At stake: tolerance for gay community

Friday, February 26, 1999

At stake: tolerance for gay community

HOMOPHOBIA: Jokes, insults reveal prejudice against
homosexuality

We live in a society in which racists are condemned and sexists
are ostracized. We live in an era of increased sensitivity in which
the en vogue dance around one another clothed in a variety of
politically correct terms. Yet still, in this time of heightened
consciousness, there remains one form of widely accepted and
condoned bigotry – homophobia.

Much to my flaming, liberal dismay, homophobia runs rampant on
this campus. The hypocrisy is stinging because we continually sing
the praises of diversity, and yet it still seems that diversity is
limited to race. And tolerance is only available for those of
ethnicities other than our own.

It is a shame that in an institution of higher learning where
the supposed elite and future leaders of America go to educate
themselves, people are content to live in their narrow-minded,
bigoted worlds.

If it is true that people become more liberal in college, it
makes me shudder to think what many of my counterparts were like
beforehand.

Consequently, as I look around me, I wonder who among us is the
next Rev. Jerry Falwell.

After all, does it not seem quite logical to assume that
Teletubby Tinky Winky is a gay icon due to his purple pigment and
triangle hat?

But didn’t they teach Falwell anything in Sunday school – color
doesn’t matter. Besides, people cannot be held accountable for
their lack of fashion sense. If you’ve ever seen the hats worn on
Easter Sunday, you’ll agree.

To frame the issue in a wider sense, the question is not one of
whether or not Tinky Winky is gay, but of why it matters. The idea
that a gay coalition is conspiring to infiltrate the virgin eyes
and ears of mainstream America is ridiculous. When will people
realize that you can’t convert someone? Homosexuality is not a
religion. Nor can you recruit someone; homosexuality is not the
army.

In fact perhaps it would be beneficial if Tinky Winky were gay.
Then maybe people would realize that awareness of gay issues will
not make a child gay. In fact it will teach him or her
tolerance.

Growing up in San Francisco, sexual preference never seemed to
matter. I remember being 7 years old and asking my mom about two
men who were holding hands. She told me that they were a gay couple
and they loved each other just like she and Daddy did. Why can’t it
just be as simple as that?

Moreover, why could I grasp this idea so easily as a child while
many people still can’t comprehend it as adults? More daunting
still is that Falwell-type homophobia presents itself in a broad
spectrum of forms, many of which are covert.

It happens on this campus everyday, and we’ve all become immune
to it. Take, for example, the innocent gay joke that doesn’t harm
anyone. It just elicits a cheap laugh at another’s expense and
perpetuates hatred, behind the guise of humor.

The irony is that we often underestimate the power of a joke.
Jokes reinforce dominant values and reduce others to a generic set
of stereotypical characteristics. They rob the individual of his or
her identity and lump everyone into an all-inclusive category.

Then, according to this line of humor, we can suddenly tell
who’s gay and who’s not by looking at them. In doing so we
dehumanize the subject making it much easier to ridicule and
ostracize him or her.

Jokes are generally a downward process meaning that they are
usually told by people in power, the "mainstream majority." Victims
then often turn on others or engage in self-depreciation. This is
an unending cycle fueled by apathy and oblivion.

Sadly, those of us who stand idly by are worse than those who
laugh or tell the joke. To paraphrase the immortal Dante, the
deepest burrows of hell are reserved for those who in times of
moral crisis did not take a stand.

Worse still than the jokes are the comments. "Ew, that’s gay,"
said with disdain, is a popular one. In this context, the word gay
is used as a synonym for poor, inane and overall unappealing.

A characteristic, part of someone’s identity, is taken and used
as a universal derogatory term. Substitute for a moment another
word for gay, say black or Chinese. People would be in an uproar.
But since the expression only marginalizes gays, it’s socially
acceptable.

Take the following as another example of homophobia in everyday
vernacular: Two burly macho men are standing in the hallway,
throwing insults at one another. One says to the other, "You fag."
This short phrase is perhaps the most loathsome blow to a male’s
masculinity.

As we learned from jokes, gays are feminine and wimpy. They’re
fairies, they "pack fudge," and perhaps most preeminently, are
ostracized by society. This is a situation in which yet again part
of a group’s identity – sexual preference – is taken and applied to
non-members of the group as a put down.

This, in a sense, demonizes a whole group of people. It isolates
a group of people because they possess characteristics which are
"undesirable." It becomes a situation in which people think, "No,
I’m not one of them." As such, divisions are drawn.

No one wants to be called gay because it’s an insult and those
who truly are gay are viewed as inferior. In truth, speakers of
language don’t even see the implications of their loaded words.
They are falling into a whole cycle of discrimination and making
groups into "others." To come to this realization we need only look
at the history of the word "faggot."

A faggot is a bundle of sticks usually used for starting a fire.
The term was first applied to gays in a time when they were burned
at the stake for being attracted to members of the same sex.

These mixed messages of social acceptability create a climate
for hate. If it’s OK to call someone a fag, and we hate fags, then
why is it not OK to beat someone for being a fag? If a woman is a
dyke, and void of all femininity, perhaps all she needs is a good
"fuck" from a big masculine man. Obviously she doesn’t know what
she’s missing, so why then is it not OK to rape her?

We read about atrocities such as these continually and then
wonder why they happen. Why do people hate? Why is our society so
violent? Because we condone hate to a certain extent, but when
perpetrators cross the line with heinous acts, we chide them. The
only solution is to take a firm stance on homophobia,
consistently.

The words of Dachau Concentration Camp survivor Martin Neimoller
capture my point vividly: "In Germany they came first for the
Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t
a Jew. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak
up because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist … Then they came for me, and
by that time nobody was left to speak up."

It is time to look past our own vested interests. You don’t have
to be gay to believe in equal rights and respect for all human
beings. Instead of gasping upon reading the next article on gay
bashing, try speaking up the next time your friend tells a gay
joke.

Roca is a second-year communication studies student. E-mail her
at [email protected].

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