Saturday, June 20, 2009

OUTRAGED BY OUTRAGE? HELL YES!

OUTRAGED BY "OUTRAGE"? HELL YES!
Outrage is the film produced to shine a bright light on--and to out-- the many closeted(read: mostly Republican) politicians who consistently vote against civil and legal rights for all(including the LGBTQ community who has always "protected" these same politicians!).
I went to the matinee showing of the film, "Outrage" at Midtown Art today in Atlanta. I thought I'd be moved, maybe even angered, by what I was about to see.....Angry doesn't even come close.
I'm actually pretty furious about all the completely clueless folks who deny their own LGBTQ-ness, and then insist on cramming their hypocritical "family"(who said family means only a man, woman, and 2.5 kids, anyway?!) values down our throats.
The words that stand out most in my mind were the words printed on the screen, attributed to an ex-"girlfriend" of now-Florida-Governor Charlie Christ. "[I have nothing to say], but call me in ten years, and I'll have a story to tell you."
The film sums up the tremendous denial among individuals, and even perhaps--the entire Republican Party, who in my opinion, has a great deal in common with Iran's "We have no gay people" President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Talk about denial.

After the film, we(eternal friends Collin Kelley, C. Cleo Creech, and I) headed to Mellow Mushroom and found ourselves discussing our own times in coming-out.To parents. To other loved ones. To friends. In my case, I was out as a Bisexual Woman, in the late 1970's. But I did not "come out" to my parents until 1997, though each of them(I spoke with them separately)told me then, that they "already knew".
I told Collin it felt like all day today had been one about "identity, and what that means."
To wit, each of us had had relationships where someone claimed to be gay, or straight, or bi, and then--viola'--suddenly, they're not. Or still were, but decided to go "closet", or felt they had to hide, or whatever.

Civil and Legal rights for all, is a threat to no one.Unless of course, you're someone who feels threatened by someone else's sexuality, because you've never come to terms with your own! Come on, kids, get comfortable in your own skin, and stop denying other people the right to marry, which guarantees them the same rights as everyone else:the right to visit a sick or dying partner, the right to shared property, to inheritance, to custody of children, to all the peace-of-mind that LGBTQ people deserve just as much as everyone else. We pay our taxes, we live for our families and friends and community as everyone else does.We all deserve to marry a partner we love, who loves us. Period.

For those who are still in hiding, come on out. It won't mean the end of the world. In fact, your life may feel as though it has a fresh beginning. As former Governor of New Jersey, James E. McGreevey sweetly put it in "Outrage", "I felt like 40 years was lifted off of me."

Peace, kids.

9 comments:

Collin Kelley said...

Glad I saw it with you, Lisa. Great post. I just blogged about it, too.

Lisa Nanette Allender said...

Hi Coll. Ah, I clicked on your blog a few hours ago,; alas, there was no new post. But I am hurrying over to your "Modern Confessional", right now.

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

I agree with what you say - people need the right to live their lives the way they want - obviously provided that everyone else can do so also

Recently they showed a clip of a politician who'd been going on about how great the expenses system was for him, followed by a more recent one (IE since the revelations as to exactly how much they claim and how spuriously) of him saying what an outrage it was!

The world would be so much simpler if we just said "Get on with your lives, be happy"

Lisa Nanette Allender said...

Pixies--I totally agree. Life really IS too short, to spend it not being who you are, or even worse--not being who you are, AND being a hypocrite about it, too!

YogaforCynics said...

What I always wonder is to what extent is is hypocrisy that causes closeted gay politicians to vote for anti-gay legislation, and to what extent is it a deep self-hatred--perhaps subconsciously believing that they can legislate away their own inconvenient needs and desires?

Lily said...

interesting to read your point of view!

I personally also really dislike it, when people are hypocritical and dishonest!

Lisa Nanette Allender said...

Yoga For Cynics--Thank you for stopping in!
I think they become hypocrites whenever they lie, and whether it's self-hatred, or cruelty and disregard for others, the end result: lying and hypocrisy, are the same. sigh.
Sarah Sofia Ganborg--Thank you, Sarh Sofia Ganborg!
Peace to you in Denmark!

Dot-Com said...

I so agree. We should have equal rights no matter what. Pity it's not like that everywhere. Ireland is a fair bit behind on many matters.

Lisa Nanette Allender said...

Dot-Com--Hi there! I don't know all of Ireland's policies. Being a religious country, I bet they are behind! I'm feeling much more "spiritual" than "religious", these days....