The HA (Humor Activism) Corner
Posted on
January 13, 2009 by
admin
Let's put some fun in our own fundamentalism! Use your imagination! Tell us some of the witty, gay civil protests you've done, here in the HA (Humor Activism) Corner!
Leave a comment below to tell us your story...
65 yr old working in recovery after retiring from hospital administration 3 yrs ago. Love what i am now doing. came out at 28 and never looked back. Last Sept my partner died and when my 37 year old son called to offer condolences he mentioned that Carol was my 3rd partner to die. I acknowledged that fact and told him I was thinking of “going straight” to which he replied “Don’t fuck me up now”.
Back in the early 60’s, after reading The Grapevine, I was ready to join my first lesbian group (DOB). They were located in an alley way where the Fashion Institute of Technology now stands. There was almost no literature and no “how to” books. I didn’t know how a group of lesbians would dress so I figured a man tailered shirt, men’s pants and a very short haircut would be just right. I got to the meeting to find woman dressed just like my co-workers…except for Shirley Willer, I felt almost out of place.
Minor activism humor story: I’m getting marrried to my gal in 1 week — relatives not invited. Took my lady to meet my mother. Mother’s first comment, “oh my god! How can I still play the organ at the church?” My answer, “Mom, you’ll be the first mother in town that admits having a gay daughter. Popularity comes with success. Your social calendar just improved by 150%, thanks to me and my gal.”
please help publizie the campainge to end dont ask dont tell—-join and support–knights out org.—–rachel maddow does
We didn’t mean it to be funny. Dan Choi and I have been friends since we started Knights Out (GLBT West Point grads) in March. After Rachel Maddow interviewed him, it got crazy, and I volunteered to help manage his schedule in my free time. Tuesday he went to his discharge board in Syracuse – other than his attorney, there was me (50 year old dyke, West Point ‘80 grad, 200 lbs but i’m big-boned); my partner Penny (much smaller, in a scooter due to MS) and our friend Margaret (West Point ‘89). We got on post behind Dan because Margaret was in uniform. We got to the building and unloaded the scooter. Suddenly consternation. A sergeant runs out of the building. “Ma’am, are you on the witness list? No? then you have to leave!” I continued helping Penny get the scooter turned around and said, “We’re just here to support Dan.” “No, ma’am, you don’t have official business here.” Margaret comes up in uniform, and says softly, “The board isn’t official business?” A crowd of soldiers gathers. One or two of those in uniform seem concerned, but many are clearly bemused. “We’re just gonna hang out here, okay?” says Margaret. Penny in her scooter looks determined. Now there’s about a dozen soldiers… then in rolls the SECURITY GUARDS. Two squad cars! With lights flashing! Mr. Beefy McNightstick approaches us, “YOU NEED TO LEAVE NOW!” “Can’t we just stand out here?” asks Margaret. “DO YOU WANT TROUBLE?” roars Mr. B.M. Now there is both eye-rolling and embarrassment among most of the uniformed guys. After a bit more conversation, we brought over the van, unrolled the ramp, loaded Penny back on, and were escorted by a military policeman back out of the gate… right into the arms of Channel 10! (I swear I saw the MP wink when he left us!).
Margaret emailed the goings-on to her friend in Iraq, who quickly responded, “So THAT’S why we went to ThreatCon 3!” Three middle-aged women on a National Guard base in Syracuse clearly constitute a homeland security threat…
My favorite piece of activism is to get all born-again gay when the Jehovah’s Witnesses and others come calling. I gleefully admit to the sin of homosexuality and testify about how much closer I feel to god since I stopped lying to myself and to others, that god doesn’t want me to lie does he? If you can do this with an unhealthy level of earnestness and a born-again glint in your eye it is extremely effective and I’ve never found a door-to-door god salesperson able to argue with my passion and enthusiasm, plus it scares the hell out of them.
The day before the latest March on Washington in October, (and you looked fabulous, Kate!) my partner and I were doing a bit of sightseeing when we came upon a group of religious fanatics with their bullhorn and huge sign condemning homosexuality. Right on Constitution Avenue. There were a few hundred mostly young people across the street, catcalling and the like.
We stepped right in front of them into the middle of Constitution Avenue – completely stopping traffic – and gave each other a lip-lock, tonsil-tickle the likes of which haven’t been seen since doing the same thing years before in front of Phred Phelps and his video camera crew in San Francisco.
The crowd went ballistic, completely drowning out the morons with the bullhorn.
Finally coming up for air, we smiled and waved at the dumbfounded dummies before turning our backs on them and heading arm-in-arm into the cheering crowd.
Street Theatre is a lot of fun.
My mother’s a**hole pastor tells her she is going to hell because I am gay. I was about to get into a fist o’ cuffs with him, when my mother turned to him and said, “Don’t you wish you were as blessed.”
George Allen–he of the macaca–and the anti-marriage amendment were fought at the same time in Va. In little old Harrisonburg, George and the state version of Focus on the Family invited folks to a rally to “support” marriage. We accepted their kind invitation, and supported marriage by having a wedding right there in the middle of Court Square. As we had our sweet little ceremony, all of the press covered us, and George et al. could speak of nothing else. My partner, an 80 year-old former P.E. teacher and every baby dyke’s dream woman, wore a white velour warm-up suit. What else? I, a failed Southern lady, wore black silk. Flowers from the local grocery store were tied with rainbow ribbons. The bride’s maid [bride's woman? partner's woman?], perhaps the last living femme, bought a pink flowered skirt and pink heels for the occasion. The best man, an old coot of a straight man whom we have adopted as an Honorary Lesbian, held the umbrella. Perhaps the best part for us was that six of the leaders of the Dems in the area called us the night before the wedding and begged us not to do it. They feared a backlash, feared a loss by Webb, and believed we would destroy the local Democratic Party. What power! But as many straight people as LGBTQ’s came to support us, and we all had a wonderful time as we made our commitments to one another. Mad vow disease indeed! We are a couple of old feminists who know that the only purpose of marriage is to oppress women–hardly the issue of choice for our entire “movement.” To have a “movement,” doesn’t someone or something have to be MOVING? I’ve been told that we are in the post-feminist era, but whatever happened to changing the world? I guess we are content if we can get married and send “our” men to maim and kill half of the third world. Thus, the story of our most fun little bit of activism.
We live in a small town in central WI and building on Kate’s idea of going to straight weddings (no relations) and standing up to say “No one should be free to marry until we are all free to marry!”, we have decided to go to all of the little parish festivals in our area and drink beer and play bingo while holding hands the whole time. We are waiting to see how long it takes to get kicked out but mostly we get stares and hushed stage whispers. i encourage everyone to do the same. Visibility at all costs as Harvey F. would say.
Some years ago, in the wee hours of the morning, I was looking through threads at JohnnyCash.com when one caught my eye. It was only 3 posts long then, and it had to do with whom the original poster thought would be appropriate members for the website = among the reprobates “queers not needed nor wanted” or something to that effect.
Without thinking, I hit reply and came out to over 10,000 people, “So, you don’t want me here? Johnny didn’t have a problem with gay people, so what’s up with your attitude?”
FOUR days later, the thread was into its 20th-some page, and the manager of the site finally froze it. I would NOT give up, and I was delighted and truly surprised by the amount of support I was shown. Even one of Johnny’s daughters got into the fray, agreeing that her dad even had gay people on his staff, and would not have appreciated homophobia from his fans, especially on ‘his’ website, where the world could read this thread that did not reflect his views.
After the brew-ha-ha died down, my mailbox was still overflowing. I came to realize just how many people were involved: I ended up receiving mail from all over the world (Japan; Norway; Australia; Florida) (hehehe…).
I think I’m covered for “Coming Out Day” through 2032.
I went to my state representative to discuss the gay marriage topic. He actually looked at me and said “My concern is that is gays get married, they will adopt children and FORCE them to be gay.” Well, silly me tried to reason with this statement……where upon he advised me sarcastically that “maybe I should move to some place more enlightened”. Well, bully for him…perhaps I should.