January 19, 2009
"The Awakening of a Dumb (Gay) American"
Charles Winecoff, a TV writer and journalist, spent some time in the years since 9-11 rethinking everything he though he knew about the United States, liberalism, gay rights, multiculturalism and Islam. He's posted a provocative piece, "The Awakening of a Dumb (Gay) American" at Big Hollywood, the site devoted to entertainment industry insiders who dare to deviate from Tinseltown's left-wing talking points.
In a letter he sent to his friends, Winecoff reexamined many of his long-held beliefs and found that his fears about and understanding of his fellow Americans were based upon incorrect assumptions, ignorance, and just plain old prejudice.
I have learned that the word “conservative” isn’t, in fact, a dirty word; sometimes, it simply refers to peoples’ belief about finances and government spending. A lot of that makes sense to me. But growing up, I always thought it meant something much more sinister and backward and evil, perpetuated by what I saw on television and in movies. Republicans were American Nazis, working to put black people back in chains, force women to have illegal back alley abortions, and force gay people to turn straight and convert to Christianity.
I have since met real people who identify as Republicans and even Christians – the religion we are constantly warned (despite plenty of evidence to the contrary) is the worst, most dangerous in the world. I have been in the dreary Catholic church of my partner’s parents. And guess what. I’ve never felt more welcome, even as an openly gay man there with my partner. I have no interest in Catholicism or going to church. And I’m sure underneath, the church folk do not fully approve of how we live. Maybe some do. But newsflash: I don’t have to approve of how they live either. And none of us is killing the other. They are not the enemy.
Winecoff laments the inability of his friends to see who really represents a threat, not only to their lifestyle, but their very lives. And then he takes the next, unthinkable step, at least in trendy Hollywood circles, and actually says who the enemy -- the real enemy -- is.
The freedom to be individuals as opposed to just followers is what still brings so many people here from other lands and cultures, often because they can’t find refuge anywhere else. Somali-born Dutch politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote the beautiful memoir Infidel, has ended up in the US, her last hope for safety – as did Oriana Fallaci and Brigitte Gabriel, all of whom have been up-close and personal with Islamic jihad. And all of whom have - or in Fallaci’s case, had - a death sentence on their heads.
In 2004, Ali and her friend, filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, made a 10-minute art film called Submission, about the brutal treatment of women under Islam. Both of them received death threats - in peaceful, progressive Holland – and before the year was out, Van Gogh, the Michael Moore of Europe, was shot by a Muslim man in broad daylight. As he lay in the busy street, Van Gogh asked his attacker, “Can’t we talk about this?” Then the attacker stabbed him repeatedly, furiously, nearly decapitating him.
Not much was written about this in the US, but “over there” it was big news – and indicative of a growing problem. Islamic extremism is directly affecting American tourists as well, particularly gay ones. Washington Blade editor Chris Cain was viciously gay-bashed by Morroccan youths in Amsterdam, once known as the gay capital of the world, but no longer. Cain had made the mistake of holding his boyfriend’s hand in public.
In While Europe Slept, Bruce Bawer details how he left the “redneck” US to live with his male lover on the continent, but gradually came to see the growing problem there as well – especially when his partner was nearly knifed in that same city, by young men of the same ethnic group. Gay events in The Netherlands are regularly disrupted by violence from Islamic minorities, as the number of rapes also continues to rise. The liberal lifestyle once enjoyed in so many Dutch-speaking countries has been curbed by a rapidly growing - and rabidly anti-gay - immigrant population.
There is a lot of literature, written by people overseas, about the demographic shift taking place in Europe. Naturally, I have wondered if these accounts were exaggerated, for publication. But a few months ago, a gay friend came to dinner at our house. I had forgotten that he was Dutch – and he told us how his brother, who is also gay and still in The Netherlands, is trying desperately to get out and join him here in the US. Our friend stated emphatically that both he and his brother no longer feel safe in that once safe haven. Doesn’t this go against everything the gay rights movement has fought for the past three decades?
The willful blindness I see on the left, their distaste for American conservatives and Christians, has left them unable to see how the supposed gulf between the American RIght and Left is a distinction without a difference, when compared to the cultural chasm that separates Islam from the modern gay activist or Western liberal.
I think the current alliance between the transnational Left, anarchists, multi-culti moonbats and America-hating whackjobs, and Islamic radicals, is a marriage of convenience, one that will someday be a source of tremendous shame and regret.
That this is not yet so, as homosexuals are hanged from scaffolds in public executions in Iran, as Muslims urge a renewal of the Nazi's Holocaust in street demonstrations in Canada, England, and, yes, the United States, is a devastating indictment of the so-called human rights movement.
Winecoff's essay is a long read, but worth the time for a very different perspective on the culture wars, and the world in the aftermath of September 11th.
Posted by Mike Lief at January 19, 2009 09:18 AM
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