My own little queer agenda
I’ve been hearing about the queer agenda for years- and rarely from queers. It’s usually referred to as the “Homosexual Agenda”, and much referenced by well- not so queer folks who find homosexuals and the agenda (who keeps that anyway- I think it should be locked in a steel reinforced vault in a bat cave somewhere)- to be threatening.
I had planned on this being a fairly light hearted blog, with fun and queer agenda items but the world keeps handing me news that smacks me into something more serious. Or I get something in my mail box like the request for help for a local high school who is having their queer prom and asking for adults to come support it (help protect it) since there are warnings and threats about protests and there is police concern about the student’s safety.
So I’ll try to do both the fun and funny and the serious. List events, movies, funny and or interesting bits- my own big fat agenda, and I’ll deal with the other stuff to. Being queer in the world today requires a stance, not a threatening one, but the kind where you keep yourself balanced, so you can withstand a good solid punch.
I’m not even angry so much as surprised that I lost my last job in large part to be being “out” at work. The more excited folks get about the AGENDA, the more convinced I am that in so far as we are safely able, that we be out in the world. If folks could see us as we are, as diverse and different and yet the same as the rest of humanity- perhaps we would be less threatening.
Until we figure it out, we- capital W- need to keep poking at it, looking at it, trying to figure it out, even without the Agenda, because young people every day are still not safe at school, on the playground, in their homes, just because they are queer, or in some instances because they don’t hate those that are. Things have shifted a bit- the fact that students can join gay-straight alliances in many public schools is a big change. As someone who used to work in them- I can tell you that you only have to stand on the playground at recess, grades K-12 to hear the names flying, in most cases unchallenged by the adults around them.
It’s still acceptable to ignore the use of fagot as a pejorative, a challenge, a target tag line. It’s still acceptable to bully the kids who don’t fit in, who are often labeled queer- whether they are or are not. This is unacceptable and beneath us as human beings- no matter who we are, how we identify- who we love or are loved by. Queer Agenda item number one- look after those who come after us. Take care of those weaker or with less power. Stand up if you can. Stand aware no matter what.
