I hadn't read the article which Mean Girl posted (thanks luv! :D) when I started this thread, and it's kind of changed my approach to this. Originally, I was going under the idea that Laws was attacking Carson specifically, rather than gay men in general.
I still think sueing the man may be going too far. People are way too sensitive to criticism (fair or unfair) these days, and I can't help but wonder about the motivations of the man who's sueing him: is this really a principle based thing, or is it just some easy money?
Even with all of this though....I can't help but feel the gay community is pretty much asking for this. All of our role models and media personalities are campy sexless fops. Where are the gay truckies? Where are the gay firemen and cops (outside of porn)? Where are the gay teachers and the gay soldiers and the gay accountants? If you believe almost any representation we have in mainstream media, they don't exist. We're interior decorators. We're fashion designers. We're every straight girl's best friend.
Gay men are the new Uncle Toms. As a community, we make every effort to portray ourselves as nothing more than entertainment for the larger "straight" world. In TV shows like 6 Feet Under and Queer As Folk we're seen as normal 3-dimensional human beings like everyone else in the world. But these are cult programs. They're not programs that are shown when it actually matters. During prime time we get Queer Eye For the Straight Guy and shows like that, where our whole reason for existing is basically to be entertainment for the straight people. Any disrespect that Carson brings upon himself is purely his own fault, and he deserves any criticism he gets. His job is to tell straight men that being themselves is not good enough, that they need to mold themselves to this fucking ludicrous metrosexual ideal, and all the while he's doing it he presents being gay as having nothing to do with sexuality, but having everything to do with looking like the right kind of guy.
Fuck that.
I'm not gay because I want to teach straight boys how to look after their skin, I'm gay because I like fucking men. Where are our role models who swear and drink beer instead of stolis and who get into boxing and who can have a sexuality without being predatory? If who I am is confronting to people, fuck them. They need to learn that we're living in the 21st Century. They need to learn that their bigotry is an outdated concept. I certainly don't need to ease myself into their lives as painlessly as possible because they're too fucking scared to be a little bit confronted about how their world works.
I think about the Stonewall riots, and I think about the courage that those men showed by being themselves against a society which considered them not only illegal, but completely immoral. I think about the inroads they made for us, and then I think about what the gay scene is now. Kylie and Madonna. Being pretty and young. Fitting in. Fuck fitting in. How many kids hurt and kill themselves because fitting in is seen as being more important than being yourself?
Any criticism that those Queer Eye motherfuckers draw upon themselves is completely well deserved in my opinion. Because they play to this ridiculous stereotype of what gay men are "supposed" to be, and they stop REAL gay people from feeling happy about themselves while they have to live their REAL lives in the REAL world.
Rant over...