Darkside Rainbow

You know what? People make my head hurt. And sometimes, skimming headlines in gay news is enough to make me descend from cynicism into downright misanthropy. Humanity is depressing. Games of he-said-she-said, discrimination, entitlement…when the hell is it all going to stop?

Wondering what I’m talking about? Let’s take a cruise through a few selected headlines.

Gay groups call for homophobic lawmaker’s job - Advocate.com

A Florida legislator who allegedly told a group of HIV/AIDS activists and lobbyists that his gay cousin deserved to die after contracting AIDS has sparked an outcry.

Gay and AIDS activists have called for everything from a formal censure of Republican representative D. Alan Hays to his being removed from the state house of representatives.

Minutes after a Friday press conference with many groups, Hays released a statement denying the alleged comments.

Well? Who’s telling the truth? On one hand I’m not the type to blindly support anyone’s claims of anti-gay statements without validation just because “hey, I’m gay too, and I support the cause so if they say it it must be true!” But on the other hand…according to the article, Hays already has a previous record of publicly spoken anti-gay sentiment. Past actions don’t automatically indicate guilt in current situations, but they do point towards a tendency to repeat said situations. Either way, someone is lying - either the activists or Hays. That, more than anything, pisses me off.

Which one? Your call. Likely we’ll never know. Let’s move on, shall we?

Grocer pulls gay papers from rack - The Washington Times

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A regional homosexual newspaper has been pulled from racks at Nashville-area Kroger grocery stores; the newspaper’s publisher calls the action discriminatory. [...] A Kroger Co. spokeswoman said the Cincinnati-based company has a policy against displaying publications that promote “political, religious or other specific agendas” and cited the need to remain neutral.

Newspaper supporters say Kroger enforces the policy inconsistently, noting that Kroger allows the display of homosexual newspapers at its stores in other markets, such as Atlanta, and alternative weekly newspapers with political columns and ads for strip clubs in the Nashville area.

Oh, just come out and say it. Someone in that store has some whiny little homophobic issue with the newspaper, but when pulling the papers based on discriminatory personal preference turned into a problem, they tried to backpedal and pull the company policy excuse. If you’re going to enforce company policy, enforce it uniformly. Don’t pick and choose who’s going to hide behind it whenever it’s convenient and who’s going to ignore it.

But you want to see the one that really twists my weave? (No, I don’t really have a weave.)

Catholic ‘witch-hunt’ to expose gay clergy - TimesOnline.co.uk

Patricia McKeever does not like to be photographed. She does not like people to know where she lives and prefers to communicate with the outside world by letter or e-mail.

But, from the security of her home, the 58-year-old former secondary school teacher has co-ordinated a relentless campaign to name and shame gay Roman Catholic priests.

Hey, lady? Hypocrisy’s a sin, too, while you’re going through your list and checking off the “thou shalls” and “thou shalt nots”. You know, the hypocrisy you’re practicing when you’re dragging people’s private lives - which are none of your damned business - into the public eye and yet refuse to let your life be invaded in the same way?

It’s difficult enough to be a gay member of the clergy. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” is as stringent as it is in the U.S. military, and can have the same results: expulsion. These men are trying to live their lives and devote themselves to service to a faith that they believe in without letting said faith’s stigma against the way they were born interfere with that. They’re trying to do good things for their community and for their religion while avoiding dealing with falsely labeling stereotypes almost always assumed about gay clergy members.

They’re trying to be good Christians. There aren’t many of those left, it seems, or so I’m gathering from reading the news every day. And this one busybody thinks it’s her business to expose them, publicly defame them, and interfere in their valid right to live as best they can while trying to reconcile their sexuality and the tenets of their faith?

I find that wholly disgusting.

Some days, it just doesn’t pay to read the news.

I need my thrice-damned coffee.

HIV, AIDS, florida, representative alan hays, nashville, kroger, gay newspaper, patricia mckeever, catholicism, gay priests