Five Words Of Wisdom From The Man Who Gave Us Outing

Michelangelo Signorile burst onto the scene more than 25 years ago, and the intervening years have done nothing to diminish his fire. Signorile’s public debut came when he disrupted a speech given by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict) by jumping on a marble platform and shouting “He is no man of God,” which, years later, is arguably widely recognized, even by Catholics.

Signorile followed that act by making outing a political tactic, taking on such closet cases as businessman Malcolm Forbes and Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams. Today, outing is much more widely accepted, even by the mainstream press.

A quarter century later, Signorile is still pushing the envelope and making people (appropriately) uncomfortable. In his latest book, It’s Not Over: Getting Beyond Tolerance, Defeating Homophobia, & Winning True Equality, Signorile sounds a much-needed cautionary note about the success of the LGBT movement.

Here are five key points from Signorile well worth keeping in mind as we move into a new era of civil rights.

1. We’re suffering from “victory blindness.”

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2. Don’t let the opponents of LGBT rights cast themselves as victims.

The religious right is in the process of rebranding itself as the winner of the international victimhood sweepstakes. As Signorile points out, that sets them up for a pity narrative. We can’t for a minute let anyone forget that the homophobes are not the victims. Religious liberty bills are just the latest threat “not just to LGBT people trying to lead their lives but also to all marginalized groups.” We should call those motivations what they are: bigotry.

3. LGBT people and our allies are still uncomfortable talking about the complexity of the community.

Signorile calls this “covering,” a concept he adopted from writer Kenji Yoshino. Covering is when we “tone down a disfavored identity to fit into the mainstream.” Some of covering is related to the closet–does the name Aaron Schock ring a bell?–but not all of it. Consider the freakout when Michael Sam kissed his boyfriend on live television. This simple gesture was considered an in-your-face expression of sexuality by a lot of people rather than an ordinary show of affection. Or think about director Steven Soderbergh being told that Behind the Candelabra was “too gay” by the supposedly liberal Hollywood establishment. The reality of gay life remains too hard for even our friends to accept.

4. LGBT issues should be part of the school curriculum.

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5. The media has to abandon the “two sides to every argument” approach to LGBT issues.

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full article:
http://www.queerty.com/five-words-of-wisdom-from-the-man-who-gave-us-outing-20150505