Tuesday, March 27, 2007

My Obscene Gestures

My friend Fred Goldsmith needed a variety of faces and moods for the poster he was creating for a commendable event, bridging the HIV-Positive/HIV-Negative gulf in the Gay community, and why did he think I would be a perfect model for Mr. Hostility?In the same issue of the Bay Times where this ad appeared, another model for his ad, Emil Friend (the left hand guy in lower right photo), wrote a wonderful article on the subject, "Divided or United: Can We Move Beyond Poz/Neg?"
In the same issue (22 March 2007), the Bay Times published my letter in reaction to General Pace's stupid comments on gays serving in the military, adding a title "Message for Peace":
Thank you, General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for hating homosexuals. Please go a step further and forbid homosexuals, even those who “don’t tell,” from serving in the military. True, there are plenty of gay men in love with uniforms, plenty addicted to pain and violence, but if they are forbidden to serve they might succumb to the influence of what I hope is the nature of the greater number of gay men a dedication, stronger than any warrior’s pledge, to beauty, love, and peace. If there must be warriors, let them be heterosexuals. (Of course, I know I am talking a pipe dream, as gay and lesbian people are diverse as any other people who are grouped as a category under a label.) “Make Love, Not War” was first chanted at an early pre-Stonewall gay demonstration in San Francisco as a declaration of the attitude of gay people that, contrary to being sick or immoral, is an attitude that is the only hope for the future. (I hope Krishnamurti was gay.) I suppose it is difficult, General Pace, not to have feared homosexuality growing up with a name like Peter Pace, trying not to avoid the idea that you are in the military because you feel you must keep pace with the peters of other aggressive males. But try this, General: Give your last name the Italian pronunciation and meaning – Pace -- “Peace.” But, no, I suppose you will go on living with a stick up your ass. How perverse.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

POZitively a good selection of mood faces.