How to Fight Homophobia

[ysabetwordsmith]

Some folks found an awesome new way to fight homophobia: when their lesbian neighbors were vandalized, lots of other people hung rainbow flags.  Not only is this a lovely show of support for the lesbians, and a discouragement to the vandals, it also provides protective camouflage.  Suppose a bigot drives by who doesn't already know where the lesbians live.  How's he going to find them now?  He'll run out of eggs pretty fast.  LOL

I saw this and immediately thought of the leprechaun story.

So pass it around.  We can sure use more techniques for turning all the isms into wasms.

Comments

[capri0mni]

And there's also the story of The King of Denmark and the Yellow Star -- which, it turns out is just as much legend as leprechauns.

But it's been taught as history.

And it's a good idea -- that works.

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

That's awesome too.

Re: Yay!

[capri0mni]

Indeed. The history may not be true in fact, but it's true in spirit. So it's still true.

[chanter1944]

I'm reminded of the apocryphal story of the school-aged kid undergoing chemo treatment for cancer, thus ending up bald, and being teased... until a second kid shaves their own head. When asked why they'd done it, the response was something along the lines of 'Go ask the other kid with no hair.' At least one country song uses a similar story, as does an episode of Adventures In Odyssey, only in that case I believe it was blue-dyed hair. Same general idea, different means.

I really need to get a rainbow flag window cling or something... or better yet, one rainbow one and one ace one. No room for a flagpole.

[technoshaman]

pocketnaomi once *implemented* this... if I can find where she wrote the story down, I'll link to it.

I need to tweak the Cascadia folks to make a full-sized rainbow Cascadia flag...

Freek Flag, HOIST! You are *totally* correct, that the more of us fly freek flags, the better the visible hero-to-asshat ratio...

Though I do wonder what will happen when it becomes painfully obvious that there are more rainbows and allies than there are pointy white hats *period*... some of those asshats are not going quietly.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Freek Flag, HOIST! You are *totally* correct, that the more of us fly freek flags, the better the visible hero-to-asshat ratio... <<

:D

>> Though I do wonder what will happen when it becomes painfully obvious that there are more rainbows and allies than there are pointy white hats *period*... some of those asshats are not going quietly. <<

Well, that comes down to sociobiology. It's like the bullying circle. Behaviors which are encouraged or permitted tend to flourish. Behaviors which are discouraged tend to decline. There are far more surreptitious bigots than open ones. The surreptitious type will act up in an environment that condones bigotry, but hide in one that condemns it. This is because many, though not all, bullies and bigots are cowards. Make it clear that the environment is tolerant of diversity but not oppression, and many troublesome people will either shut up or leave. This produces a concrete reduction in the problem.

T-American folks call it honeybumping, after the way honeybees head-butt each other to make some bees stop advocating a particular course of action. The more a behavior gets interrupted, the less likely it is to continue. While it is not possible to eliminate destructive behavior completely, it is possible to challenge it consistently enough to reduce it to a bare minimum.

Re: Thoughts

[technoshaman]

So how does one handle the corner cases, the guy who's enough of a sociopath that he just doesn't *care* that he's about to get his ass kicked? You're right that there won't be many of them, but they're likely to do a lot more *damage* per unit asshat if they've been king of the hill for long enough that pattern is branded into their brains as privilege... I don't much care if he's just garden-variety abusive, that'll get snuffed PDQ by sheer numbers, but the big boss is likely to bring the big guns (possibly literally)...

Sign me,
Paranoid BOFH

[ng_moonmoth]

I was reminded of a story from a while back about a Jewish household which displayed their menorah in their front window while the candles were burning on the first night of Hanukkah, only to have commentary delivered in the form of an anonymously-thrown rock breaking the window. The next evening, a goodly number of neighbors for a decent distance around were displaying menorahs in their windows.

Aww ...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I love that. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Aww ...

[tomtac.livejournal.com]

I was going to post a version of that. It - IS - a great story. But I saw that Ng beat me to it.

(Elizabeth probably has a copy of my deleted comment in her mailbox, if she gets notifications.)

I think a lot of people will do the right thing, and even the kind and generous thing, if it isn't going to break the bank.

Re: Aww ...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

I did get the other comment, yes.