This past winter, Trent Lott notoriously commented that “when Strom Thurmond ran for president we [Miss-issippi] voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either.” What followed his segregationist, racist remarks can only be described as Lott’s personal hell. The constant news coverage began immediately, and the public outcry eventually led to his resignation as Senate Republican leader on Dec. 20.
On Monday April 21, 2003, Pennsylv-ania senator Rick Santorum, in an interview with the Associated Press, stated that “if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything.” The current lack of news coverage on this remark, considering the recent dearth of war coverage in favor of a homicide case, versus the press reaction to Senator Lott’s remarks illustrates a larger problem.
The larger issue is that few Americans recognize homophobia with race as evil, or even as politcally incorrect. This is not a simple political question; it affects your own lives and the lives of your friends.
For instance, at Spectrum Alliance’s Gay Rights forum last semester, one panelist’s use of the word “nigger” elicited an exclamation of “Ouch!” and indignant murmuring, while his use of “fag” went unnoticed. In fact, as I write this, I wonder whether Student Life will censor “nigger,” while I have no doubt “fag” will remain untouched. The dichotomy between the popular reactions to the two words illustrates my point: racism is evil, homophobia is tolerated.
And when it’s not tolerated, it’s celebrated. Both the Washington Witness and the Southpaw have reported on physics Professor Jonathan Katz, who says that “I am a homophobe, and proud,” and compares homosexuality to drug use and adultery, while declaring it to be “unnatural.” Would Washington University have hired someone who said “I am a racist, and proud,” and proceeded to declare that some of his students are stupid because they’re black? I doubt it. Where is the outcry against the bigoted opinions of Professor Katz? How do his gay students feel in class when their professor has declared that their sexual preferences are unnatural? Why doesn’t anyone seem to care?
People don’t care because, while racism is no longer officially institutionalized, homophobia still is both in the law and in religion. Rather than accepting that, like the racist policies of the past, both the law and many religions are propagating hate, homophobes can step back, point to the law or the Bible and declare how morally reprehensible homosexuals are, while defending their own moral stature. This is what keeps gay couples from attending Senior Proms and Fraternity Formals, whether officially or de facto. Unlike racism, homophobia is still just an “opinion.” Therefore it’s acceptable to encourage heterosexist events without worrying about the feelings of gay students.
This is not to say that racism and homophobia are the same thing. Racial minorities in America have had a far different experience of oppression than (homo)sexual minorities. The solutions to the two problems are very different. Activists for both stand at separate points in the progression to true equality and acceptance, but the reaction to such oppression should be the same. We should be just as careful to use euphemisms like “the f-word” as “the n-word.”
It’s beyond time to respond to this rampant heterosexist callousness. Write to your senator urging an official condemnation of Senator Santorum’s rema-rks, write to Prof. Katz expressing your disapproval at his open hate which inevitably leads to a counterproductive classroom, and please scream “Ouch!” when you hear someone called a fag.