The Jim Henson Company broke ties with Chick-Fil-A over their CEO's remarks against gay marriage. They also donated their recent profits from Chick-Fil-A to GLAAD. I've always loved the Muppets, but now I have even more reason to cherish them. I know gay marriage is a controversial topic, but I personally believe it's a straight forward issue of rights and equality. So I'm always pleased by public support for it by individuals and companies.
I Don't Heart Huckabee
Mike Huckabee, politician turned pundit, has weighed in by suggesting a "Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day" on August 1st, where the faithful can show their support with their money. That is all well and good. I don't have a high opinion of Chick-Fil-A or their supporters, but these people are free to express their opinions and to use their buying power to influence social issues. That is the essence of free speech in a free society.
However, what infuriates me about these anti-gay proclamations by fundamentalist right wingers like Huckabee is not their opposition to gay rights or even their self-interested, ill-informed interpretation of Scripture. What gets to me and the reason it's hard not to feel attacked is the (smug!) way they off-handedly say that my living the life I was born into automatically makes me a God-hating agent of evil dedicated to eradicating family, religion and human decency. No matter how hard you try to dress it up, the rhetoric of using the Bible and religion to justify your anti-gay sentiments always boils down to "God hates fags!" Just think about the implications of that for a moment, really consider what it means! Its oppressive nature bears down upon you like a palpable weight, and I've borne that burden since I was a very young child when I didn't have the experience or perspective to counteract it. The damage that it did to my development has been irrevocable and has haunted me to this day.
I should mention that I'm not surprised Huckabee is a conservative darling. He gave up politics and any attempt to make this country a better place (at least from his prospective) for the selfish pursuit of money and the millions he could make as a talking head. ("Paging Sarah Palin!") Now that's capitalism and a certain set of conservative ideals in practice. Personally, even if I agreed with anything he had to say, I still couldn't stand to listen to him. He talks as if he were over-coached in elocution. He sounds more like he's leading an elementary school assembly than intelligent debate.
Disheartened
I'm starting to despair about ever having an audience. Maybe I'll never get published, and maybe I'll never have a readership for this blog. (Yesterday's rejection slip certainly hasn't made me sanguine.) Perhaps my blog is too ego-centric and too lacking in pop culture/queer commentary. I was hoping that my struggles with my personal demons might prove an interesting read. After all, people ate up James Frey's memoir, even if he played a little fast and loose with the facts. But my hopes may have been born out of simple hubris. As for the commentary, there are plenty of other sites out there who are doing a better job at putting their finger on the queer zeitgeist than I ever could. (And with a lot more wit and cleverness, the bastards...) I can only describe current events through my own peculiar (and rather distorted) personal lens.
Regardless of what—if anything—this blog has to offer, I don't know what else to do to promote myself. I've registered with a few blog listing sites, and according to my blog dashboard, most of my traffic comes from Best Male Blogs, which is interesting since the majority of the blogs listed on that site seem to be porn. I sent an e-mail to the author with the dreamy eyes over at the Good As You website. I was trying to be breezy and casual, but I'm afraid I came off like a jerk. So I sent a second e-mail apologizing for the tone of the first. It would be great to ride the coattails of his success by being listed on his blogroll. (I'm not going to lie about my motivations.) But that seems extremely unlikely since he never even e-mailed me back. I'm a little disappointed, but I can hardly be insulted that he has better uses of his time than responding to my attempt at using him.
