Petrelis Files

Gay Liberation Doesn't Equal Warships

One thing that has bothered me ever since Bush and Cheney took the nation into the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the way Gay Inc has resolutely maintained neutrality, like the Swiss during World War II, on the carnage and destruction wrought against civilians.

As the wars have raged, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan people have been slaughtered and many left mutilated, billions of dollars wasted, Pentagon budgets have eaten into domestic programs like AIDS drug programs and housing for low-income gays, and American perpetrators of the wars have escaped persecution, all the Human Rights Campaign has been concerned with is waving their damn equal sign flag on the battlefield.

Make no mistake about it. What HRC is selling in this ad is gay rights equals warships and fealty to the Department of Defense and its needs. This is not gay liberation that I want to be a part of. Lifting Don't Ask, Don't Tell is really not just a matter of workplace discrimination, not when the workplace is a warship or battlefield. There are issues of torture, lies, manipulation of data, potential war crime and genocide charges involved.

Is there any other "human rights" org pouring funds into helping the Pentagon expand its arsenal?

This cartoon appeared in the October issue of Harper's magazine, and it does more in one drawing to call attention to the concerns beyond waving the rainbow flag or placing an HRC equality sticker on a submarine sailor's bunk then all of Gay Inc has since our two current wars began. (Hat tip: Steve Ault, a proud gay peace advocate.)

The day after Veterans Day, over at the Bilerico Project, next to this fetching twenty-something fag, young writer R. Conrad had this say about the DADT repeal battle and the gay agenda:

Let the insanity of trying to get more queer and trans folks killed in the US war machine stop! To the memory of all the hardworking veterans of the anti-war movement this Veteran's Day!

So nice to hear a gay voice for peace, when the loud goose-stepping sounds of HRC's march to supply the Pentagon's war machine with gay meat have all but drowned out dissenting views for opposing the military and the wars.