Petrelis Files

Iranians: 1, Faggots: 0

What do LGBT Americans have in common with Iranian protesters? Both groups want change, respect for their investments in the electoral and political systems, and reform of existing power structures.

But the groups sharply diverge in how they react to justice denied and a screwing by the powers-that-be.

On Friday, Iranians went to the polls to vote, and most of them cast ballots for democratic, small "d," reform candidates. As we all know, the election was rigged, the victor was selected by ruling mullahs, and the democratic elements of Iran's reform movement got off their computers and went into the street to show the world their anger.

Also last Friday, LGBT persons learned that the new Democratic administration, large "D" for faggot-duping skills, allowed a Bush holdover in the Department of Justice to file a noxious brief defending the Defense of Marriage Act. As we all too sadly know, LGBT groups and bloggers stayed indoors, as they have in Washington for the past four days.

Oh, sure our largest gay Democratic Party group, the Human Rights Campaign, eventually got around to, yawn, writing a letter to the president, and by and large, prominent gay bloggers and Democratic apologists drank the HRC poisoned Kool-Aid.

If any gay blogger or non-HRC gay leader even called for a press conference or picket line at DOJ, I missed it. A letter was enough to quell the seething anger of the gay key-boarding army. Too many gay bloggers seem to think their duty is to reprint HRC statements and not demand MORE from the group.

To their credit and on the positive side, several gay bloggers successfully pressured sponsors of and donors to an LGBT fundraiser for the Democrats, scheduled for later this month in DC, to drop their support and withhold checks.

Nice, but not enough.

Not when I see hundreds of thousands of Iranians doing what American faggots used to be so good at: expressing rigtheous anger and demanding meaningful reform in the streets.

Risking life and limb, with heavy censorship and shutdowns of communication networks, surveillance, provocation and beatings by state security forces, the Iranians bravely continue to hit the streets. Blood and bullets will not deter them in their fight for freedom.

On the other hand, thousands of LGBT citizens, at last weekend's Pride festivities _partied_ as if it were 1999.

Check out this report from DC Pride events, which avoided any peep of protest at DOJ:

So what really is the best part of working behind the scenes at one of the largest LGBT Pride events in the country? The longtime activist in me says it's the clean bathrooms with no lines and a truck full of cold water, but the queer kid who has still not grown up (at least not yet) takes away a memory of watching, hearing and feeling thousands of us make the air vibrate and the ground shake while Martha Wash sings "It's Raining Men."

Yep, faggots got screwed for the 1,269th time by the Democrats and, in the DOJ and White House backyard, our response was to boogie.

I remain hopeful that we LGBT Americans take a few moments to look at the courageous Iranian protesters defying the mullahs, and find genuine inspiration from their street activism, and that we stand up to the gay mullahs of HRC and the Democratic Party.

Until such time as we stand in front of DOJ or the White House and picket, and do so before October, here's the score:

Iranians: 1. Faggots: 0.