I'd say pray to Tom, if anyone knows how to deal with homophobia, its him.
What say, Mr. Coates? Do you mind a bunch of us Barbelithnianeroids praying to you?
archim3des, your suggestion appears to me counterproductive. I imagine upon further thought, you'll find you agree. If, as you assert, most homophobes experience homoerotic desire themselves, but for whatever reason fear and reject their own desires, I imagine Tom of Finland art (much of which is not only homoerotic but deals with leather, BDSM, kink, authority/domination, and other themes many people find deeply scary) would only reinforce their terror and feed the fear that gay men will force their sexuality on them. Besides, this does nothing about bigotry and discrimination against lesbian women.
Here's what magic the queer community has been working so far:
—Language reclamation. Words which have been used to wound and marginalized are being turned into weapons of power FOR gay people. This magic is being worked on words such as queer, fag, dyke, etc. Certain sections of American youth are trying to retaliate by colonizing the word gay and using it to mean something vaguely negative, but I expect like most youth slang this will fade out pretty rapidly. I recommend expanding the mandate to include words such as cocksucker. When the word cocksucker is a term of admiration, I'll feel like we're pretty close to my ideal world.
—Image alchemy. This is being used to both good and bad effect, I feel. We need more power over how our images are being propagated in widespread media. Assimilationists and queer pride types conflict over image alchemy tactics; even my exchange with archim3des can be seen as an outgrowth of this conflict. Left by the wayside are such people as young black male hip-hop artists who are sexually attracted to men, transwomen who are soft butch hippie dykes, and so forth, whose interests and images are not represented by either the queer pride contingent or the assimilationists. Variety seems to me to be the answer— defeat the stereotypes by providing so many different images of gay people that no one set of images dominates over any other. It's easier to hit a narrow target than a wide one with hate, and if "the gays" doesn't conjure one unified image anymore, it will be hard for people to be angry at or hate "the gays."
—Getting involved with religion. Religious groups are doing some powerful magic right now, particularly in America. Tapping into the stream of "religious freedom" may produce some useful results, particularly if we can encourage more liberal/moderate churches to speak out against gay marriage bans as an infringement of religious freedom. Some churches are doing so already— the UU, many meetings of the Society of Friends, the UCC, and MCC, all deserve our support. Encouraging the more liberal-minded Episcopals would also be helpful.
Some other things it would be helpful if we would start doing:
—Making sacrifice. I mean a visible offering of service. I want to see volunqueer* groups participating in service projects which have nothing directly to do with the queer community, and being visible but not in-your-face about it. Why? Because our reputation as selfish hedonists is not entirely undeserved by certain segments of our population, and the rest of us could be working to refute this label. By being people that others respect and admire, we build up a store of power we can use for projects of our own. In Northern traditions, I believe this is called building hamingja.
—Spreading our factual and mythic histories. First, we have to make sure that the histories we are telling are True, and that they are not hurting people. For instance, the Stonewall Riots are held to be the start of the Gay Liberation Movement in the US. In fact, the major participants in the Stonewall Riots were people who were transgender, and who many gay men now reject as not representative of their community. Similarly, there is disagreement over whether historical gender-transgressive cultural institutions are part of gay history or trans history; both groups feeling erased by the other when the other makes a claim on "their history." Let's get our stories together.
—Public rituals in which non-queer people of any background can participate comfortably. What flashed into my head was an image of many people, gay to straight and others, placing stones, coins, flowers, and other meaningful trinkets into a fountain which symbolizes the freedom of love. I'm sure more experienced ritualists can come up with something more complex and just as effective.
Granted, none of this is hermetic or chaos magic or even plain ol wicca. I don't care. Combating homophobia in society is social engineering magic, and sometimes the techniques of that have more to do with manipulating the mass media than wanking over a sigil.
*On volunqueers: I know there is an organization of this name in the UK. I know very little about them, but I got in touch with them by email and asked if it would be alright if I used the name for a group in the US. I received this permission from someone. (I hope it was someone with the appropriate authority!) The US VolunQueers await formation until I can clear enough time to devote to the project. |
