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here's to the state of...kansas...
Aug. 2nd, 2006 12:54 pma man and a woman own a bed and breakfast in meade, kansas. their kid brings home a rainbow flag, and they start flying it outside the bed and breakfast.
it being a conservative community in kansas, people get mad. that dismays me, although i guess it doesn't surprise me.
what really gets me is what one of the local residents said:
"Local resident, Keith Klassen says the flag is a slap in the face to the conservative community of Meade. “To me it's just like running up a Nazi flag in a Jewish neighborhood. I can't walk into that establishment with that flag flying because to me that's saying that I support what the flag stands for and I don't," says Klassen."
fine. if you're vehemently homophobic, it's your choice not to patronize the bed and breakfast with a rainbow flag in front of it. that's your right in the free market. but comparing it to a nazi flag in a jewish neighbourhood? that's patently wrong. the nazis were out to hate and exterminate all jews. the gays are not out to kill all homophobes. hanging a nazi flag in a jewish neighbourhood is an act bathed in ill will, an act bathed in hate.
hanging a rainbow flag in a conservative neighbourhood is not an act of saying "i hate conservatives and want them to die"...even though homophobes may feel threatened by it, there's a difference. it's a societal threat to their bigotry, something that will force them to either think hard about why they are homophobic, or to flip out and withdraw from that element of society. it's not a threat that someone else is making to kill them, to say that their race or religion or way of life is somehow superior, to the extent that everyone else deserves to be killed.
it being a conservative community in kansas, people get mad. that dismays me, although i guess it doesn't surprise me.
what really gets me is what one of the local residents said:
"Local resident, Keith Klassen says the flag is a slap in the face to the conservative community of Meade. “To me it's just like running up a Nazi flag in a Jewish neighborhood. I can't walk into that establishment with that flag flying because to me that's saying that I support what the flag stands for and I don't," says Klassen."
fine. if you're vehemently homophobic, it's your choice not to patronize the bed and breakfast with a rainbow flag in front of it. that's your right in the free market. but comparing it to a nazi flag in a jewish neighbourhood? that's patently wrong. the nazis were out to hate and exterminate all jews. the gays are not out to kill all homophobes. hanging a nazi flag in a jewish neighbourhood is an act bathed in ill will, an act bathed in hate.
hanging a rainbow flag in a conservative neighbourhood is not an act of saying "i hate conservatives and want them to die"...even though homophobes may feel threatened by it, there's a difference. it's a societal threat to their bigotry, something that will force them to either think hard about why they are homophobic, or to flip out and withdraw from that element of society. it's not a threat that someone else is making to kill them, to say that their race or religion or way of life is somehow superior, to the extent that everyone else deserves to be killed.
