On the one hand, there was cause for rejoicing this week when the abhorrent "Defense of Marriage Act" went down in a ball of flames. I live in a state where same sex marriage is legally recognized, so the death of DOMA's impact on me is largely financial and symbolic.
But then on the other hand...
The very same week that DOMA died its fiery death, a certain very well known Hollywood figure named Alec Baldwin went on a homophobic tirade, threatening to "fuck up" a gay reporter, sticking his foot up the writer's ass, but sparing him because he might like it too much. Had AB been, say, Mel Gibson, he would have been arrested for making hate-based threats. Instead, he's given a pass by both his Hollywood political handlers, and the larger gay community.
This episode tells me a lot of things, none of them good. First of all, homophobia remains alive and well, and it's acceptable as long as you're someone who has friends in the right places, and you've previously stuck to the script.
It also tells me that the support the LGBT community enjoys in places such as Hollywood is empty, a scripted facade. I once naively assumed there was a high degree of sincerity in Hollywood's support of basic human rights for LGBT people. Now that bubble has been burst. Toto has pulled the curtain back to reveal the Great and Powerful Oz is a sham, just smoke and mirrors. I'm sure some A-listers are sincere, but now it's impossible to know which ones.
Perhaps even more discouraging is the deafening silence of the self-styled leaders of the LGBT community. They cower in the corner before the hate-filled, homophobic spewings of a politically valuable worm and his powerful brokers. Sadly, it's all a cynical quid pro quo between two powerful lobbies, neither of whom, it appears, actually gives a damn about the real people they're ostensibly representing and supporting.
In spite of what the self-annointed powers-that-be suggest, homophobia and the hate it results from is not OK just because you happen to be a liberal Democrat. In fact, that makes it an even more egregious crime because it comes slathered with the base alloy of hypocrisy.
My cherished naivete is chipped away, one piece at a time. It's always sad when you find out Santa Claus was really Mom and Dad all along.