Homophobia: Tolerating Intolerance

Gay jokes are more acceptable than ever before, except when they're not.

Sun Media columnist Lorrie Goldstein articulates an interesting argument about the double standards that society harbours about gay jokes. Why, she asks, did Vince Vaughn recently come under heavy criticism for saying “electric cars are so gay” when the musical version of Priscilla the Queen of the Desert is currently a huge critical and commercial success, “despite the fact it plays up every conceivable stereotype of gay men as mincing, prancing, promiscuous, screwed-up misfits?” Vaughn’s critics would say that he’s essentially mean-spirited while Priscilla celebrates homosexuality, but Goldstein doesn’t buy it. “The real issue is either you can joke about being gay or you can’t. If you can, let’s drop the selective moral outrage when someone does.”

It’s a pretty solid free speech argument, but Goldstein doesn’t take into account one thing: Vaughn’s audience. In the Victoria Times-Colonist, Kristopher Wells reports the alarming statistic that “suicide is the No. 1 cause of death among gay, lesbian and bisexual youth in North America.” Terms like ‘gay’ and ‘faggot,’ are favourite terms of derision in school hallways, and it’s likely that the young males who see Vaughn’s movies don’t appreciate the subtleties of his gay jokes, even if he’s not malicious at heart. Wells argues that we need to aggressively combat homophobia in schools by creating support groups and including positive representations of homosexuals in curricula. This would help kids “realize that they don't have to wait for things to get better, they can be encouraged to reach out and find support to help make things better now.”

Meanwhile, the Ottawa Citizen joins the likes of Ellen Degeneres and Anderson Cooper, who have heaped praise on sex columnist Dan Savage’s remarkable It Gets Better project. Savage started a Youtube channel through which gay adults can talk directly to gay youth and tell them that although they might go through hell in school, their lives will improve if they stick it out. “To kids who dread going to school in the morning, the knowledge that one day they'll make new friends won't take the pain of today away,” says the Citizen. “But it might be enough to keep them alive.”