How LGBT Folks Can Change the World
The massacre this time around is personal. For many LGBT folks, this is a nightmare that we could not even imagine; being picked off in our safe ancestral home much like the black churchgoers were during bible study in Charleston a little over one year ago today. Not only was it infuriating that political leaders didn't lift a finger to tighten gun access after the Charleston massacre but that political hacks reverted to the same know-nothing approach after events as equally hideous and unconscionable in Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech and San Bernardino and Colorado Springs and Aurora and [insert tragic geographical location here].
This time, however, the gun lobby has awoken a sleeping giant, one who may not be as rich but who is as meticulously organized. We like to think of ourselves as more pleasant guests at any cocktail party or political rally. This is our coming out party, a way for the LGBT community to truly grow up and give back in shaping ideas around public health* and civic hygiene. Make no mistake: bullying, hateful rhetoric, and easy access to guns are the new threats to public health (both physical and mental). The task ahead requires the effort of Hercules and the patience of Buddha. The road ahead will have some detours and pitfalls and serious questions about how violence and discrimination manifests for different communities. General case in point: violence/bullying/suicide affects LGBT kids in singular ways starting at a young age compared to institutionalized racism/violence/homicide at the hands of police and gang members as suffered by African-Americans. Finding common ground among different communities will be paramount. Recalcitrant Republicans, unfortunately, have a gerrymandered congressional advantage due to their wave victory from the census year 2010, allowing them a strategic firewall at least through the end of this decade. Being a Republican does not make one a bad or unreasonable person (some of my best friends and closest family members are Republicans!), but elected representatives of the GOP have benefitted overwhelmingly from the deep pockets of the National Rifle Association and have shown little sympathy for students, teachers, LGBT folks and communities of color burned by gun violence. Gun symbolism has become so ubiquitous that it has seeped into our language, resulting in a string of cliches recently examined in an NPR story.
Why now?
The endless wars, general erosion of civil conversational skills and despicable rhetoric by Republican leaders against Latinos, Muslims, gays and women are all contributing factors to a public atmosphere that feels poisoned and sinister. Now is the time for a counter-conversation based on fairness, kindness, good will and good humor. This hate is a cancer that has to stop. Gun violence is not an issue that we got to choose as if approaching a crowded aisle of artisanal olives. It chose us, and shockingly so. What does life expect of us queers but to specifically use our mythological powers to instill in the world a sense of fun in peacetime and a sense of class in a country that is clearly neglecting its table manners? Or, to bring it back to Earth, the least we could do is outmaneuver the dreaded NRA in getting sensible gun reform passed at the local, state and federal level.
The free-floating cruelty in the comments section of popular news sites and on social media is not helping. People skip over the more cerebral points in debate and disagreements and run right to the threats and name-calling. Women, not surprisingly, are often the target of these attacks. When there is a legitimate dust-up in the media, looky-loos often fly off the handle without being privy to, never mind digesting, all the circumstances. These folks are quick to resort to public shaming; in fact it's become a new kind of warfare. Even when all the evidence has arrived and is presented neatly in the court of public opinion, the punishment far exceeds the crime. Anonymous posters launch these free-range barbs that rival the darkest scenes in Game of Thrones in their cruelty. It's not that I think every internet user is a delicate flower who needs protecting, but 90% of these comments would never be spoken in polite company. It's coming all from a place of fire and rage which seems to mark the way 2016 (and I fear the foreseeable future) is going. When conservatives complain of the "P.C. Police" in the nation's editing rooms and college classrooms, they are rightfully acknowledging the backlash against all this cruelty and injustice. Actions like creating safe spaces and issuing trigger warnings are earnest responses to this epidemic but they feel at times heavy-handed and paternalistic. What's needed is a "Middle Way" in which anger is swallowed and used as sustenance to enact real change over the long haul. We need to move the seas in changing the culture of easy access to guns and a stubborn lack of access (for many) to the things that make life worthwhile: good food, good education, good housing and a peaceful ethic that can be just as contagious as senseless violence. What we need is not just the creation of safe spaces in college classrooms but to create a safer, kinder, gentler environment, here in the U.S. and across the world.
The free-floating cruelty in the comments section of popular news sites and on social media is not helping. People skip over the more cerebral points in debate and disagreements and run right to the threats and name-calling. Women, not surprisingly, are often the target of these attacks. When there is a legitimate dust-up in the media, looky-loos often fly off the handle without being privy to, never mind digesting, all the circumstances. These folks are quick to resort to public shaming; in fact it's become a new kind of warfare. Even when all the evidence has arrived and is presented neatly in the court of public opinion, the punishment far exceeds the crime. Anonymous posters launch these free-range barbs that rival the darkest scenes in Game of Thrones in their cruelty. It's not that I think every internet user is a delicate flower who needs protecting, but 90% of these comments would never be spoken in polite company. It's coming all from a place of fire and rage which seems to mark the way 2016 (and I fear the foreseeable future) is going. When conservatives complain of the "P.C. Police" in the nation's editing rooms and college classrooms, they are rightfully acknowledging the backlash against all this cruelty and injustice. Actions like creating safe spaces and issuing trigger warnings are earnest responses to this epidemic but they feel at times heavy-handed and paternalistic. What's needed is a "Middle Way" in which anger is swallowed and used as sustenance to enact real change over the long haul. We need to move the seas in changing the culture of easy access to guns and a stubborn lack of access (for many) to the things that make life worthwhile: good food, good education, good housing and a peaceful ethic that can be just as contagious as senseless violence. What we need is not just the creation of safe spaces in college classrooms but to create a safer, kinder, gentler environment, here in the U.S. and across the world.
But how?
I've never been so amped to return to activism and advocacy for something I care about: namely, creating a more peaceful, educated world for everybody, one in which the fear of being shot or blown up is non-existent or greatly reduced. The trouble is that I'm a bit rusty when it comes to knowing how to affect change and for that I'll need the help of my activist friends.
My first inclination is to get involved the best way I know how: through the written, posted word. Use Your Head Not Your Arms is my latest blog that will showcase expert opinions, personal anecdotes, guest lectures and interviews, studies on gun safety and non-violence, videos of secular comedians and excerpts from religious leaders and public figures who are actively working towards a saner, safer world. The aim is to make a gun-free, war-free world, a fun one that we would all want to inhabit and work hard to maintain. My personal aim is to make peace and non-violence the sexiest issues of our time and not some quixotic errand left over from the 1960s. Although, Use Your Head Not Your Arms will include commentary from folks on BOTH sides of the traditional political divide (I'm thinking in particular of religious voters and secular humanists), I believe reasonable gun control and non-violence is something that we can all agree are things that are worth sweating for. This middle way is a chance and venue to elevate the conversation without elevating the temperature.
My current baby, Neptune Landing, will continue to focus on lighter California fare and its hodgepodge themes of travel logs, thoughts on bi-coastal culture, film, theater and literature, and musings on the technology of shamanism. At times, I admit, my blog has felt a little erratic and unfocused as well as pampered, as if it was fueled by rainbows and lollipops instead of real policy concerns. There is room, however, in this world for everyone and everything and I am proud of the work I've put into Neptune Landing. As Walt Whitman penned, "I contain multitudes." Neptune Landing will continue to showcase more buoyant themes while Use Your Head Not Your Arms will focus more on sober areas that demand our societal attention. The conversation of gun access and tribal vilification, however, MUST change. We need to turn around this cargo ship of heated vitriol and reactionary hyper-masculinity. In fact, life on this planet depends on it
Look out for the inaugural blogpost of Use Your Head Not Your Arms to be penned later this summer.
* Gay Activists obviously made enormous strides in shaping the conversation about safe sex practices and the ease and danger of transmitting infectious diseases as a response of the Reagan Administration's silence on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Gun access, bullying, mental health and hate crimes, I believe, are the next frontiers in public health there is an enormous amount of vitriol, discrimination and cruelty against so many different minority groups on so many different levels. It's become a social emergency.
My first inclination is to get involved the best way I know how: through the written, posted word. Use Your Head Not Your Arms is my latest blog that will showcase expert opinions, personal anecdotes, guest lectures and interviews, studies on gun safety and non-violence, videos of secular comedians and excerpts from religious leaders and public figures who are actively working towards a saner, safer world. The aim is to make a gun-free, war-free world, a fun one that we would all want to inhabit and work hard to maintain. My personal aim is to make peace and non-violence the sexiest issues of our time and not some quixotic errand left over from the 1960s. Although, Use Your Head Not Your Arms will include commentary from folks on BOTH sides of the traditional political divide (I'm thinking in particular of religious voters and secular humanists), I believe reasonable gun control and non-violence is something that we can all agree are things that are worth sweating for. This middle way is a chance and venue to elevate the conversation without elevating the temperature.
My current baby, Neptune Landing, will continue to focus on lighter California fare and its hodgepodge themes of travel logs, thoughts on bi-coastal culture, film, theater and literature, and musings on the technology of shamanism. At times, I admit, my blog has felt a little erratic and unfocused as well as pampered, as if it was fueled by rainbows and lollipops instead of real policy concerns. There is room, however, in this world for everyone and everything and I am proud of the work I've put into Neptune Landing. As Walt Whitman penned, "I contain multitudes." Neptune Landing will continue to showcase more buoyant themes while Use Your Head Not Your Arms will focus more on sober areas that demand our societal attention. The conversation of gun access and tribal vilification, however, MUST change. We need to turn around this cargo ship of heated vitriol and reactionary hyper-masculinity. In fact, life on this planet depends on it
Look out for the inaugural blogpost of Use Your Head Not Your Arms to be penned later this summer.
* Gay Activists obviously made enormous strides in shaping the conversation about safe sex practices and the ease and danger of transmitting infectious diseases as a response of the Reagan Administration's silence on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Gun access, bullying, mental health and hate crimes, I believe, are the next frontiers in public health there is an enormous amount of vitriol, discrimination and cruelty against so many different minority groups on so many different levels. It's become a social emergency.
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