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Opera Singers and Arthur

Gay people have big ears!

No! Oops. I didn't write that. My homophobic orangutan stuffed animal has come to life and he's hijacked my blog.

Seriously, though....

I'm reading about the Georgian opera singer who was rejected by Australia because she said very homophobic things on her Facebook page.  Now she's claiming it wasn't her who said it.  It was her husband. He took over her page without her knowing it.

I can't say I definitely don't believe her. I've known of someone hijacking their spouse's small corner of cyberspace. And it did cause some drama.

It happens.

And if this is the case for Tamar Iveri, I feel sorry for her.  I don't know what she can do to restore her reputation. Apologizing and making excuses is probably not enough. Maybe she should do something positive and proactive for the gay community?

If she's lying; then she's being awful in a multitude of ways.

I'm thinking maybe she's telling the truth about her husband taking over the Facebook page, but what she's not saying is she shares his views.

I would be furious if a family member took over my blog and wrote horrific things that weren't my own views.  Then again, I'd be furious if a family member wrote anything on my blog without my permission.

As for the subject of homophobia, someone deeply offended me recently. They read my new novel which has Arthur, a gay man, as one of the main characters.  Arthur's in a happy marriage in the UK.  I had asked the reader which characters they liked and disliked. They reported that they liked Arthur least and went on a homophobic rant about that. I wrote back and said something like, getting the opinion of my novel from a homophobic person is probably like asking an anti-semitic person their opinion of Fiddler on the Roof.  Then they wrote back saying they weren't really anti-gay...blah, blah, blah. And the person talked about how writers are pressured by the gay Mafia to include gay characters.

So...he found me out.  I didn't want any gay characters in my novel. Really! But when they heard I was writing a novel, the Gay Mafia came to my door and threatened to murder my whole family if I didn't include a gay character.  So I had to rewrite my whole damn novel.  I had to get rid of Arthur's wife and give him a husband. Crap!

I'm not completely safe, though. I don't have any lesbians in my novel. The gay mafia said it's okay for now, but when they said that, they had this scary look in their eye.  So I'm a bit terrified.  It's hard for me to sleep at night.

If they're reading this, maybe I can remind them that I have little young girls in the novel. Mia and Kayla. One or both might end up being lesbian. Or maybe they'll be bisexual? Would that satisfy the gay mafia?

Okay. Yeah. I was offended by the email. And of course I'm offended by any homophobia.  I mean I'm tolerant of people with mild reservations...like people who support gay couples but aren't ready to take the extra marriage step. I understand it takes some people more time to catch up.  Or some people might frown upon gay marriage for religious reasons, and I'm fine with that as long as they don't want their religious beliefs to influence the law of the land.

But anyway...I'm talking about the strong hateful type of homophobia, the kind that was written on the opera singer's Facebook page.  It's always bad. But it felt even worse for me when it was directed at my Arthur. Yeah, he's a fictional character, but to me he's very real.

Don't worry. I'm delusional but not overly so. I understand that it's much worse to experience homophobia when it's directed at yourself. And I think I would lose my sanity (at least temporarily) if homophobia was directed at one of my loved ones. I mean a loved one that exists as a flesh and blood person and not just inside my head....or on Kindle.




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