Ending the Prop 8 Blame Game
By Loryn Wilson - Dec 15th, 2008 at 12:42 pmOver at Feministe, Cara says that perhaps it’s time that people stopped blaming gays for the loss of their own rights:
I’m personally really sick of the idea that the “gay people just didn’t beg enough for their own rights” argument is a brilliant replacement for the racist one above. Guess what? If entrenched homophobia (across the board) and religious intolerance was not an issue, the fact that No on 8 ran a shitty campaign wouldn’t have been an issue either. And saying “well maybe if they’d just asked the nice straight people a bit more pleadingly” is just another example of the privilege and prejudice.
No one should have to beg for their rights. Period. And the oppressor is always to blame for the oppression they commit.
I absolutely agree. And while we’re at it, we can get rid of blaming blacks for the passing of Prop 8 too. This is a topic I wrote extensively about over at black girl blogging, but I think at this point, we should start to do away with blaming any group of people for the passage of Prop 8, be it blacks, whites, or LGBTQ folks.
The minute we start blaming each other we get deterred us from making strides in the movement. Perhaps we should instead focus on what do to next now that the proposition is passed. A few couples have sued the state of California–has there been any rallying behind that?
The point is, playing the blame game isn’t going to do anything other than keep us trapped in whine-and-bitch mode, stuck in neutral.
I’ve got an idea, how ’bout we blame the bigots who got this on the ballot in the first place?
And while we’re at it, let’s tell the so-called “victims” of the prop 8 boycott–and Snivveler-In-Chief Margie Christoffersen of El Coyote–to get the hell over it already: http://urbzen.com/2008/12/15/tacos-with-a-side-of-bigotry/
December 15th, 2008 at 4:39 pmand i understand that side too, but i think the longer we keep point fingers at folks, the farther we get from thinking about solutions.
December 15th, 2008 at 4:42 pm