Posted: 11/16/04 Section: Opinions

Media Credit: Matt Vroom

As a gay columnist, I am placed in an awkward position. I am more than capable of writing about topics that don't relate to the same-sex community, but at the same time, I feel a strong sense of guilt for not responding when I think anti-gay rhetoric is printed on the pages of The Daily Illini.

On Thursday, a columnist wrote a piece that attempted to glorify discrimination. He crossed a number of lines, such as suggesting that Democrats don't truly love this country. I was most concerned, however, by this columnist's attack on a specific minority group: gays and lesbians. Now, I can stomach statements like, "America has spoken, and we don't want gay marriage." What I will not accept is blatant degradation.

The columnist quotes a New York resident who said we need to have respect for "people with different lifestyles," which I can only guess refers partly to gays and lesbians. I would not be surprised, because the columnist has an infatuation with using the same-sex community to make his digs.

In response to the proposition that we should respect people like gays and lesbians, he said, "Keep the freak show on Fifth Avenue."

That's adorable. Go grab your crotch and brag about how you just wrote "a friggin' awesome piece" to your friends. I wouldn't be surprised at all. What does surprise me, though, is how inconsistent organizations can be in responding to bigotry. The reaction seems to depend on which minority group is being offended.

Most people who regularly read the DI know that Matt Vroom was disciplined by his editors for a comic strip he drew that was perceived to be anti-Semitic. Though Vroom didn't directly say, "I hate Jews," there still was a degree of intolerance being depicted, at least in the eyes of many readers.

Likewise, the columnist I am speaking of didn't come out and say, "Gay people are freak shows," and perhaps that's not what he meant. But it is easy to see how it could be perceived that way. Everyone knows that big cities have a higher population of homosexuals, and by "keeping the freak show on Fifth Avenue," he is presumably saying that we don't need tolerance of the same-sex community to spread to more rural parts of the country.

Like it or not, the bigotry and ignorance in this column is just as evident as it was in Vroom's comic. Drawing a comic referencing a big-nosed Jewish banker is hardly more offensive than implying that homosexuals are freak shows, but you never would know that based on the response of the editors and the lack of reaction to the columnist's piece (or piece of s***, to be more precise). Letters of condemnation flooded in after Vroom's comic strip was run, and he was briefly suspended from his position. However, the only responses I saw to the anti-gay remark in Thursday's opinions section were letters with blanket statements like, "Hey, gays aren't so bad."

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools

The Daily Illini encourages on-topic discussion through article commenting on its articles and blogs. It is our policy not to delete any comments based upon political or ideological point of view. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are abusive, off-topic or use excessive foul language.

The posting of copyrighted material, including any and all content for which you are not the author, is illegal under Federal intellectual property laws. Such activity will not be tolerated. Comments containing copyrighted material will be removed, and continued violation of copyright law is grounds for being banned completely from commenting on DailyIllini.com.

If you feel any post meets these conditions or merits review, please e-mail our editors at meonline@dailyillini.com.