In his new book, It's Not Over: Getting Beyond Tolerance, Defeating Homophobia, and Winning True Equality, author, activist, journalist and Sirius XM host Michelangelo Signorile says the fight for gay rights isn't over by a long shot.
Signorile also believes the time for compromising on gay rights is past and the "religious freedom" argument being advanced is completely bogus. He spoke in a lengthy interview (but well worth your time to read it) with Gawker contributor Rich Juzwiak (bolded):
I mulled over whether this belonged in Politics & Current Events, my usual stomping grounds, or in QUILTBAG, where I usually only lurk and I concluded that here is where it belongs as it concerns the target audience whose lives are most directly concerned. A predominantly heterosexual audience might be inclined to give merely p.c. responses instead of honest ones.
Signorile also believes the time for compromising on gay rights is past and the "religious freedom" argument being advanced is completely bogus. He spoke in a lengthy interview (but well worth your time to read it) with Gawker contributor Rich Juzwiak (bolded):
Note:I sometimes wrestle with this stuff. Even with the Memories Pizza thing, they were clear idiots—Crystal O'Connor said the Indiana RFRA is about protecting religion and yet talked at length about discriminating against gays. Her rhetoric was obviously empty, but at the same time I remember writing about it and having some doubt crawl into my mind: Why should anyone be forced to serve anyone anything? It took me a second to realize: Of course this is fucked up beyond the rudeness of refusing pizza to people who never asked for it in the first place.
I think we're so used to being treated that way, we even grew up with the idea that homosexuality is different from other kinds of oppression because "people have their religious beliefs." Then the wins we have sort of blind us to seeing some of these things because we say, "We've gotten so much. Who cares? Let's let them have their space." That word "magnanimous" kept coming up, and I think that comes from, psychologically, this place where, "I just want to focus on the wins. I don't want to focus on what's left to do. That'll just take care of itself. It'll be inevitable." This moral-arc of the universe stuff. It's like: no. You have to actually change it.
I went into the supermarket in Williamsburg holding your book and the girl at the cash register asked me, "What's not over?" I had a moment where I was like, "I don't want to get into this right now," but like I said, I don't lie to people. So after a beat, I told her, "Gay rights...the struggle." And she said, "I like that." And then it was like, yeah, in Williamsburg that better be your point of view, otherwise you're in the wrong place and you should move somewhere cheaper.
[Homophobes] need to feel a ramification or an embarrassment sometimes. Not all the time. It's fine to let those moments pass, but you can't let every one of those moments pass. If you stand up at least once or twice or every moment when you can, I think it does a world of good. I embarrass them in front of everybody.
Why do bigots do what they do? I think it's perfect when you talk about the phrase "dog whistling" in reference to "religious liberties" protection. Protecting religious freedom is 100 percent bullshit. Nobody's trying to take anyone's religion away from them. That's not what any of this is about. It's just about not using religion to justify bigotry. But also, as a white guy, I find often that strangers will try to bond with me over racism. There's something cancerous in the human condition that makes hating people together a point of unity. Look at how gossip brings people together. Do you think that's part of the reason why people want to hold onto homophobia?
Absolutely. I talk in the book about the bigotry and that sense of threat that a lot of straight men feel to literal violence or aggression when I discuss the implicit bias studies, particularly the study where they looked at how straight men respond to gender non-conforming faces—what they perceive as an effeminate male face or a transgender face. They have this meticulous memory for it. They're able to recall that face because that face is what threatens them. That really gets at what it is: a phobia. A raging fear. A threat that's built into them. You can then understand how they then bond with other people on that and how it acts itself out in a violent way or an aggressive way. If you're perceiving an outside group as a threat, you'll do whatever you can to keep that group in its place. I pointed to some studies that were done in the '90s and then when they were done again in 2013, they were just confirmed: straight men who were perceived as hanging out with gay men were then perceived as gay. It was almost like a contagion. Then you can understand why it would erupt in a violent outburst, but also a kind of bonding thing of you're not one of them. It's a challenge to you to make them feel comfortable or stand up in a moment.
The boldest sentence in this book reclaims that way shameful bigots attempt to battle homosexuality ("By not tolerating my intolerance, you're the real one who's intolerant"). You write, "It's time for us to be intolerant—intolerant of all forms of homophobia, transphobia, and all forms of bigotry against LBGT people."
It's time to no longer agree to disagree. That's such an American phrase regarding how we get along. No. I don't choose anymore to agree to disagree. You are wrong. That's it.
Practically speaking, what happens during the time in between our declaring intolerance of intolerance and the world catching up? Homophobes will still be self-righteous and so will we be, and so what happens? What happens after, "You are wrong"?
I think we've reached the point where the debate's been had. So much of the media and the culture keeps engaging in it, while a lot of people have made up their minds. Let's claim that. Look, this debate is done. No matter how much we do that, they're going to still believe what they believe and still raise their children that way and still put it out there and we're going to have to continue to fight back against that. I think what's happened with other groups is that they sort of let that slide in a way. And then the next generation came up and forgot that certain things were settled and then we see it playing out all over again. I'm trying to warn people, using what's happened with other groups, don't let it slide. Keep it settled.
I mulled over whether this belonged in Politics & Current Events, my usual stomping grounds, or in QUILTBAG, where I usually only lurk and I concluded that here is where it belongs as it concerns the target audience whose lives are most directly concerned. A predominantly heterosexual audience might be inclined to give merely p.c. responses instead of honest ones.