theGully.com | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Homophobia often sprouts strange bedfellows.
Related Gully Coverage
Gay Mundo
The Cuba Files
The Complete Elian
|
By Chuck 45
"Man convicted for killing dog he thought was gay."
"Exiles plan ad blitz on Cuba's vices."
"Nearshore shark activity linked to drought."
"Florida relatives filing appeal today in Elian case."
-The Miami Herald online headlines, June 15, 2000 JUNE 23, 2000. Is it the tap water? An airborne brain-eating mold? Are they slipping vodka into their Florida orange juice like I do? In these quasi (and queasy)-post-Elian days, The Miami Herald is always a quick trip to Bizarro World. I gotta admit, I wasn't entirely surprised to see that in the land of Anita Bryant, the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF), and the other Bush brother, some of the inhabitants take out their sun-crazed bigotry even on the dogs.
What I want to know is could George fag-hating-turd Finley be prosecuted under the new prospective federal hate crimes legislation that, in another bizarro twist, I predict civil libertarians, professional queers of color, and Florida redneck Republicans will all hate?
Hating the Hate Crimes Law It's just intellectualizing on all sides if you ask me, until the cops actually start outdoing themselves in tracking down gay-bashers, dyke-baiters, murderers and the like. Right now, in the unlikely event they look for and find the culprit, you have to do some serious arm-twisting before the pigs classify something as a hate crime. "Why", says Officer Bob, "everybody uses the word fag now and then. It don't mean a thing." And as to applying the law selectively, a lot will come down to whether the cops are more racist, or more homophobic. Hateful perps of color and white cops may find themselves bonding over their bruised knuckles. Hard to tell.
Strange Bedfellows I imagine even hard-line Miami anti-Castroites secretly cheered on the Bearded one when he was putting us in concentration camps in the 60's, or frying our brains in mental institutions. He's at least somewhat modified his stance there. Right-wing Cuban Americans haven't. Their second favorite curse word, after "Commie", for anyone who disagrees with them, or just wants to hear Cuban musicians like Los Van Van, is "maricón", which is even more loathsome than faggot, and usually comes with a thick wad of spit, a brick, or a boycott. Miami's Cuban exiles need more than an ad blitz on Cuba's vices to distract us from their so-called "image problem". A "Human Rights in Cuba" campaign I'd understand, but vice? Has Cuba been wearing short skirts again? Hanging out in the wrong part of the Caribbean? Is it the company she keeps? Her questionable language? It's easier for the Cuban exiles to speak of vice, than for the exile pot to denounce the Castro kettle when it comes to human rights.
Imagining Things It would explain why the Miami banana machine has stuck with the Elian case for seven long months despite loss after loss. Just today, their hopes were soundly thrashed for a re-hearing in the Atlanta court which had already dismissed their specious arguments. Nevertheless, they'll take it all the way to the Supreme Court. The politicos still have a few more Cuban-American votes to milk. The lawyers have electoral, or Warholian, ambitions, and there are one or two more Miami shark lawyers who haven't had time to get in on the feeding frenzy. The Miami relatives have to persist, because after all, they've been bought: someone has been paying for their rent, their new clothes, and their lawyers, and now that special someone has also bought them a nice house. I almost feel sorry for those small Miami Gonzalez bananas. Like the dead poodle General Lee, they are impotent, doomed symbols in an ignorant, stupid war. Related links: For Rhonda Smith's Ads Target Latino Voters. For Archana Pyati's article on Proposition 22.
|
About the Gully | Contact | Submit | Home
© The Gully, 2000. All rights reserved.