Gays and KKK
There’s been some recent hubub regarding Chicago Cardinal Francis George’s comments where we compared a gay pride parade to a KKK march. I’ve already made such similar connections, but mainly through visual aesthetic cues, and not for his reasons, which focus on the disruption of the Catholic Church. Here is his defense from The Archdiocese of Chicago:
The Chicago Gay Pride Parade has been organized and attended for many years without interfering with the worship of God in a Catholic church. When the 2012 Parade organizers announced a time and route change this year, it was apparent that the Parade would interfere with divine worship in a Catholic parish on the new route. When the pastor’s request for reconsideration of the plans was ignored, the organizers invited an obvious comparison to other groups who have historically attempted to stifle the religious freedom of the Catholic Church. One such organization is the Ku Klux Klan which, well into the 1940′s, paraded through American cities not only to interfere with Catholic worship but also to demonstrate that Catholics stand outside of the American consensus. It is not a precedent anyone should want to emulate.
It is terribly wrong and sinful that gays and lesbians have been harassed and subjected to psychological and even physical harm. These tragedies can be addressed, however, without disturbing the organized and orderly public worship of God in a country that claims to be free. I am grateful that all parties concerned resolved this problem by moving the Parade’s start time so as not to conflict with the celebration of Mass that Sunday.
hi,
please further explain what led you to create the photo, or did you also create the rainbow hood and gown? and what do you mean about making the same connections the cleric has between gays and the KKK, in any way? your description is too short. give us more details, please.
i find the image both revolting and oddly attractive, even though my queer eyes have really seen enough rainbow crapola to last a lifetime.
i should blog about you and your work .
Hi MPetrelis-
Thanks for your comments. You can read this blog post by Nicole for some information:
http://vb2023.com/2011/10/04/artprize-press/
I did create the actual garment.
By making the same connections as the cleric I refer to the literal analogy he made that Gays are like the KKK. However, my analogy does not read that “Gays are like the KKK because Gays and the KKK disrupt the Catholic Church through parades” but rather reads “Gays are like the KKK because ‘GayGayGay’ sounds like ‘KKK’”. For me, the analogy is rooted in linguistics. When meaning is placed onto ‘Gay’ and ‘KKK,’ that’s where personal interpretation begins to manifest. Those interpretations can vary greatly: as broad a spectrum as one as a gay man experiencing self-loathing for being gay, to one as a gay man hating others for being gay.
Please feel free to look around my website, http://songco.org, for more artwork.