and
one other things I wanted to
say. Some might argue that
I’m hanging out
with my girlfriend
just iike they do,
but i get the abuse.
“DYKES!”
I’d been in this situation
once before. Franklin St., Hal
loween, hand in hand with
my girlfriend. That time I was
so amazed at what I’d heard, I
couldn’t speak. This time 1
could speak. I was angry. I
was really pissed off.
“FUCK YOU!”
That’s it. Fuck you. Noth
ing witty, nothing argumenta
tive. We were too far away for
me to go back and shout at
them. That’s all I could muster
in my exasperated state.
Well, there were a million
just shouting abuse does no
good and is just as bad as the
original abuse. Well it does
me good.
I wanted to shout more and
louder, 1 wanted to kick the
living shit out of them. What
can I do? I’m hanging out with
my girlfriend just like they do,
but I get the abuse.
It sucks and next time it
happens I will lose my rag. I’ll
stop being P.C. and thinking
“abuse doesn’t solve anything,
write an article, Lucy.”
Next time 1 will hit back.
louder and stronger. I’m fed
up with having to deal with
the kind of crap that is being
dealt out to me. It is fear of
difference that motivates this
kind of abuse. No doubt the
guy who shouted at us is un
aware that perhaps some of
his family or friends are queer.
Maybe one of the guys in that
group had been on the verge
of coming out to his friends.
What now though? His friend
is homophobic. How can he
ever come out to him now?
We have to realize that we
are all responsible for thebom-
munity in which we live. We
are all responsible for the
peacefulness of that commu
nity. Regardless of where we
fit into that setting, whether
we consider ourselves part of
a minority or part of the ma
jority, we have to take on the
challenges that we all encoun
ter when we co-habitate.
Hopefully one day soon, all
the promoters of hate-filled
“isms” and phobias will real
ize they’re missing out and we
can all get on with the impor
tant thing in life; just being.
Review, from page 5
as the Conference of Gay and
Lesbian Officials have en
dorsed the boycott, as have
celebrities such as Barbra
Steisand. The boycott’s orga
nizers say it has cost the state
as much as $20 million al
ready.
City councils in Atlanta, Se
attle, Boston, Baltimore, New
York, Philadelphia, Los Ange
les and Austin have joined the
boycott. Some have forbid
den employees to travel to
Colorado on official business,
while others have also forbid
den any dealings with compa
nies based in Colorado.
Colorado’s $5 billion-a-year
tourism industry makes it es-
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pecially vulnerable to such a
boycott. Streisand’s public
comments had tourism offi
cials worried that Hollywood
celebrities might forsake the
ski slopes of Colorado. Lead
ers in Aspen raised $50,000
for newspaper ads to point
out Aspen’s historically pro
gressive record on gay civil
rights.
The New Christian Right
The wave of anti-gay efforts
in 1992 reflects the growing
strength of a new nation-wide
network of conservative
Christian political organiza
tions. In the past, these groups
have mostly focused on qui
etly electing conservative
Christian majorities to local
boards and committees. Now
they are turning
to state elections
and referenda,
and toward gain
ing control of
state and local Re
publican parties.
Working at the
grass-roots level
through evan
gelical congrega
tions, these
groups have
7^
largely escaped mainstream
media attention while they fo
cused on local elections. Since
turnout for these elections is
usually light, a small but mo
tivated group of voters can
often determine the outcome.
In San Diego in 1990, the
religious right backed 90 can
didates for local offices, two-
thirds of whom won.
Campaigning quietly through
evangelical and fundamental
ist churches, they down
played their religious
connections in the media.
The religious right has used
similar tactics to gain control
of local and state Republican
parties by taking over local
caucuses that select delegates
to state bodies. In 12 states,
including Colorado, Washing
ton, Louisiana, Kansas, Michi
gan andArizona, the religious
right gained control of the state
Republican caucus or conven
tion this year.
Christian groups in other
states have learned from this
year’s results. Groups in Ohio,
California, Oregon, Idaho,
Maine and Missouri have an
nounced their intention to get
measures similar to
Colorado’s on their ballots.
And in 19937
This year’s elections showed
a mixed result: two anti-gay
ballot measures passed at the
same time voters elected the
most gay-positive president in
history and the number of
openly gay or lesbian elected
officials jumped from 64 to
75 nationwide.
The passage of Amendment
2 in Colorado sets the stage
for right-wing Christian
groups to put similar bans on
anti-discrimination laws on
ballots across the country.
Gays*and lesbians now face
the possibility of having to
fight city by city and state by
state to retain existing laws,
diverting resources that could
have been used for expand
ing civil rights protections.
The changes brought about
in Washington by the 1992
election present another op
portunity to pre-empt these
local battles at the national
level. A federal gay and les
bian civil rights law would
take precedence over any state
or local measures banning
anti-discrimination laws.
President Clinton has pledged
to sign a gay and lesbian civil
rights bill if it meets certain
conditions, and the chances
of passing such a bill through
Congress have never been bet
ter. The Human Rights Cam
paign Fund estimates that the
election will increase the num
ber of congressional co-spon
sors of the bill by 13, to a total
of 116.
The achievements over the
past decade are impressive.
Seven states and numerous
cities and counties across the
country now have laws ban
ning anti-gay discrimination.
Domestic partner measures are
being adopted by many cities,
universities and corporations,
giving gay and lesbian couples
some privileges given to mar
ried heterosexual couples. The
reality of gay and lesbian fami
lies is even being addressed in
some school systems.
Right-wing Christians are
organizing against homosexu
als because they see our soci
ety has changed. Their goal is
to take the country back. The
challenge for the gay and les
bian community is to weather
this backlash and carry their
agenda forward in the 1990s.