8.29.13 LMD is #1 on Rolling Stone's Playlist!!

        It is wonderful to start the day with that sunny smile ...

        Morning! guys

               

Rosalie ‏@rosaliescanlon 12m
@adamlambert Your 'Guide' misses you and I'm learning how to Tweet! #handsome pic.twitter.com/qFFI44TgYR

 

Pro-gay vs post gay. Interesting discussion around that 'Same Love' song and its reception.

I guess, I can kind of see both sides here. I was naturally leaning towards something similar to what Q3 posted, and just did not have my ducks in a row to make a coherent post out of it yesterday. I am glad Q3 that you posted that.

a) we eventually want to achieve post gay and
b) it is politically imprudent to critique straight people who are coming to the aid of the LGBT cause, when quite obviously, exactly this support is needed to swing public majorities around.

But, I can also see that other argument: So far, the gay movement in the music industry is one of mostly lip service (or praise for certain lyrics, if coming from straight people). The actual gay artists are at the same time still shut out, on all levels of the industry(radio, award shows, record deals, etc), and that needs to change first, before we can peacefully and together enter that post gay era. Right now, we cannot afford yet to be orientation blind, because obviously, that still means that gay people are shut out, because instincts and fears still pull the practical business implications in the other direction.

I guess, these developments will go back and forth for a while. If we compare it to the feminist movement, where we have lip service since 100 years now, but where we still have a major income divide, uneven division of work load in households, harassment problems, a glass ceiling and more. And we are additionally observing, that on a political level ghosts from the past are rising again and we are discussing topics that I thought were done with in the 70s. Certain political elements are clearly trying to move the clock backwards. It's actually been quite scary recently, at least here in the US.

Same with race relationship. 2 steps forward, 1 step back, I'll leave it at that.

It will take a while before that orientation neutrality and equality is even close to being achieved, but things are overall moving forward, and have made a huge jump in the last 5 years.

In Russia, totally different story. Besides the tragic impact on all homosexuals in Russia, what many of those straight people, who are supposedly 'protecting families from gay perverts', are not realizing, is that when a call is made for people to snitch on a neighbor, family member, colleague, that the amount of straight people who are wrongly accused, just because they were 'observed' doing something that might be gay, is huge. The amount of straight people who will go to prison, get raped or get killed in the process of 'cleansing' is enormous and will probably match the number of gay people who will face tragic life circumstances. Many men and women, who are trying to protect their relatives from the gay 'boogieman' are really going to deliver their children into the hands of an unregulated mob. These children will be gay as well as straight. Hate is blind and witch hunts hurt whole communities, punish many innocent (innocent in the context of whatever the 'evil witch' - problem of the day happens to be), and makes all people live in fear of being accused of something.

I agree, that the overall agenda in Russia is to return the country to a pre-glasnost era, and the gay community is singled out to make that transition happen, where somehow the general population is made to believe that it is in their own interest, if everybody has to be afraid of everybody else. It is sadz, but I think a good portion of the cold war is back. What I don't understand is what happened, to turn Putin phase 1, who was at least somewhat reasonable, into Putin phase 2. He seems to have fundamentally changed his views on pretty much everything in a very sinister way over the last 10 years. What did the KGB do to their own guy? Brainwash him? Scary stuff.

craazy, I know it's OT, but I can't resist commenting on your post here. I don't think Putin was ever reasonable. I think he always aspired to be another Joseph Stalin and rebuild the Russian empire. I think he was just waiting for his chance when he feels that the world won't do anything but stand on the sidelines wringing its hands and saying, "Too bad, those poor bastards."