There’s been a marked absence of excitement / entry topics this week, so I’m going to post my tirades instead. Enjoy!
Shock Value
We’ve heard it to the point of redundancy: “Don’t think it can’t happen to you.” People still choose to ignore this fact, and AIDS gets pushed to the corner, overlooked as a major and still-thriving threat to the sexually active. Even with increased awareness, the virus still lives.
Those behind a recent German ad campaign hope to have an impact on rising HIV infections by shocking their audiences into awareness. Wimbledon star Michael Stich has primarily aimed his message at heterosexual couples because his foundation provides services to HIV-infected children. Babies acquire the HIV virus while passing through the birth canal, and you sadly can’t have a birth without a vagina.
One ad shows a woman in nothing more than high heels and underwear kneeling in front of a naked man. The man has a pistol replacement for a penis, and the weapon is in the woman’s mouth. But in the U.S., ads of this nature have caused controversies that led to the removal of bus and billboard spots. A Philadelphia campaign depicting black gay men in the cross hairs of a gun received this treatment; the tagline was “Have YOU Been Hit?” The Health Commissioner’s barred the ads, using the defense that they “promoted violence.”
Recently the ‘15 Seconds Campaign,’ meant to remind youths that someone under the age of 25 becomes infected every 15 seconds, launched at Kansas University. A performance by Frenchie Davis from ‘American Idol’ rounded out the week-long festival of awareness. But do celebrity guests and being told that “someone” will be infected by HIV every 15 seconds really hammer the point home?
A gun in a woman’s mouth doesn’t exactly scream “goodwill” to me, but I’m definitely going to look at the ad long enough to catch the tagline: “Only 0.003 mm Latex lie between life and death.” Does a dinky measurement like .003 mm need an atom-bomb sized message like the German ad in order to get people’s attention and shock them out of denial? Perhaps.
Loud About Silence
Daniel T. Zanoza, National Director of Republicans for Fair Media, supports GLSEN’s Day of Silence, which serves as a protest to anti-GLBT harassment in schools. He also supports 365 days of this same silence. Why? Because he doesn’t want children to ever be given information, or “propaganda,” regarding “unhealthy and sometimes deadly lifestyles.”
Opponents of this observance feel that children in America shouldn’t have to partake in this event. Parents, they say, are putting sex before their child’s welfare. President of Americans for Truth Peter LaBarbera said that schools should be “neutral” on controversial issues like homosexuality, which he triumphs in stereotyping to include “tremendous health risks [and] rampant promiscuity.
Schools can’t play Switzerland on the “issue” of homosexuality, Mr. LaBarbera, because the state of being a homosexual can’t be debated. One can, unfortunately, express an opinion against gay rights. But this day serves as an example of how gay students feel everyday towards their peers – that it is necessary to be silent even in the face of harassment and bullying — because no one will accept them. And whether or not one feels that the gay population should have rights equal to those of the straight population, every student deserves the chance to go to school without having to worry about his or her safety.
The New York Times published an article on Sunday titled “Accepting Gay Identity, and Gaining Strength,” which depicts how gay youth are coming out earlier. The article chronicles the life of a young boy who decided to come out in his early teens. He always knew something was different – he even tried asking a girl for a date on Valentine’s Day — and when he realized that his attraction fell towards males and not females, he told his mother. Instead of roaming the halls feeling lost and alone, Zach O’Connor is able to attend support groups and meet other gay youths. If someone decides to bully him, he stands up for himself, sure of his identity.
Though most teenagers wish they could avoid middle and high schools, they can’t. If a gay child is forced to be silent and endure humiliation and torment, promoting the day of silence is just what a parent or teacher can do to ensure the well-being of every child. I’m willing to bet that at least a few of the children made to stay home on this day make up some of the bullies. The Not Our Kids organization (a conglomerate of all those opposed to the day of silence) will have bigger problems if their children choose to ignore reality – gay kids at school exist, and they need to have our love, acceptance and support.
Tags: gay rights | day of silence | HIV awareness
