Tuesday, May 11, 2004

You Are Gay


The other night in an NBA playoff game the Timberwolve's Kevin Garnett elbowed Denver's rookie center Francisco Elson below the belt. Proving that basketball is a child's game at any level, Elson retaliated with repartee straight from 5th grade recess.

In a press conference following the game he recounted how he had retaliated in-game, "You don’t do that. That’s gay on his part. I told him that he was gay, too, for touching me in my private parts." 

Here was a refreshing moment where someone in public came off unaffected, sharing what he actually thought. He had no agent or lawyer or p.r. girl there to tell him what to say. He simply repeated what he had told Garnett during the game. The statement was rash, raw, and immature (what grown man says  "private parts"?) but wholly refreshing in its candor. And it didn't take long for the P.C. police to jump.

The NBA senior vice president quickly warned teams about volatile remarks in the media and an AP story said that gay and lesbian groups "chastised" Elson. I've seen no actual quotes to back up this statement by the AP, but I'll take them at their word.
 
Elson quickly apologized under the criticism saying that his remarks were out of character and "insensitive". In fact, it was the use of words like insensitive that felt out of character for the guy who likely uses "gay" as an insult. Am I out of touch or don't lots of people use this slur? Why pretend otherwise. Had he called KJ a Frenchman, a mullet lover, or a Republican, there would be no outcry. Identity politics is a discriminating deamon. And the issue is wholly political, not economic.
 
Its not as if a boycott of the NBA --even 100% effective--  from the homosexual community would hurt ticket sales, its just not their audience. Hypersensitivity flares up again, and to what end? Surely no one believes the apology, as forced as all public celebrity apologies are. What is accomplished is a reinforcing of the rules; there are things one can say in public, and many things one cannot. These forbidden words are censorship by a new name, relabeled marxism.
 
To fight this new oppression we must, as they say, control the dialogue. So get out there and say what you feel in public without checking over your shoulder. Call your friends car bughetto, tell the boss his son is queer bait, or call that date that cant hold their liquor a Native American. No GLAAD awards will come your way, and many people will revile you, call you unenlightened and bigoted or worse, but the life of a free speech revolutionary has its own rewards.

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