The recent gay bashing incidents in LGBT-friendly New York City, including one especially abhorrent attack in the Bronx, have made national headlines. While it is uncertain whether the attacks have always been occurring with such frequency and failed to receive media attention or whether there has been an increase in anti-gay bias, the uptick in anti-gay sentiment reported in the media has been disturbing, especially during LGBT History month.
Most of the situations involve bias against gay men, but The Stir has listed several incidents in the past few years involving gay women, many occurring in places where one wouldn’t expect such blatant displays of ignorance. While none of these incidents resulted in violence, they are a sign that, despite making great strides towards equality and acceptance, we still have a long fight ahead of us.
When a peck on the cheek in the most progressive area of North Carolina gets a couple ejected from a mall, that ain’t right. When a butch lesbian gets ejected from a restroom in Greenwich frakkin’ Village, that ain’t right. (Yup, Greenwich Village, the gay ghetto of New York City. That’s like getting banished from Greenwich, Connecticut for being white.) When a lesbian couple is told to leave a Seattle Mariners game for smooching, that ain’t right. I mean, it’s Seattle, home of Birkenstock and flannel wearing tree huggers. If two lesbians can’t kiss in Seattle, have we entered the Twilight Zone? Should we be on the lookout for a white, black, red and pale horse? Seriously. What is this world coming to?
That. Ain’t. Right. To finish quoting Chris Rock: “That s–t is wrong.”
Fortunately, in the Raleigh, North Carolina mall incident, the security guard who told the evil cheek-pecking couple to leave the premises picked on the wrong lesbian. One of the women, Caitlin Breedlove, is a gay activist. Since the day of the incident, she has been working to make sure that sensitivity training at the mall is taken seriously, and she has hit the media circuit to educate the public, most recently last night on the Joy Behar Show.
Yes, it is getting better. It is getting much much better, but we must remind ourselves not to get complacent. The teen suicides, the gay bashings, the rudeness toward lesbians in the most progressive areas of the country are signs that there is much work to be done. They say the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so let’s make some noise.
