THE SHOT — Celebrating 54 years together and five years of marriage, this happy couple reminds us what pride (in this case, Boston’s Pride Parade) is all about. (Photo: J. Balestraci)
the shot
Relationships That Last More Than Half a Century
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John Santos
Cord Jefferson won’t like this; they’re not wearing suits, nor looking dour.
Kid A
@John Santos: They’re not in assless chaps either.
Marius
These gentlemen live upstairs from me. They are two of the nicest people I’ve ever met and I’m glad they found each other all those years ago.
Here’s to many more anniversaries.
John Santos
@Kid A:
They’re not in assless chaps either.
And from what I can see in that picture, no one is. What’s your point?
Hannah
There needs to be more pictures like this in the MSM. It’s the real injustice of anti-gay bigotry. 54 years together, but only 5 of them have been recognized legally? The LGBT community DESERVES equality for putting up with so much stupidity for so long.
BradK
Hmm….the Hat Sisters are really getting up there. [:`)
Bitch, please!
Sorry for being so shallow, but I would love to be in a 50 year relationship with the rickshaw driver. Woof!
Marius
@BradK:
Apropos of nothing, but are the Hats still doing their thing? I don’t get around as much as I used to.
I’m sure there’s more than a little gray in those mustaches by now and I’m sure they are lovely people, too. Albeit, with a little too much time on their hands/heads.
Ok, I’m finished. Back on topic…
Kid A
@John Santos: My point is that Jefferson didn’t say “everyone has to look dour and boring” (straw man?)
He was saying that extremely sexualized images are doing harm to the community.
This is exactly the kind of image that he was talking about being beneficial.
I don’t necessarily agree with him, but I don’t like seeing views misrepresented as it makes worthwhile dialogue more difficult.
cam295
@Marius:
Yep, they’re still around. We see them every year at the Fenway Health dinner.
J. Clarence
I remember being outside of the MA State House when they first got married and made that poster. I love seeing them every year. They are so adorable. I saw this past weekend, still looked as happy as ever. Awesome!
John Santos
@Kid A:
My point is that Jefferson didn’t say “everyone has to look dour and boring” (straw man?)
No, but he wrote this,
“In a politically important moment for the gay community, thongs and theatrics don’t cut it.”
In his mind, that is all the pride parade is, thongs, theatrics and according to him–no pride. Which is what the article was titled, “Where’s the Pride in Pride Parades? (that alone deserves his receiving a bitch slap).
He was saying that extremely sexualized images are doing harm to the community.
No, what he was saying is that anti-gay people will zero in on what he finds distasteful and present that as representative of the queer community. He ignores the fact that pride is one day a year, yet we are harassed the other 364 days a year, even when we are not acting out, or up. That he thinks dressing in grey flannel will magically make all the anti-gay measures enacted against us disappear, is asinine.
He even quotes the Onion with a satirical comment that suits his opinion, yet ignores a salient point in the same satirical article that belies his belief about what Pride is all about,
Dr. Henry Thorne, a New York University history professor who has written several books about the gay-rights movement, explained the misunderstanding.
“After centuries of oppression as an ‘invisible’ segment of society, gays, emboldened by the 1969 Stonewall uprising, took to the streets in the early ’70s with an ‘in-your-face’ attitude. Confronting the worst prejudices of a world that didn’t accept them, they fought back against these prejudices with exaggeration and parody, reclaiming their enemies’ worst stereotypes about them and turning them into symbols of gay pride,” Thorne said. “Thirty years later, gays have won far greater acceptance in the world at large, but they keep doing this stuff anyway.”
“Mostly, I think, because it’s really fun,” Thorne added.
Cord chose to use a quote in a satirical article to bolster his ideas, but chose to ignore an interesting point about the Pride parades that would cast doubt on his specious argument.
This is exactly the kind of image that he was talking about being beneficial.
No, he prefaced his article that during the Civil Rights movement, protesters wore starched white shirts, suits and ties and the women wore skirts. It seems that in Cord’s view, all the CR marchers shopped at Brooks Brothers.
He later wrote,
“Maybe, just once, the LGBT community should try abandoning the scant costumes and embellished sexuality and “do two.” They could march down the center of America’s great cities in all the clothes they regularly wear, exposing themselves for what they truly are: normal human beings.”
Like most hets who go to Pride he goes looking for a show and gets pissed when he gets one. In his myopic world view, all he sees are the drag queens, thongs and flamboyance. He can’t see the forest for the trees. The image above is something people like Cord overlook, in favor of chastising the pageantry.
I don’t necessarily agree with him, but I don’t like seeing views misrepresented as it makes worthwhile dialogue more difficult.
This isn’t about you, or I, Kid A; this is about Cord Jefferson being a douchebag and using his position at an online magazine to chastise queers for not acting like him. Just to give you an example of his ignorance about queers, look at this,
Fowlkes’ final sentiment reminds me of something my father used to tell me over and over as a child. Sitting me down to my homework or to read a thick book, he’d say sternly, “As a person of color in America, sometimes you’re going to have to do two for a white person’s one. That’s not fair, but that’s life.”
Ignoring the fact that very few parents acknowledge their child’s homosexuality can be dismissed as his metropolitan, big city ignorance. But presenting himself as our “father” giving us children a stern talking to is insulting, demeaning and ridiculous. To prove that he thinks he is lecturing us, look at this from his closing paragraph,
It wouldn’t be as fun as past parades, and it’s not fair.
But for now, that’s life.
What Cord know about the CR movement, he learned from books and history class. We are living a CR movement and like many, he is resentful of that. He had his fight fought for him by others and benefits from that daily. We are still fighting today and he dismisses our Pride out of hand because some attendees don’t dress conservatively enough for his tastes. That is stupid and shows that subtle homophobia that Cord Jefferson has been guilty of in the past. Just go to mollygood.com and see how I was treated there by Cord in the comments section of one of his TR Knight bashing posts, and how he goaded his readers on in their anti-gay comments.
John Santos
@John Santos:
exposing themselves for what they truly are: normal human beings
I wasn’t going to harp on it, but this particular quote really stuck in craw when I read it. As if the people who attend Pride are not “normal human beings.” That quote is representative of how Cord Jefferson really sees us–not normal. Maybe a little bitterness on his part for getting turfed from Queerty?