Friday, November 20, 2009
News Radical Gay Anarchist Group Denies Billboard Destruction
Posted by Bianca Phillips on Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 11:31 AM
Earlier this week, blog posts on the Advocate's website and Towleroad.com reported that radical gay anarchist group Bash Back had taken credit for the September vandalism of a Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center (MGLCC) billboard at Poplar and High downtown.
But a local representative from Bash Back Memphis told the Flyer that his group had nothing to do with the action. Their perceived involvement was likely implied from a blog post praising the vandalism on Bash Back News, the group's national website.
- Bash Back
Bash Back, a group of self-proclaimed "radical transfolk, queers and allies," is critical of the mainstream LGBT movement, which it sees as trying to assimilate with heterosexual culture. Though it does not appear that the group is actually claiming responsibility for vandalism on its website, a Bash Back blogger had this to say praising the vandalism of the billboard featuring a gay Marine:
"First, sending gays to be military fodder is NOT pro-gay or conclusive whatsoever to gay liberation. State militarism only reinforces the dominant structures, and the racism/heterosexism they perpetuate, as well as reducing the number of gay people in the world (both those in Amerikkka and the countries Amerikkka is colonizing/conquering)."
The billboard was one of five National Coming Out Day advertisements paid for by private donations to the MGLCC. It featured gay local former Marine Tim Smith in uniform and read, "I'm gay and I protected your freedom." The billboard was ripped down about a week after it went up in mid-September.
The Bash Back post goes on to criticize MGLCC as "racist, anti-queer, and anti-trans" and it criticizes the center for spending $3,500 for a billboard that Bash Back claims promotes militarism in a poor African American neighborhood.
MGLCC director Will Batts says he's open to discussing the group's concerns if they are willing to sit down and talk. Says Batts: "We have an open door policy here for anybody that has issues with how we conduct business."
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I heard the local recruiting stations have been swamped with black gays looking to join the Marines. Now I know why. Damn MGLCC!
Reading that website was like drinking a week-old bottle of someone else's vomit. Please don't ever link to anything like that ever again.
Is this a joke? A GLBT group that uses Ice Cube-lingo (circa 1980s). Seriously?
They look like something from South Park
No offense meant Cartman.
*shaking my head in exasperation
I am really really tired of people saying that all this s* is wrong with the community center but then you ask when the last time they were there and they have never been. You get the revolution you work for - don't say that the center has nothing for you if you have done nothing to talk about it constructively or made any effort to change it. Shut up - you are useless to the Center and to the community. Do something, write a check, or shut the f* up.
Why is preservation of the sodomite ideology more important than racism involving church vandalism?
East Memphis church vandalized with racist graffiti http://www.wmctv.com/global/story.asp?s=10…
Why is Les Miles such an idiot? Talk about a gross vandalization of clock management.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/…
CHG, I am sure that you are aware that the sodomite theology is constitutionally protected.
CHG I feel that it is safe to assume that you never engaged in sexual activity of any type before you were married; and that once married you never consciously interfered with the reproductive cycle in anyway to avoid pregnancy; and that you have only ever had "conventional" intercourse; because according to your pick and choose views of biblical writings, any alteration of "sex for procreation" theory would place you squarely in the sodomite ideology camp.
Les Miles got immersed in an intense debate on sodomite theology with his offensive coordinator on the sideline Saturday night and blew the game for LSU.
Maybe Les is dyslexic and thought there were 10 seconds left on the clock.
I love the direction this thread is taking -- from radical queer theory to Les Miles' clock management. Well-played, Flyer chatters. Well played.
"write a check, or shut the f* up."
This sums up MGLCC perfectly!
If Bash Back had only disrupted the Ole Miss-LSU game at the half-minute mark there would have been an official's timeout called to clear the field making it likely LSU would have emerged victorious. Even more frustrating is knowing it was a missed opportunity for Bash Back to get the word out about the evils of heteronormative assimilation. The fans most certainly would have been all ears.
Bash Back is undeniably Pythonish.
"Brothers (and sisters), for too long have we felt the iron cleats of the SEC upon our necks. No longer! I wish to offer a resolution of immediate action. First, we'll kidnap Les Miles, cut off his hands, mail them to the SEC, and issue our demands. First! That the MGLCC be renamed the People's Front for Teh Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered Peoples of Memphis. Second! That the MGLCC stop supporting the illegal and immoral SEC occupation by encouraging our brothers (and sisters) to join the SEC to trample our brothers (and sisters) here and abroard, in both football and basketball, and even baseball. Third! That Sodomite Theology replace the religious curriculum currently being taught in all private and parochial schools in Memphis. Can I get a second to this motion?"
Now we see the violence inherent in the (heteronormative patriarchal fascist) system!!!!
Nobody expects Bash Back!! Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise...Our two weapons are fear and surprise and pink balaclavas...Our thrrrrrrree weapons are fear, surprise, and pink balaclavas, and fanatical devotion to sodomite theology...
Hrrrrmph.... 'Sodomite *Liberation* Theology' if you please.
And no more homework, ever, for anybody. Ever.
And now for something completely different - a radical gay anarchist with three buttocks.
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