Is This Why We Lost on Prop 8?

Here is the latest commercial from Equality California (via):

Honestly, I don't know which is worse, the crappy elevator music or the stoned voice-over guy spouting treacly platitudes. And they have the nerve to bring up Harvey Milk. Harvey would've told these guys to get stuffed (to be polite). Do you remember the rally scene in the movie where Harvey says: "I know you're angry! I'M angry!"? This ad would have made Harvey angry all over again. Where is the passion? Where is the indignation?

OK - so the ad decries hate and bigotry... big deal. What it doesn't do is address our anger. Anger at being treated like second-class citizens. Anger at being denied basic human rights. Anger at being thought of (in the words of Dustin Lance Black) as "less than." Passive resistance can only go so far. Eventually, you have to swing back at the bully, to prove you're not a wimp. We (the LGBT community) may be many things, but we are not wimps. I mean, if we can make through the hellish childhoods many of us faced, we can make it through it anything. But to do that, we have to stand up and be heard, not whine politely to the strains of Muzak.

I'm not saying we need to throw rocks and riot in the streets. But we do need to take a stand. This ad might as well be Stephen Root in Office Space, whining about "...my stapler. I believe you have my stapler..."

As always, I urge you to write letters, stage protests, organize educational programs, wear a White Knot and make yourselves heard. The only way to overcome bigotry is through education, and you can't educate someone who isn't listening. So let's make them listen.

There. That's my rant for this week. Maybe tomorrow I'll talk about Watchmen again.

More, anon.

Prospero

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