posted
Well, I imagine they feel the same way kids of straight parents feel about the possibility of attending the White House Egg roll. Some are probably excited and some probably don't even know/care what it is.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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posted
I agree, Teshi. Why the t-shirts? If you want to be seen as just like any other family, then why mobilize and come en masse and wear a t-shirt to identify you and separate you out? Why not just come and enjoy the event with your children.
I'm sorry, but I have a hard time believing it's not going to be politicized. And I don't think the White House egg roll is the forum for political activism.
Every family should be able to attend if they follow the rules, no one should be excluded because both adults with them are of the same gender, but I think they should leave off the t-shirts and just participate like everybody else. It's supposed to about the kids having fun, not raising awareness for any particular cause. And yes, I'd feel the same way if a group were mobilizing pro-life people with the intent of showing up in force and wearing pro-life t-shirts. It's not the appropriate venue for that type of thing.
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posted
I suspect it will be politicized but I have to admit that I believe if it's going on in the White House, it's political.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
as has been mentioned before, I don't agree with the t-shirt thing. It just makes it too political, like you are using your kids just to prove a point. It seems that they want the whitehouse to ban them just so that they can complain about the evil conservatives.
But I think anyone who wants to go with their kids regardless of gender/sexuality should be able to go as long as they are going to give their kids a good time, and not to prove a point.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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posted
What about other groups that organize to get tickets and also wear group t-shirts during the event? I'd be very suprised if there weren't plenty of other groups whose actions are similar.
I'm not sure how I feel specifically about them doing the t-shirt thing or making a big deal out of this, but there's a couple things I think should be said. First, this is a group of people who have been told to stay in the closet for most of their lives. Second, the reason that this is politicized isn't that they are organizing or wearing t-shirts. It's that many in the White House and especially among the supporters of the White House really don't want them at this event and have been quite vocal about saying that they aren't "real" or "good" families.
In a better world, they should be able to come to an event like this, organized and wearing t-shirts - just like many other groups do - and it not be any sort of deal.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:It's that many in the White House and especially among the supporters of the White House really don't want them at this event and have been quite vocal about saying that they aren't "real" or "good" families.
Who in the White House has said they aren't welcome? I didn't see a single quote in that article from a White House representative that said they weren't welcome.
I see a White House spokesman saying:
quote:This event is a time to celebrate Easter and to have a good family celebration here at the White House," McClellan replied. "In terms of any other details about it, I think it's still a few months off, so we'll talk about it as we get closer."
And the first lady, Laura Bush, saying:
quote:"All families are really welcome to attend," she told The Associated Press on Friday, provided they comply with rules that each family group have no more than two adults and include at least one child under 8.
Nowhere do I see where the White House has said they aren't welcome. The group claims they've received hateful email, but I don't see where they said such email came from the White House.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Of course the White House is going to be officially accepting in terms of a specific response to the possibility of gay families attending. To do otherwise would be political suicide.
However, it is clear that this whole administration has been about disenfranchising homosexual families and making sure they get no legal foothold in American society to the degree that's possible.
It's too bad this might inconvenience people who don't want to deal with the fact of gay families. However, it is a high profile event at the residence of the most powerful man in US government. It is by its nature political to some degree. I don't see any problem with a group of like-minded families identifying themselves as such publicly. The families Mr. Bush has used his "political capital" to disenfranchise have every right to make sure they are seen as part of official Whitehouse family events.
The only pall this might throw over the event comes from the hearts of those who would rather these families not exist or stay hidden if they must exist. Quite frankly I don't care if such people are offended by peaceful political expression in this way.
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quote:To ensure visibility for the action, Family Pride will issue T-shirts to participants, bearing a "nonpolitical message" that would identify them as gay and lesbian families. Chrisler said the T-shirt theme would be "Love makes a family."
Well, setting aside the paradox that, in this climate, any message that identifies one as gay/lesbian would be political in this setting, surely no one here has a problem with the theme "Love makes a family".
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote:I agree, Teshi. Why the t-shirts? If you want to be seen as just like any other family, then why mobilize and come en masse and wear a t-shirt to identify you and separate you out? Why not just come and enjoy the event with your children.
Because no matter what they do, they aren't going to be seen as just like any other family. If they behaved in precisely the same way as a traditional heterosexual family did-if they even followed precisely in their footsteps-you and I both know that many people would still focus on the difference in gender and gender preference-and many people would focus very negatively on that.
It happens all the time, people focusing on that. Brokeback Mountain, for instance. From my parents, "I don't want to see a movie about two gay guys having sex." Now I have no idea what it's about. My knowledge pretty much begins and ends at the fact that there are two homosexual men in love with each other and things get graphic. I might see the movie, if it's the kind of movie that I would otherwise see.
quote:I'm sorry, but I have a hard time believing it's not going to be politicized. And I don't think the White House egg roll is the forum for political activism.
It's the White House. The very fact that there was controversy over gay families attending at all-that gay families would be seen attending-makes it political.
quote:Nowhere do I see where the White House has said they aren't welcome. The group claims they've received hateful email, but I don't see where they said such email came from the White House.
The White House has not officially made homosexuals unwelcome at this particular event. But I think you'd have a hard time arguing that a large majority of conservatives and Republicans (and a whole lotta Democrats, too) have made it plain that homosexual families aren't welcome in America. The GOP has stated as possible planting that in the Constitution that they aren't welcome.
The more I think about this, the more I think, "Go for it," about the families considering t-shirts. And I have a difficult time feeling victimized on behalf of the White House, when it spends a good deal of effort and political capital to keep openly-homosexual couples as second-class citizens.
And they do. So do a lot of Americans.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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quote:Because no matter what they do, they aren't going to be seen as just like any other family.
No, but I think that if I were a member of one of these families I wouldn't chose to wear the t-shirt. That could be largely part of my personality, though.
If a lot of groups wear t-shirts, then it's okay, but it sounds like it's already going to be a big deal. Now these families will be 'marked', in a way, instead of being normal-but-different, blending in, with no "difference" (you know what I mean, I mean- by looking at the field) between them.
I don't mean this in any way but the fact that it might cause the t-shirted group and the non-t-shirted group to segregate themselves (even if the t-shirts deliberately disperse, I don't know), which is only going to make brightly coloured them-and-us statements on National News. If only one person get angry, he (or she) is going to have a highly visible target to lock on to...
Although, not being part of a minority (or at least to all intents and purposes), I couldn't tell you whether that standing out is percieved as a good thing or not. If that's the goal of a minority, to draw attention to themselves and prove that they are there, then of course t-shirts would be the correct choice.
Do not read too much into this, it's not trying to do battle with anyone, just explain why my reaction to t-shirts is the way it is.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Good Golly! These are American families who want to take part in an American tradition, dopey as it may be. Any group that says that they are not welcome are making this a political thing, not the families who want to participate.
Laura Bush is cool to say that all are welcome.
Why they are rolling eggs on the White House lawn is beyond me, but I know that other people are into it. It is a shame that gay families feel that they have to make a point about being American families, too, and a shame that certain groups want to exclude them.
Why can't we all just get along?
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