Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 35, Ed. 1 Friday, December 27, 2002 Page: 4 of 70
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VIEWPOINTS
Gay tophs give way to World Peace
"WHAT you DON'T KNOW WON’T HURT YOU/"
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ocheirismg copy, lustrations ond/or photographs Unsdkited momsmpfs ore occepfed ond
hondled with be couhon We comot, however, guorontee iheir so/e return.
Year's end: a tradi-
tional time for taking
stock, taking out holi-
day anxieties on hap-
less store clerks and
taking another aspirin
as we go "on vacation"
to mom and pop's to
experience old family
tefisions and create
new ones.
Being the reflective
type, I'll opt for taking stock. And what better
way for a columnist and Minor Local Celebrity
to look at where she stands than to dip into the
old reader mailbag? But the news, I'm sorry to
report, is not good:
"Dear Janelle: Puh-leez, Miss Thing — light-
en up! All you write about anymore is World
Peace and other boring stuff — and that is like
so not gay. You need to party more!
Attitudinally Yours, Brandon"
"Dear Janelle: I'm in the process of coming
out as gay and one of my new gay friends told
me your column was a good way to learn
about the gay world. But you seem to mainly
write about World Peace and other non-gay
related issues — what about the gay lifestyle?
I need direction in my new gay life. Yours
Truly, Anonymously Gay and Proud."
"Dear Janelle: In this era of frightening
right-wing attacks on hard-won gay rights, I'm
disappointed to see you moving away from a
focus on critical gay issues to unrelated dis-
tractions such as World Peace. I hope in the
future you'll attend more closely to the urgent
gay-rights struggle. Humorlessiy Yours,
Mark."
Being a mistress of wit and debating skill —
especially when I have plenty of time to think
up clever repartee and my opponents are con-
veniently unavailable to respond — I could
take the easy way out. I could give Brandon's
panties a twist by suggesting he's somehow
missed the new "Social Issues Circuit Party"
trend, direct from South Florida. I could nutur-
ingly suggest to Anonymously Etc. that he
look in the mirror and practice saying "Gay
By Michael Adams
Special Contributor
In a slap in the face to the gay community,
President Bush has issued an executive order
authorizing federal funding for religious
groups that use their beliefs to justify discrim-
ination in hiring. Bush heralded the order as
ending the "days of discriminating against
religious groups just because they are reli-
gious" and gave himself a pat on the back foi
"fighting age-old attitudes, habits and rules"
that discriminate against faith.
Ironically, the President intends to help out
faith groups by giving them federal funds to
pay for another "age-old" habit — anti-gay
bigotry dressed up as religion. Unfortunately,
gays and lesbians are among the chief targets
People Are Just Like Other People Except for
What They Do in the Bedroom" — and hence
it's OK to be gay and think about World Peace
at the same time. I could bop Mark with what-
ever the modern version is of the sturdy slogan
of my youth: "One Struggle — Many Fronts."
And I could baffle them all by pointing out
that I am, after all, not gay, but bisexual and
transgender.
However, since I really am fundamentally a
Good Girl, I can't bring myself to stoop to such
cheap tricks. Well, at least not in my column.
Heaven knows there's a time and place for
cheap tricks — especially when they're really
cute. But I digress.
Back to World Peace etc.: look, even I have
days when I like my earlier, funnier, and gayer
work better. But a writer's got to write about
what she's inspired to write about. The last
thing I want to become is an imitation of my
former self. I'm proud to be a female imper-
sonator, but determined to avoid at all costs
becoming a Janelle DuBois impersonator.
of publicly-funded religious groups that use
their beliefs to justify employment discrimina-
tion.
The only way the President could accom-
plish this was to cast aside a pre-existing exec-
utive order that banned employment discrimi-
nation by federal contractors. That executive
order had been in effect since 1941! Thus the
Bush Administration in its zeal to funnel tax
dollars to religious organizations, has turned
the clock back more than sixty years on civil
rights.
Some in the gay community have found a
ray of light in the fact that the President did
not heed right-wing efforts to empower feder-
ally funded religious groups to ignore state
and local laws that prohibit employment dis-
crimination against gay people.
Despite the claims of those ads for Botox,
SuperDuper All Night Cucumber-Derivative
Eye Cream, and Highland Park Pre-Owned Yet
Still Just as Snooty Luxury Automobiles, we
can't stay young forever. Heck, we can't even
stay 40 forever — I know, 'cause I tried!
We grow older, big things happen to us
(nails break, favorite wigs wear out, loved
ones die, stuff like that), and our perspective
changes. Look at Madonna. Look at Prince.
Look at Strom Thurmond. (Oops — I guess
some people's perspective doesn't change with
age. We'll just call Mr. Thurmond the excep-
tion that proves the rule. It's a lot nicer than
the other things we could call him!)
To all my readers: Happy Holidays, thanks
for sharing, and thanks for sticking with me.
And should our paths cross on the dance floor
this New Year's Eve, say a little prayer for
World Peace, OK? ▼
Janelle DuBois (aka Tom Kinney) is a Dallas
drag performer and writer. Visit her at www.geoci-
ties.com/~janelled.
But this battle is far from over. In the
months ahead there will likely be efforts in
Congress to beat back this latest assault on
civil rights. And lawsuits like Lambda Legal's
challenge to public funding of the United
Methodist Children's Home will continue and
hopefully convince the courts to put a stop to
public funding of discrimination.
While the legal challenges may otter more
hope than the political battles in the short
term, our community must forcefully support
all these efforts. We can not sit by and quietly
watch our own tax dollars be used to pay for
discrimination against us. ▼
Michael Adams is director of education and
public affairs for Lambda Legal Defense and
Education Fund.
Janelle DuBois
Loose in Dallas
Bush's executive order a slap at gays
DECEMBER 27, 2002 DALLAS VOICE
4
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Vercher, Dennis. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 19, No. 35, Ed. 1 Friday, December 27, 2002, newspaper, December 27, 2002; Dallas, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth616362/m1/4/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.