Gay is the New Black
Tim Hardaway's ignorant and hateful comments against gay people this week in the afterglow of John Amaeche's coming out party as a way to introduce his autobiography Man in the Middle on the eve of the NBA All Star festivities in Las Vegas came during Black History Month. There's poignancy in its timing.
There's no excuse for what he said. No, there's no stroking him or complimenting him for being honest. Let all those who insist on reaffirming that knee jerk reaction, cease and desist. His honesty is thoroughly unnecessary. Gay people know that there are people who think that way. Many are currently in power and have been in power for centuries. The alleged scriptural foundation for that special brand of hatred is well known. It is time to remind people that slavery and racism were also based on Bible stories, that the racial inferiority of Black Africans came from being descended from Noah's son Ham, who saw his drunken father's nakedness. These beliefs were generated in the same allegedly inspired writings that expound the morality and subsequent abominations that define the sins of same gender loving. Religion, for the most part when it comes to dogmatism, is goofy. Tim Hardaway is religious, ignorant and goofy.
It seems important right now to acknowledge two of the last century's geniuses who were both black and gay, both acknowledged in the pages of this website and web log -- James Baldwin and Billy Strayhorn. Both have been attached to the ultimate American art form, Jazz. Both were classic beings. Both were beautiful men, the antitheses of the Hardaway's of this world. Both should be inspirations to the Amaeche's of this world.
Jazz is America's Classical Music and eloquently so in the form of Duke Ellington's music and Duke Ellington's music is intrinsically tied to the creativity that was embodied and personified in his collaborator, Billy Strayhorn. The Advocate acknowledges that with the article here posted.
There's no excuse for what he said. No, there's no stroking him or complimenting him for being honest. Let all those who insist on reaffirming that knee jerk reaction, cease and desist. His honesty is thoroughly unnecessary. Gay people know that there are people who think that way. Many are currently in power and have been in power for centuries. The alleged scriptural foundation for that special brand of hatred is well known. It is time to remind people that slavery and racism were also based on Bible stories, that the racial inferiority of Black Africans came from being descended from Noah's son Ham, who saw his drunken father's nakedness. These beliefs were generated in the same allegedly inspired writings that expound the morality and subsequent abominations that define the sins of same gender loving. Religion, for the most part when it comes to dogmatism, is goofy. Tim Hardaway is religious, ignorant and goofy.
It seems important right now to acknowledge two of the last century's geniuses who were both black and gay, both acknowledged in the pages of this website and web log -- James Baldwin and Billy Strayhorn. Both have been attached to the ultimate American art form, Jazz. Both were classic beings. Both were beautiful men, the antitheses of the Hardaway's of this world. Both should be inspirations to the Amaeche's of this world.
Jazz is America's Classical Music and eloquently so in the form of Duke Ellington's music and Duke Ellington's music is intrinsically tied to the creativity that was embodied and personified in his collaborator, Billy Strayhorn. The Advocate acknowledges that with the article here posted.
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