My friend Tanya Domi has an
excellent post at
The New Civil Rights Movementabout Dan Choi that is a must read! It demonstrates that even among an oppressed group there are some still willing to oppress others.
My friend Dan Choi uttered a truly despicable analogy of Harry Reid, Majority Leader of the Senate, last week by likening him to a “pussy” that “will bleed once a month,” because of Reid’s “weak” leadership in failure to pass a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal measure in September.
Just so happens, Dan’s very demeaning analogy was recorded by Village Voice journalist Steve Thrasher on Oct. 27, who reported his words in a lengthy feature for all the world to see and read.
The statement Dan made had nothing to do with sexual orientation, or DADT. Rather, his words reveal deeply-held beliefs that are predicated upon sexism that equates women with weakness. His rationale: Women bleed, women are wounded, thus unable to wield power effectively.
Inside the LGBTQ community, the issues of sexism, racism and classism are continually at play, as we all struggle to unshackle ourselves from a myriad of oppressions. Yet, it remains true and unspoken, that sexism is an undercurrent in all forms of oppression.
A
joint letter to Dan from the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), National Center for Lesbian Rights, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Servicemember’s Legal Defense Network and the National Organization for Women appears to have caused Choi to reconsider his comments. Good.
1 comment:
First let me say that firing Dan Choi because he is gay is not just wrong, it is stupid and wasteful of the resources spent on training him. It harms the military because he has language skills that are in short supply. That said, I have two problems with Mr. Choi: The first one I read about from Blue Girl at They Gave Us a Republic; he wore his uniform while protesting his upcoming discharge by chaining himself to the fence at the White House. In the military, that is a big no no, and he had to have known as much.
This, however, is something of a different level of offensiveness. Aside from the light it seems to cast upon his inner character, and the irony involved, there is another matter: Harry Reid. Mr. Choi, I am to suppose, feels that he could do a better job as Senate Majority Leader, or as a Senator in general? I, for one, would not want that job. Also, before you call someone a "pussy" in public (let alone in print) you might want to use the Google a little to find out whether your target used to be a boxer or not. I find this whole incident to be very unfortunate, for the obvious reasons, and because the Senate probably has one last shot at repealing DADT coming up, and this certainly doesn't seem helpful in getting that to happen.
-Doug in Oakland
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