Brody's Scribbles... Straight To The Heart Of The Issue & Argument About Being Gay

By Brody Levesque (Bethesda, Maryland) Feb 21 | I have spent the past few days covering the CPAC conference here in Washington which, as a Gay man, has been tasking my patience. To be truthful? At the end of the day as I would return home, I felt as though I needed to shower to cleanse myself after listening to the ignorant proclamations of the assembled conservatives at that conference in regard to issues critical to LGBT people. As a journalist, I am expected to be fair, impartial, and non judgmental as I report on events as I see them. Yet, it is nearly impossible in the face of such undisguised bias, and misinformed sometimes barely disguised hateful opinions, being expressed by the conservatives both from the podium and in the conference halls, to not react negatively.

Now, there were a couple of bright spots for me as I watched the newly formed LGBT Republican Party PAC organisation 'GoProud' make its first appearance at a CPAC conference. The next and probably most enjoyable moment came when the crowd during a series of speeches booed radical Anti-Gay author and member of the ultra-right  and 'Reagansque'  California branch of Young Americans for Freedom, Ryan Sorba off the stage after he chastised  the CPAC organisers for allowing GoProud to participate. But, sadly, for the most part I did a slow burn as I gathered facts and made notes for my dispatches. As I wandered about the conference the one thing that stood out in specific relief above every other issue that the conservatives have with LGBT people, is over the perception of Gay people. What exactly it is to be considered Gay. It all boiled down to this: They see LGBT people as living a lifestyle, period.

That got me thinking. This one aspect affects full equality for LGBT people in the United States on issues ranging from Gay marriage, to Don't Ask-Don't Tell, to 'ENDA 'to name a few. For as long as that perception is all that Americans see-they totally miss viewing their fellow LGBT Americans as people. Interestingly enough this was nicely illustrated by a New Hampshire NH State Representative Nancy Elliott, R-Merrimack, speaking in the executive session on HB 1590, to repeal same-sex marriage. The lady from Merrimack was upset that 5th grade pupils were being exposed to education that included Gay lifestyles and marriage which  meant that the kiddies were taught, as she put it; "Involved one man putting his penis into the rectum of another man and wriggling it around in excrement."

Let me pause to sigh heavily eh? About a year ago, there was a symposium and debate panel on the Prop 8 aftermath and effects held in Los Angeles by the LA Press Club. Moderated by respected veteran NPR correspondent-anchor for NPR affiliate KPCC and a journalism professor at Cal State Los Angeles, Jon Beaupre. During the course of the discussion, a young black woman asked a question that struck at the heart of the issue...lifestyle. The panelist she asked, Karen Ocamb, is a longtime writer and news editor for Frontiers In LA magazine and writes for The Huffington Post  & The Bilerico Project. Ms. Ocamb wrote in a recent column at The Bilerico project; 

"Last year Jon moderated another Prop 8 panel I was on - which led to a political awakening for at least one of his students. I was droning on about how it's important for pollsters to start considering lesbians and gays as a serious demographic in their surveys and this one young woman - who voted Yes on Prop 8 - asked me why we would want to do that? Why would we want to call attention to ourselves like that? I immediately realized she was looking at LGB people in the framework of sex - not sexual orientation. Activist Robin Tyler, who was also on the panel, explained how we're a civil rights movement. But I spoke to her in terms of "personhood" - now gay people are more than just who we sleep with. "  

Here is  the video of that discussion:

I have had this discussion myself numerous times with friends, strangers, persons from different cultures, and my family. I sometimes feel as though I need to climb a mountain and shout, "It's NOT a Choice, It's NOT a lifestyle! We are just like the rest of you and we are not defined by the sexual acts in our bedrooms!"

As a community, as LGBT people, I believe that obtaining the goal of full equality will only be achieved by redefining the incorrect perceptions held by others. It must be done on a one to one basis, a person at a time, a community at at time, a state at a time. We must get the opposition  to see us as human beings, as normal everyday folk, not some grouping of deviants defined only by a sexual act.