First of all, it's been an eventful month. Here are some highlights:
4/4 (Sunday) - Tegan & Sara @ The Ogden, Denver, CO.
AMAZING, GLORIOUS, BUTTERFLIES IN MY INTESTINES, WONDERFUL SHOW! Forgive the poor quality of the image from my unworthy 1.3 megapixel LG camera phone.
4/10 (Saturday) - Queer Formal After Party. Formal was fun, but the after party was where it was at. It was a shit show to say the least. A very successful night with sick beats care of Chris Caligaris, a.k.a. Godlazer. Check him out for he is the ish. Wish I had some pictures to show you, but my camera got stolen. C'est la vie.
4/20 (Tuesday) - 420 Celebration on Norlin Quad. I was high (and useless) all day. At least I was still capable of verbal communication. Check it:
4/22 (Thursday) - University of Colorado Board of Regents Meeting @ University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus, 8:30 AM. On a more serious note, I attended this meeting today to speak out in support of the addition of gender identity and expression as a protected class to the University of Colorado's Discrimination and Harassment Policy. In short, it was a bureaucratic circus. Very disappointing, yet simultaneously empowering. I felt so proud and grateful to be a part of this community, to be able to get a small taste of our struggles and solidarity. I didn't realize how much I've missed this feeling until this morning. I attached the speech I presented at the meeting below.
In addition to that bit of queer business earlier today, the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas (or more commonly known as the "God hates fags" family) rolled into Boulder this afternoon for a routine string of fag, Jew, and America-hating protests. I was able to catch the end of their demonstration at Boulder High just down the street from my house. As I whipped out my trusty 1.3 megapixel LG camera phone to snap a picture of a little boy struggling to carry a "GOD HATES FAGS" sign, I was suddenly overwhelmed with immense shame and guilt. Who the hell do I think I am? What gives me the right to think that I'm better than these people? These people (i.e. human beings) may express these sentiments of hatred and intolerance out of what appears to be personal agency, but no one can completely ascertain that to be the actual situation. I lowered my phone (there was insufficient memory to take the picture anyway, but that's beside the point), and literally hundreds of Boulder High students, among other counter-protesters, swarmed and pushed past me to follow the WBC protesters to their rental Kia minivan.
I've come to the realization today that ludicrous and radical organizations, such as the Westboro Baptist Church, are just tools for the media to exploit in order to misplace our efforts to combat inequality and injustice within our society. The media creates such a sensation around groups like the WBC that incite tremendously passionate emotions that we cannot help but to act. But in reality, our counter-demonstrations don't serve any actual progressive purpose, other than perhaps personal validation that we, ourselves, are not homophobes, because at the end of the day the WBC still thinks we're going to burn in hell and same-sex marriage is still illegal at the federal level (just as examples). Nothing has changed. Why aren't we employing our energies to coordinate a massive march on the state capitol and demand equal rights for same-sex couples (again, just as an example)?
We should not be organizing at such a large scale to counter-protest an organization that has absolutely no political influence whatsoever, not to mention been dismissed by one of our most esteemed allies (sarcasm), Sean Hannity. As I witnessed this huge crowd that was so incensed by the WBC's miniscule presence in Boulder, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of impact this energy and passion could create if actually applied to a constructive cause with tangible goals and results.
Thoughts? Comments? Criticism?
Let me know.
IreneJK
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