Punk of the Day

I listen to the guy, and all I can think is the Simpson's episode where Garrison Keilor is on tv & Homer is banging on the side of the box yelling Stupid TV! Be more funny!

So it's always nice when people I don't like give me ammunition to shoot them with. This morning, it's Mr. Keillor in Salon ...

The country has come to accept stereotypical gay men -- sardonic fellows with fussy hair who live in over-decorated apartments with a striped sofa and a small weird dog and who worship campy performers and go in for flamboyance now and then themselves. If they want to be accepted as couples and daddies, however, the flamboyance may have to be brought under control. Parents are supposed to stand in back and not wear chartreuse pants and black polka-dot shirts. That's for the kids. It's their show.

It's kind of ugly, and I don't even know where to start. I don't know a single gay person who fits this description. Keillor creates a stereotype, or borrows one from tv, and then states that gay men need to stop conforming to a false stereotype in order to be accepted.

Now. I saw the link on TMZ. Here's where it gets ugly. His defenders are saying that this is just his style of sardonic humor. Those of us who are pissed are being too sensitive and need to lighten up and stop being so PC. And I'd be willing to accept this if his column didn't spur some of his readers on to such insane levels of hatred. Witness the "comments" section from TMZ:

• KevMa doesn't get it: Do the gays think they need to be accepted by everyone or America is a big fat bigot, and a meany? Oh hell ya girl.
• Lovely doesn't get it either: Well said. This country is going to hell with all this GAYNESS. Faggotry is sick, especially when they have the audacity to want to raise children. The next generation is going to be soooooooooo gay!!
• Jen has an overactive imagination: If you want to take it up the a$$, don't wonder why normal people stare in disgust. Your a$$ is meant for exiting-crap. Daddies should be real men, not perverts who play in $hit.
• Princess the Ruler is just a bitch, in every one of her half dozen posts: This shit is polluting MANKIND!!!!!! I mean, what's gonna be next MEN WANTING TO MARRY DOGS, CATS, ZOO ANIMALS???
• Native Vermont would love to be racist but he's scared: All this 'embrace diversity' crap makes me ill. I would never hurt another person physically about things but I don't have to like what they stand for or get close and chummy with them because it would be cool to pal with other races and orientations. My comments are not just geared to Garrison but all the others in the last several months that have taken the heat primarily because they are so-called stars. Isaiah, Mel, Richards, and so forth and so on. These are the people who can most afford to stand up for themselves because they have money and jobs they won't lose. Most people who would like to say what they feel, can't, because they have to work in the world and get by.
• GodBlessAmerica must've missed that it was satire also: I'm so sick and tired of this politically correct shit that I'm not gonna take it anymore,Call it like it is, faggolas.Our society has no room for these loons.If you don't like our laws,get the f**k out of here and take your stupid looking dogs with you.
• JasonMar is upset that we call him a bigot, the poor little victim: I agree with him. Our whole country has gone to hell. Everything in this world needs to be accepted or you are looked upon as a bigot. I am sick of it.
• E.J. turns it around, and claims that us queers created this stereotype. Or at least "proliferated" it: What I still don't hear from anyone else commenting on this non-story is that Keillor neither created nor proliferated the stereotypical gay male image that his humorous comment refers to. The gay community proliferates it and the straight community jumps on board so as to seem like they're supportive of gay rights.

And it goes on and on, for seven pages. I didn't make it through all of them. For those who get it, sorry for ruining your breakfast. For those who don't: even if Keillor doesn't hate ... and I don't think he does, honestly ... his comments serve as a catalyst for hate. You can call it humor, you can talk about freedom of speech, but at the end of the day it makes the world an uglier place.