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Rainbow conservatism, grayscale activism
Apr. 26th, 2006 12:48 pmI'm all for Day of Silence and stuff, but that doesn't mean I don't find something vaguely absurd about the concept. The issue is not given enough exposure, so we are going to... stop speaking?
Oh, I know, it's a striking mass cooperative not-speaking, which wins attention through publicity rather than the usual not-speaking=not-heard dynamic, but that doesn't make it less silly. Or hey, maybe the GLBTQA community has something going for them, observed the environmentalists whose "we WILL speak! all the time! and nag!" tactics just made everyone dislike ardent environmentalists (while still kinda liking the environment, poor suffering thing) and so GLBTQA decided a move in the opposite direction would be as successful as too-much dialogue was unsuccessful.
Spelling out the acronym for people is very difficult. Many, many multisyllabic words. Lesbianbisexualtransgenderedquestioning! If nothing else, I'm in favor of the gay rights movement because with enough publicity, it will become unnecessary for that acronym to need explaining!
My other flippant comment of the day was that between Rainbow Day (or whatever they called it, the GLBTQA festival) and the emo black and white motif of Day of Silence, the sexual rights community is giving off a pretty inconsistant vibe. Why not just compromise and settle for a color? Environmentalists already nabbed green, and the Setons stole yellow, but Purple could be nice. Colorful and morose by turns.
And for the record, discussing abortion with a crazy-fervent pro-lifer is a little bit unpleasant. They tend towards ad hominem attacks. By the end of the discussion, you want to stand up and say, loudly: "For the record, I have NEVER killed a baby. Stop looking at me like that!" Or you could start explaining how you don't think human life is the most important element of our dimension of living, and that the strain on earth's resources make potential population reduction a desirable thing, and get stupid weird-idea-I'm-trying-to-be-funny questions like, "So you think eating this piece of lettuce is wrong?"
Meh. Why bother? I'm only going to get called on my hypocrisy.
Oh, I know, it's a striking mass cooperative not-speaking, which wins attention through publicity rather than the usual not-speaking=not-heard dynamic, but that doesn't make it less silly. Or hey, maybe the GLBTQA community has something going for them, observed the environmentalists whose "we WILL speak! all the time! and nag!" tactics just made everyone dislike ardent environmentalists (while still kinda liking the environment, poor suffering thing) and so GLBTQA decided a move in the opposite direction would be as successful as too-much dialogue was unsuccessful.
Spelling out the acronym for people is very difficult. Many, many multisyllabic words. Lesbianbisexualtransgenderedquestioning! If nothing else, I'm in favor of the gay rights movement because with enough publicity, it will become unnecessary for that acronym to need explaining!
My other flippant comment of the day was that between Rainbow Day (or whatever they called it, the GLBTQA festival) and the emo black and white motif of Day of Silence, the sexual rights community is giving off a pretty inconsistant vibe. Why not just compromise and settle for a color? Environmentalists already nabbed green, and the Setons stole yellow, but Purple could be nice. Colorful and morose by turns.
And for the record, discussing abortion with a crazy-fervent pro-lifer is a little bit unpleasant. They tend towards ad hominem attacks. By the end of the discussion, you want to stand up and say, loudly: "For the record, I have NEVER killed a baby. Stop looking at me like that!" Or you could start explaining how you don't think human life is the most important element of our dimension of living, and that the strain on earth's resources make potential population reduction a desirable thing, and get stupid weird-idea-I'm-trying-to-be-funny questions like, "So you think eating this piece of lettuce is wrong?"
Meh. Why bother? I'm only going to get called on my hypocrisy.
