A Comment on Roseanne's Words
Let the controversy begin, here is what Roseanne Barr said:
"They don't care about minimum wage. They don't care about any other group other than their own selves -- because, you know, some people say being gay and lesbian is a totally narcissistic thing, and sometimes I wonder. I've never heard any of them say anything except for, 'Accept me 'cause I'm gay (What you said: Was Roseanne right? -- Queer Lesbian Gay Opinion -- Gay.com)."
ok, Let me start with the obvious rebuttal:
The Rachel Maddow Show: I wish Rachel actual talked more about Queer issues, but she is focused on so many liberal causes that she rarely talks about our community.
The Michael Signorile Show: Everything, every cause, smart and to the point.
'Nuff said...
Well, not really. To be honest, I have to kinda agree with Roseanne. While most of the individuals in the community are interested in multiple issues, our advocacy organizations are not very good at expressing our interests.
Queer issues are gender issues. People have issues with the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered community because we challenge the cultures basic concept what it means to me a male or a female. So we should be involved in the feminist movement.
Employment is a major issue. As someone who has in the past been fired for simply being gay, I am a big advocate for employment reforms. But we should not be focused on equal employment for our people alone, we should work with other minority groups to make all our jobs safe, equal, and capable of supporting a family.
School bullying is a horrid really for our community and others and should be a major focus of our community.
Other issues that we need to focus on are the war, infrastructure, and government reform. How often have you heard these issues mentions by the predominate voices of our community?
I know that our community has many of its own challenges, especially from a growing religio-fascist movement that wants to use us as a scapegoat for all of the ills their policies are bringing upon our people, but we need allies, and we need to be more than we are.