Tipping the Media
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by Malcolm Gladwell
Things had obviously changed when, in 1998 on a street in San Francisco, a 19-year-old I had just met stood up to some Gay bashers and they ran.
"Moore" confirmation came in 1999 from Michael Moore and the straight audience standing ovation for his Sodomobile program.
This sea change is still shocking to me, after suffering as a young Gay man with the media images of depressed, suicide-prone Gay people -- much less the contemporary abuse of such idiots as Jerry Falwell who pretends to be religious, or the subtle homophobia we meet within our own families and friends everyday.
The trickle portends a flood
But who could have predicted the flood of realistic Gay life stories from such television series as Queer as Folk (QAF), Six Feet Under, Will & Grace, the MTV movie about Matthew Shepard, etc. Or the media reports of Gay men who have stood up to homophobic law enforcement.
A list of some little things
- Brian in QAF proudly continues to drive his defaced vehicle after vandals had spray painted it with "Faggot". Or substitute for the British edition Stuart and "Queer."
- In Six Feet Under, David's policeman boyfriend grabs a Gay basher in a parking lot by his collar, imprints his badge on the basher's forehead, and suggests the basher file a report since he now has his badge number.
- Justin, the teenager in QAF, faces the reality for us all when his mother tells him that she must choose to keep the family together -- thus ejecting her Gay son from the family due to his homophobic father. (She does become more radicalized in later episodes and confronts a homophobe or two on her own and stands up for her son.)
- Gay men entrapped by Tempe, AZ police last year, felt enraged enough to call the newspaper which wrote a story. Similarly, on QAF an entrapment is depicted in a mall restroom -- the flirtatious entrapping cop wagging his wanger. (Funny, but these episodes are never shown on the TV series Cops.) Let's not forget that Tempe has a Gay Republican mayor.
- MTV's compelling retelling of Matthew Shepard murder has to turn any viewer's stomach: Anatomy of a Hate Crime_Matthew Sheppard. Amazingly to me, MTV calls the series Fight for Your Rights!
- QAF Producers Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman call their show, "the only gay show on television" according to PlanetOut. What they're saying, I think, is that this show is targeted for a Gay audience -- apparently the first for a major communications corporation. AOL Time Warner where are you?
- Comedy Central touts the most Gay episode of South Park, EVER!
- Although it is still shocking (ahem) that a Gay man could be a Republican, Andrew Sullivan continues to point out the stupidity of the homophobes.
- Since Matt Drudge is Gay, we all may really be straight.
Updated 1-20-2002
© 2002 Dan Farrell Davis
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