The Gay Meme

[taerowyn]

ETA (and D)

POssibly did some unintentional toe stepping on with my mini-rant and I was going to add some qualifiers and then figured $*#& it, I'm just removing everything except the following:

See this? I agree.

See this? I also agree.

When it comes down to it, support of a good cause is just that...support. And this is a cause that needs all the support it can get in myriad forms.

The end.

Comments

[sagespot.livejournal.com]

I really don't see anything wrong with the wording of that particular meme. For me, although I believe in universal human rights, I see that the American government has split hairs over this subject, so sometimes I feel the need to voice a particular "hair."

Sadly, Iowa allows for the firing of an employee based upon his/her sexuality, and as this meme came across my desk only weeks after the third of our friends was fired from the same corporation for being gay, I was feeling like supporting this "general" post.

I personally saw no need to list my hours of volunteerism or donations to our local Pride campaigns in my email - you know me well enough to know that I do what my health allows to support that in which I believe... I simply wanted to voice my support of gay rights - as I don't think they're well represented in my state.

Maybe I'm just not seeing the peer pressure here. It's just a post. No real peer pressure involved, as many people go days without reading their LJ pages, and I highly doubt that anyone will be cut due to lack of "reposting."

To end, I have no idea why I decided to rant to this particular post. I'm sorry. Seriously. It was not at all my intention to tick you off.

[taerowyn.livejournal.com]

To end, I have no idea why I decided to rant to this particular post. I'm sorry. Seriously. It was not at all my intention to tick you off.

No, don't worry about it, you didn't tick me off by posting it (and neither did anybody else on my flist) or with this response. I realized this morning that my post was farily confrontational, and I didn't mean it to be. It's great to stand up and be counted for all the reasons you listed and more, I'm just irked at whoever created the meme cause it was such a wasted opportunity and was worded such that it's going to rub people (like yours truly) the wrong way.

I know the meme comes from a good impulse and it's nice that people are showing solidarity, it's just that I'd have liked to see the meme, since it did spread so far, be something that's actually useful. "I've contacted my legislator about gay rights through XYZ organization (link). Support gay rights by contacting your legislator here (link) and then post this statement in your journal." Something!

As for peer pressure, it's the "if you don't support gay rights then don't post this" that bugs me. It smacks of all things chain letter and "If you're not with us, you're..." Just stopping at "if you support gay rights then post this in your journal" full stop would have worked, but adding that last part is just...I don't know why, but really irksome to me. Like I have to post the meme to prove I support gay rights. To use your words, "you know me well enough to know..." and most of the people who read my journal do as well.

What about those people who just, on principle, don't do memes? Can their flist assume they don't support gay rights based on the fact that they didn't post the meme? No, of course not, but that's what's implied.

Really, the action-less aspect of it all is kind of annoying (again, coming from an advocacy/wasted opportunity standpoint) but I probably would have ignored things and moved on with my day without posting something, but that last line just is so useless and aggravating.

[sagespot.livejournal.com]

I think it's WONDERFUL that you're confrontational - very much more so because it's from the point of advocacy and potential action.

Your idea of how the post should have looked is right on point. I also agree with where the first post should have ended and the implications of the final statements.

Sad that this got so out of hand.