Queer Activism Needed at Zaadz

So I took a little wander over to the "hot" page this evening, something I rarely do but with a four day weekend I can indulge in some wandering. I was immediately drawn to a pod thread on the front page called "The Guru Jack Debauchery." You have to admit it's an intriguing title. But I am rather surprised and saddened by what I found there, and not for the reason everyone else seems to be.

This is how the post opens:

"A few weeks ago I did something that really pissed the zaadz team off and this is a thread to discuss what I did and why I did it. Please feel free to express your feelings towards the event as well.

ok, so like I said a few weeks ago this guy named William G Defoore joined our pod. He posted a few things, one of them was an add for his anger management cd's. I was led to change his post. I changed his name to William G defake, I changed goodfinding (that was the name of his product/website) to gayfinding everytime he he typed it out...and that was several times. and I changed the name of his link...not the link iteself, but the name. oh...and I changed his email from 4b4home or smething like that to 4b4homo...."

Since it's a public pod I am going to respond, but it wouldn't be right to join the pod just to share my opinion so I'll do it here at my blog and hope that it at least gives the Zaadz staff  and my fellow Zaadzters something to think about.

In all the comments to the post, even from Zaadz staff, there is not one mention of the particular way Jack changed someone's post. There is not one comment about the fact that he used queer language to shame someone else. He use queer language in a defamatory way. That is just not ok and I can't believe there isn't one Zaadzter standing up to say so!

If he had chosen racist language, I guarantee you there would have been an outcry. If he had used mysogynist language there would have been an outcry. But no, all there is discussion of the action of editing a post, nothing about the horrible way it was done. This is a great example of how much progress we still need to make as a nation if even the "conscious" social networking site doesn't have people who stand up as conscious straight allies to the queer community when the need arises.
 
This is why I am on the Board of Directors for my local Pride organization. I have a gay son and I am afraid for him in today's cultural climate. We are still a culture of violence, in our actions and our language, and much of that violence is directed towards queers of all kinds. The Queer Rights movement is today's Civil Rights movement and we need our straight allies as much as the African-American community needed their white allies in days past (and still do!). For instance, the recent Federal Law against queer discrimination just passed without the inclusion of transsexuals. Heterosexual marriages receive thousands of rights that are not given to same sex marriages. Queer parents have their children taken from them. Thousands of children are refused families because queer parents aren't allowed to adopt. This is a serious issue!!! We are a minority, so we NEED conscious straight people to actively support our pursuit of equality.

Consciousness means being aware of how you use language. What are you "improving" if you are using language that perpetuates a violent culture against a minority community? What kind of intuitive guidance are you receiving as an "enlightened being" if that guidance includes shaming someone else by using queer language? My son is gay. My son is a homo. And I don't appreciate anyone using those words as insults in an attempt to shame another human being, especially at Zaadz, no matter that person's inappropriate agenda (at least he did no harm by hawking his wares). There is nothing uplifting or good feeling about what Jack did.

By the way, this is why I was passionate about the Yoni Endeavor for several years. Using words that represent the physical center of women's being--the home that every human being is born from--as insults and language to shame is mysogynist and contributes to the culture of violence against women.  I am fairly certain the Zaadz community would respond if someone used mysogynist language here. I hope that in the future someone will respond to queer language used in inappropriate ways. And I'll do my best to share more about queer issues in my blog in order to educate.

Thanks for listening and Happy Thanksgiving!