So I open up the local rag, The Kalamazoo Gazette, today to the local section and there is a full-color photograph of some Western Michigan University students protesting outside the Kalamazoo Public Library. They’re part of a student group called Students for America, and in the photo they’re carrying signs that say things like, “Preserve American Culture,” “Stop Targeting Our Kids,” and “Promote the Gay Agenda on Your Own Time With Your Own Dime.”
It turns out they are protesting an appearance by author David Levithan who is the author of “Boy Meets Boy,” which, according to the newspaper, “portrays a town where a transgender character named ‘Infinite Darlene’ doubles as football team captain and homecoming queen and where GLBTQ teens — gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or questioning — don’t suffer the stigmas that arise in the real world.” Sure, whatever. My main question is how many more letters are they going to add to GLBT? Wait a few years and it will be GLBTQRSTUVWXYZ (for those are questioning their alphabetic orientation.)
Anyway, back to the main point. First, like most protests, the principal here is simply stupid. The author shows up to talk about how gays, etc. are marginalized, etc. and how do the local paleocons reply? They show up and protest that homosexuals are somehow undermining “American” culture. Way to go guys. You really helped make your opponents’ point.
Second, never ever show up to protest unless you’ve done some basic fact checking and understand what it is you’re going to be protesting against. Remember that sign urging people to promote the “gay agenda . . . on your own dime?” The leader of this collective of idiots elaborates on that point in the Gazette,
Tom Barrett, a founding member of the Western Michigan University group Students for America, a 15-member group that organized the protest, said the group wasn’t protesting the book itself, but was “promoting good, American values.”
“We think it’s wrong,” Barrett said. “We think they shouldn’t be pushing the homosexual agenda with taxpayer dollars. They should do it on their own time with their own dime.”
King said taxpayer dollars did not fund the event or the distribution of the free copies of “Boy Meets Boy” to interested teens.
“The Kalamazoo Community Foundation funded the donation of all the books we had given away beforehand and all the books we gave away tonight,” King said.
The author’s visit also was free, he said.
Damn. You’d think Barrett would have wanted to make sure taxpayer dollars were paying for this event before making that the theme of the protest. Or maybe he just thinks ignorance accompanies intolerance as a “good, American value.”
Source:
Gay-teen-romance author draws fans and protesters. Elizabeth Clark, Kalamazoo Gazette, October 21, 2005.