Preoccupation
Maybe there’s a good side to Maine’s latest crack at ending discrimination — other than the opportunity to put this expensive, time-consuming, energy-sucking piece of history behind us. Many here have been so preoccupied waging the good fight that they missed the latest national follies of the religious right and assorted members of the lunatic fringe. Here’s a sampling of news reports from local and national gay publications and blogs.
No On Mocha Frappuccino
Starbucks launched its “The Way I See It” promotion earlier this year with coffee cups that feature the words of notable Americans. Among them: music producer Quincy Jones, New Age author Deepak Chopra, film critic Michael Medved, rap artist Chuck D and Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan.
But conservative Christian groups are accusing Starbucks of “promoting the homosexual agenda,” because one of the cups includes a quote from Armistead Maupin, author of “Tales of the City,” his breakthrough chronicle of San Francisco’s homosexual community in the 1970s and 1980s.
Captured forever on coated cardboard, Maupin says his only regret about being gay is that he repressed it for so long: “I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don’t make that mistake yourself. Life’s too damn short.”
Starbucks says it was hoping to inspire old-fashioned coffeehouse discourse when it introduced the campaign. There’s been discourse, all right. Concerned Women for America (which promotes itself as the antithesis of the National Organization for Women) is complaining that most of those quoted on the coffee cups are “liberals.” Starbucks counters by saying the company does not characterize the personalities quoted on its coffee cups as liberal or conservative, but rather as a diverse group of artists, musicians, educators, activists and athletes.
“I think it’s wiser for Starbucks to stay out of these issues so that they don’t offend people of faith,” warned Maureen Richardson, a Concerned Women state director. To Starbucks and other such liberal companies, she adds, “If you want my money, support some of my causes.” Those causes include pro-life clinics and the Boy Scouts of America.
No On Dolls
The American Family Association has called for a boycott of the very popular American Girl line of dolls by Mattel. The company is being singled out for supporting Girls Inc., a group that describes its mission as “inspiring girls to be strong, smart and bold.”
The AFA says they “encourage lesbian and bi-sexual lifestyles.”
No On Fashion
A Roman Catholic school in Milwaukee, Wis., recently canceled a fashion show, citing the growing controversy over the show’s sponsor’s links to a youth organization that supports abortion rights and acceptance of lesbians. American Girl, the Mattel subsidiary that makes those notorious dolls dressed to exemplify various periods in American history, was scheduled to sponsor the show.
No On Books
A new report by the American Library Association says books and other publications are increasingly under attack nationwide. According to the ALA, attempts to have library books removed from the shelves increased by more than 20 percent in 2004 over the previous year. Not surprisingly, many of the books and magazines to be tossed have gay and lesbian themes.
In a typical instance, several dozen people recently demanded that a suburban Ohio library remove two gay publications: Outlook Weekly and Gay People’s Chronicle.
“Ours is a community of high standards and values,” said one resident. “The materials are lewd, salacious, lascivious — but in normal parlance, disgusting, obscene and pornographic.” (Parlance? That sounds suspiciously like a word learned from Outlook Weekly or Gay People’s Chronicle.)
No On Cheese
Earlier this summer, the AFA and the most Reverend Jerry Falwell called for a boycott of Kraft Foods, due to the cheese-maker’s support of the Gay Games VII (scheduled to take place in Chicago in 2006).
No On Texas
This past weekend, the Ku Klux Klan rallied in downtown Austin, Texas. This coming Tuesday, voters go to the polls to decide whether to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions.
No On Alaska
Moments after the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to deny benefits for the same-sex partners of public employees, Governor Frank Murkowski announced he will push for an amendment to the state constitution worded to block those court-supported benefits.
No On Teaching
A man who says he was forced to resign his teaching job at a Northern California elementary school because he is gay has filed suit against the Ravenswood School District. The suit alleges that the district began harassing and discriminating against Emmit Hancock after he revealed his sexuality to his students in response to their calling each other derogatory names like “fag.”
No On Lawsuits
An appeals court in New York ruled recently that a gay man whose partner died as the result of alleged medical malpractice couldn’t sue the hospital because the couple was not married — even though they had been legally joined in a civil union in Vermont.
No On Opinions
An Orange Park, Florida, high school principal has withheld published copies of a student newspaper to eliminate an opinion column written by a student about homosexuality.
Katie Thompson, a 17-year-old senior, wrote the column “Homosexuality is not a Choice,” for the Oct. 10 edition of the student newspaper at Ridgeview High School.
Thompson, who is bisexual, said her teacher approved the 300-word essay, but Principal Toni McCabe objected and claimed the subject was “too mature for a high school audience.”
No On 1
So it would seem, despite the local stress and strain of keeping the new anti-discrimination law on the books, that we here in Maine have had it relatively easy. At least we’ve largely escaped the national spotlight. Maybe the Bush administration has just been too busy with the war and weathering storms like Katrina, Harriet and “Scooter,” distractions that may also have kept Bush’s conservative base from thinking too much about The Way — they believe — Life Should Be in our state.
All the same, I’ll be keeping an eye out for men in white sheets right up to the moment the polls close.
A semi-retired arts promoter, Richard Lawlor is co-founder of GFPM Enterprises (producers of GayFunInPortlandMaine.com and The Companion newspaper). His column, Citizen Dick, runs biweekly.
