Thursday, January 31, 2008

Kramer's View

Larry Kramer's quote about the upcoming elections, courtesy of The New Republic.:

"I cannot support any of the candidates thus far running for president because none of them supports me and my people in the ways we need to be supported. This is not just about gay marriage, which has become a nonspecific red herring for non-specific maybes. (Why do you hate us so that you will not permit us to legally love?) Of course we want gay marriage, but that is not all we want. We want safety. (We are the only people in America that it is socially and legally acceptable to hate and discriminate against.) We want no more taxation without representation. (When I die, our government gobbles such an unconscionable amount of my estate that my partner will no longer be able to afford the house we both have put so much of our money and energy into.) We want the approximately 2,000 benefits our government provides to heterosexual married couples. (Why don't we get them? We pay the same taxes they do.) In other words, we want equality. We want everything straight people have and get and are entitled to. And there is not one candidate who has come anywhere near offering anywhere near any of this. In fact, I am afraid that there is not a one of them who, when push comes to shove, would not continue to sell us down the river. In fact, I have come to believe that forbidding us all of these things we are entitled to is based on hate, pure and simple. There are, by some estimates, 20 million of us. But we don't make as much noise as our enemies do. In fact, we don't make any noise at all. More fools we."

6 comments:

Unknown said...

i agree 110%. that's why kucinich was my candidate...

Anonymous said...

Clinton is the best we've got.

Anonymous said...

I'll have to agree that Clinton IS the best we've got. And Kucinich WAS kicked to the curb (by the press?) Thanks for posting Kramer's words, glad the old boy is still speaking out. There used to be dozens like him.

John in SF

Greg said...

How very true. We only seem to be vocal within our own community and should be out there picketing boycotting ruffling feathers and getting in peoples' faces.

NewPrevTech said...

Sorry, this rant is out of touch and sad, really sad. Crying the victim and "they hate us." Wow, that'll do some good!

Kevin Roddy said...

Larry Kramer was fighting the fight when most of you were playing with your Transformers and your sister's Barbie dolls in secret.

Kramer's right - there is an illusion we have rights, but unless with fully secure them, the few rights we have could disappear overnight with the wrong power in office.


Look at how Arab Americans were so easily demonized after 9/11.

The same could happen to us.

If most gay guys could get away from time-wasting popular culture - TV, movies, and the fiction that Hollywood dreams up all the time to snatch your money - maybe we could make a difference. But most gay men are so seduced with securing their own pleasure over everything else that they're ineffective to do any social change at all.

Get off your asses, guys. Make a difference.