Brody's Scribbles... Aftermath Of The Media Frenzy-Fulton Mississippi

Press Gathering Photo By The Los Angeles Times 

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Apr 12 | A visit by a solitary Head of State can tie this town up in knots with just security considerations alone. Now imagine 50 plus of them, their security, plus the global press, and then the thousands of everyday Washingtonians trying to get to work, school, shop at the market-you get the idea. 

Starting yesterday and stretching through until Wednesday, Washington has once again fallen under the glare of the global media spotlight as the world's press corps, numbering in the thousands, descends on the District to cover the Nuclear Summit being hosted by the Obama Administration this week. The word circus doesn't quite cover the description adequately enough. Now, here's the thing, this is Washington D.C. which is used to this inundation of press corps and resulting massive inconvenience, but what happens to a small town and on a subject that is a powder keg issue fraught with emotions? 

Recently, due to the actions of a backwards thinking, tightly wound, Über Christian school board, in its decision to cancel one of the local high school's senior proms, caused the small southern town of Fulton, Mississippi to experience the onslaught of media that Washingtonians often take with a grain of salt. 
What is the reality check after all the satellite trucks have gone and the local pubs & diners are freed from journalistic infestation? What happens to the locals, the inhabitants of that town? In almost every instance, people tend to forget that the aftermath of a hurricane is more traumatic than the storm itself. Here's a viewpoint through a working man's eyes, Mississippi Gay novelist James Savik:

The cameras are gone from Fulton, Mississippi- home of one of the big media prom dramas of 2010. Fulton, Mississippi is in Itawamba county and sits just a few miles off the Alabama border and is 12 miles from Tupelo, Mississippi. In addition to being the home town of Elvis is the home of Donald Wildmon's American Family Association.
This conflict was a bit like taking a stick and knocking the crap out of a hornets nest. The results were predictable. Constance McMillen was disappointed and the school district acted despicably.
You can be sure that this has been the topic of conversation of the AFA's members and the churches have been tanking up on hate.
Now that the media is gone, we gay folk that live here have to cope with the angry hornets. Gay people are going to lose jobs. I've already lost a cable installation gig. Not that the economy doesn't suck in the best of times in Mississippi (number 50 with a bullet), it sure doesn't help when the churches are telling employers that the evil gay agenda is here and wants to molest their babies.

Not that things are EVER gay-friendly, things are noticeably more gay-contemptuous. People with rainbows and Human Rights Campaign bumper stickers are getting pulled over and cops are sitting on gay bars waiting for patrons to leave.

So what good did the media exposure do us? None at all. Everybody knew that Mississippi sucks. That's a given. What it did was get a lot of local gay activists to speak up and now they are facing retaliation.
So thanks a lot for the media circus. It was fun while it lasted. It created a lot of false hopes and has the Christians on the war path... in a loving way to punish dirty faggots to make them come to Jesus and give up their evil hobbies.
Here's an idea: the next time you want a gay media circus go to Alabama, Louisiana or Georgia. We've had ours for the decade.

Now, there is more to this issue as is to be expected in this age of the Internet. The media spotlight's glare is not limited to emanation from solely the traditional press corps. There are the countless bloggers, websites, and everyday folk who can participate via social networking sites such as Facebook, or Twitter, where unchecked, the results can get out of hand:

"OK whoever is targeting my classmates really need to stop. It's cruel and actually there are a lot of people including my girlfriend that have been receiving messages and having hateful things said about them just because they live in Itawamba county. There are alot of supporters that are getting harassed it shames me and actually it is just making me sad. One of my really good friends just showed up to my house crying because something was said about her. She has been supporting me through this and it is not right what yall are doing is not supporting me let ppl talk their shit about me. I dont care but this is more disgusting than what they are doing to me. I have always said to be respectful of people otherwise you dont get your message across. So yall please please if yall support me please stop doing this. Its not helping anything and it is hurting alot of innocent people." - Constance McMillan, posting to the Facebook group 'Constance, Quit Yer Cryin'.

Constance McMillan was the young Lesbian at the centre of this national media feeding frenzy whose inability to attend her Senior High School Prom with her girlfriend, and her decision to go public by filing an ACLU lawsuit, led to her small town receiving the type of scrutiny usually reserved for places such as Washington, or even Los Angeles.
The Internet age has spawned an instantaneous response to events which leads to publicity which initially can be helpful in resolving issues or raising awareness, yet ultimately, due to the peculiarity of some regions especially small towns in middle & southern America, to react negatively and often may lead to a form of insular retribution and enforced intransigence that takes much longer to resolve than the issue that touched off the frenzy to start with.
For LGBT Americans, nothing could illustrate this point better than the case of Fulton, Mississippi.