Before we line up asking for her head, let’s look at her answer within its context. Jay Smooth breaks it down and has fun with it.
For contrast, here’s the last time we did a full close-up on a beauty contestant in a similar predicament:
Personally, as an openly Black gay guy, is our world safer for kids (who may or may not be lesbian or gay or bisexual or transgendered, but who get teased for being so to the point that they commit suicide) because this particular white openly gay celebrity chaser tried to railroad this particular white, blond beauty pageant contestant into his belief system? Something tells me, no.
Yes, we do need marriage equality (which is really just equality) in America. Any two consenting adults should be afforded the same rights and class privileges of …
… but if kids can’t even grow up within a safe environment to make those adult choices for themselves, who does that help?
The ability to disagree as adults is another issue. Perez Hilton (both a fake name and an homage to the type of celebrity he chases) wasn’t trying to have an intelligent conversation about marriage equality with an equal. He was judging her and knew the title of Miss USA could depend on her answer, reducing the importance of marriage equality down to a predictable publicity stunt. Well, there you go. You chose to act like a crackhead trying to bumrush someone on the street for a dollar - and she said “No.” I’m sure that the legions of activists and politicians who struggled to actually make marriage equality a reality in our lifetime will stand with me to applaud your tireless efforts. Especially at such an illustrious forum where conversations between straights and gays aren’t exactly high at the top of the list of things to do. Thanks so much for representing.
Seriously, our kids need us to be dedicated to making sure that there’s a place for everyone at the table and that we’re communicating with each other - not diversity because it’s a trendy way to attempt to shut people up who you assume do not agree with you.
This particular woman said, “No, you will not.” Because of her religious beliefs, she opposes same-sex marriage. It was a fleeting moment, but she knew the game and decided to play it. Yes, ultimately she’s saying, “People like me are normal and people like you are not.” - which looks like inequality to me. Still, what happens when people like her become teachers and other adults who supervise children and when one of those children look to someone like her for support because other kids are driving them to question whether or not they should continue to live because they might be gay? (Yes, it’s a run-on sentence; that’s why I blogged it.) The truth is that scenario is more real than it isn’t: unfortunately, kids committing suicide because either they question their sexual orientation or have it questioned for them isn’t a new phenomenon. Even if that supervisory adult (or another kid) chooses to support that kid, that usually happens within a framework that doesn’t support either of them. And many adults who don’t support kids like this are just fucked up uncaring people who just happen to have jobs supervising children. Heteronormative? Okay. Although that’s probably the way that most of us got here, heterosexuality has never been nor will ever be the only way we exist sexually. No matter how many buxom cheerleaders, musclebound touchdowns or beer commercials you throw our way. Instead of artificially stratifying ourselves into red and blue states, let’s make sure we all have a chance to define what is normal within our own lives and that little people all get chances to grow up into big people who are afforded opportunities to make adult decisions.
