Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Nov 5, 2010

The Birdcage (1996) is an Americanized version of the 1978 movie La Cage aux Folles. La Cage aux Folles was a huge hit and spawned a very successful Tony-award winning 1983 Broadway play.

The Birdcage was also a huge success, but not without controversy. From the Internet Movie Database:

A gay cabaret owner (Robin Williams) and his drag queen companion (Nathan Lane) agree to put up a false straight front so that their son (Dan Futterman) can introduce them to his fiancé's (Calista Flockhart) right-wing moralistic parents (Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest).

The Birdcage got some criticism because of Lane's character, Albert. Albert can be seen as the stereotypically flaming, emotional gay. He screeches, squeals, and cries a lot.

Some lgbts gave Lane's performance a lot of criticism, while others praised the movie in general.

But I say that I saw nothing wrong with Lane's performance. Let me explain. Part of the problem with stereotypical portrayals of lgbts is that they usually represent how we are seen by some heterosexuals - one dimensional and weak.

Albert is not one dimensional and he is not weak. And this is because of Lane's peformance. While Albert is flaming, emotional, and highly paranoid, he is also talented, warm, friendly, and very loving to his partner's son.

You can't help but to love him and his moxie. If I knew someone like Albert, I would love to have him as a friend:

Per usual, Rachel Maddow destroys conservative lies. It bothers me just a bit that while all these reasons why the Democrats got swamped in the mid terms are floating around, very few are calling attention to the right-wing echo chamber which ratcheted up the lies against Obama and the Democrats, thereby scaring Americans and exploiting covert prejudices against Obama.

Saying "that's just how politics is" is a cop-out. Strangely enough, the same people who always claim about how sick they are with Washington or how Washington is broken seems to always be silent when it comes to calling lies out. You can't defeat a disease without naming it.

And don't even get me started on Fox News. The fact that for the first time in history, a political party has an entire "news" network - the number one news network at that - in its back pocket and pushing its agenda seems to escape everyone. This is a shame because it's significant. And ironic. The clarion call against Obama seems to be that he is a dictator and runs a regime.

Who's more of a product of a "regime?" President Obama or a network fueling a political party?

Lastly, the lgbt community really needs to pay attention to this because there is a case to be made - which I will get into later - in how the campaign of lies against Obama and the Democrats are similar to the campaign of lies the religious right wages against us.

How sad is it that those who market in lies can borrow from one another, but those engaged in truth and progressive ideas can't. Or rather don't.

Hat tip to Joe.My.God.

Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

Friday, November 05, 2010

Know Your LGBT History - The Birdcage

Pete LaBarbera returns to posting porn and other Friday midday news briefs

When will we address THIS reason why the Democrats lost the mid terms?