From music to sports to marriage equality, gay issues took on tremendous visibility this week
OUT AND PROUD | Michael Sam kissed his boyfriend on ESPN when he became the first openly gay man drafted into the NFL, left, and Conchita Wurst wowed audiences to take the Eurovision Contest, right, giving gay issues an international platform. Right-wing pundits imploded.
Three different examples of the continued march toward equality happened this week from shockingly different corners of American society and around the world. Unless you live under a rock, (and hey, if you do, how does that actually work?) you’ve heard that openly gay football player Michael Sam was drafted in the seventh round of the NFL draft by the St. Louis Rams, self-proclaimed “bearded lady” Conchita Wurst won the Eurovision Song Contest representing Austria and a judge overturned the gay marriage ban in Arkansas.
It’s a lot. A lot of gay. Just, gay, gay, gay — everywhere gay. It must be a horrible moment for bigots the world over. I’d imagine there is some serious soul-searching and hand-wringing happening everywhere from the Kremlin to a few sports bars to the Focus on the Family headquarters.
Because not only did our community win big this weekend, we won with strikingly in-your-face visuals to accompany each victory. The photo of Michael Sam jubilantly kissing his boyfriend was shown on ESPN. The picture of the first lesbian couple to receive a marriage license in Arkansas is filled with joy, and the two brides look like they would step easily into the cast of The L Word 2.0. And Conchita. Dear Conchita. As the drag queen persona of a gay man, performing in a ball gown, with Kardashian worthy eyelashes and tresses and accompanied by screen-projected flames for her “Rise Like A Phoenix” number, Conchita served an appropriately obvious metaphor with the subtlety of a fabulously bedazzled sledgehammer.
Bigots can almost literally not turn on the news and not see us this week. And It. Is. Awesome. It is a limp-wristed slap in the face to the anonymous sources who declared the NFL was not ready for a gay player. It is an aggressive offensive drive straight at Putin’s Russia and his anti-LGBT policies. And in the South, oh, the South — it is a clarion call for action and advancement in states where many LGBT individuals have heretofore thought “but it will be a long time before equality gets here.” Well that time is now, and Texas, this means you, too.
There is certainly the expected pushback, though it feels anemic and impotent in a gleefully large number of cases. Already conservative commentators are bemoaning the onscreen kiss. An apples and oranges comparison between the treatment of Tim Tebow and Michael Sam has been repeated ad nauseam. Russian politicians are criticizing the Eurovision result as the end of Europe. The Arkansas attorney general is pursuing a stay against the ruling lifting the ban on gay marriage. These, however, are all the actions of opponents on the ropes. Like the little Dutch boy with a finger in the dike (stop it), they are fighting losing battles on all fronts.
Of course, there is still much ground to be covered in all of these areas. Conchita cannot change the current plight of LGBT Russians. Michael Sam cannot be expected to do anything more than play football as well as he is able. And if Arkansas remains No. 18, there are still 32 left to go.
Still, these bellwether moments can and should be celebrated.
The wonder of this confluence of events in art, sports and legislation is how beautifully it showcases the diversity of the gay community. The rainbow, that beautiful, cheesy and appropriately colorful symbol, is demonstrably apropos this week. Stereotypes are not good or bad things if they are true, though they should never be used to make assumptions about a person. However, it is an incredibly exciting accomplishment to be able to loudly and proudly say, “See! We come in all shapes and sizes, with talents as different as they are impressive and we will not be boxed, shunned or kept from achieving anything based on this one aspect of who we are. ”
You may not know what Eurovision is, you may not watch any version of sportsball and you may never travel to Arkansas, but we can all celebrate what these victories together represent. It’s important to continue to celebrate, trumpet and cheer each of the varied victories for our community until we reach the day where it just does not matter.
Under the rainbow banner, we are beautifully and wonderfully different. The bigots all sound exactly the same. Fewer and fewer hear their message of intolerance and hate as anything other than that with each passing day. Their moans of frustration and red-faced screaming and gnashing of teeth in the face of the tsunami that is our march toward global equality? Those I could listen to all day long.
Former Dallasite Emerson Collins is an actor, producer and blogger based in Los Angeles.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 16, 2014.