Certain groups in the Christian community, including Concerned Women for America and The Catholic League are in high dungeon over a poster being used to advertise this weekend’s Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco. In case you are not one of those whipped up about this event, it is an annual street fair that caters to a certain segment of the GLBT (this is one time all 4 letters are appropriate) community who enjoy certain sexual fetishes, especially BDSM and leather. It is not for that faint of heart. (The FSF link above has a galleries section in case you need more detail about what sorts of things happen at this fair.) Anyway, here’s the poster:
Obviously, it’s meant to bear a striking resemblance to Leonardo De Vinci’s Last Supper.
Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues with CWA said his group wants California’s elected officials – including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer – to “publicly condemn this unprovoked attack against Christ and His followers.” How exactly is this an attack on Christ or his followers? While it is certainly a parody of a painting made 1500 years after the events it purports to depict, it in no way says anything negative about Jesus or Christians.
Gays are the boogeyman to these groups. Gays are ridiculed, attacked, mocked, lied about and rejected by these groups in order to raise money. Other “sins” committed by those inside the flock are not safe to attack. Divorce, domestic violence and gluttony, also named as sins, receive little or no attention from AFA, CWA of the Catholic League. Throughout my Pentecostal upbringing, I spent way to many Sunday nights after service sitting across the table at Shoney’s watching a 400 pound traveling evangelist shovel another hot fudge cake into his maw while gossiping about the last church he was at to take this manufactured outrage very seriously.
And the final irony for me is the fact that The Catholic League has contacted 200 other religious organizations to join them in a boycott of Miller Brewing Company, one of the event sponsors. Religious groups calling for a boycott of a beer company for sponsoring a gay event. Wow.
To have a real impact, they should ask their members to boycott Blow Buddies.
[Update: For a different view on this, visit local blogger Mark Rose over at Right Minded.]
September 27, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Are we not going to pretend this is the latest step in a dance that has been going on for at least 30 years? The homosexual community is offended by the Church’s denunciation of them so they tweak sensibilities of the Church so there is more denunciation so there is more sensibility tweaking…
And so forth.
I mean, come on. Am I the only one who remembers the whole “Corpus Christi” fiasco?
I spent way to many Sunday nights after service sitting across the table at Shoney’s watching a 400 pound traveling evangelist shovel another hot fudge cake into his maw while gossiping about the last church he was at to take this manufactured outrage very seriously.
Now how would you feel if I were to write a Fat Rights post that said “how many times have I had to listen to some fruity queer go on and on about Liza Minelli with everyone hanging on his every word while they ignored the fat girl?”
I appreciate you trying to make your point, but surely you can do it without taking down other maligned groups in a scattershot fashion?
September 27, 2007 at 3:20 pm
I must have made my points poorly. I had three. First, this is not an attack on Christians of Christianity. Not everything that tweaks our sensibilities counts as an attack.
Second, certain groups (please note that my reference was always to certain groups, not to Christians as a whole) use gays to scare their members so they can solicit money from them. Something like, “We need more of your money so we can fight against the Homosexual Agenda!”
Third, picking on gays is part of what I refer to as the Favorite Sin Syndrome. Certain folks (again, not all) are far more interested in the mote (or heck, it might even be a beam) in their neighbor’s or brother’s eye than they are in the beam in their own eye.
I do not understand the analogy you are attempting draw with your next to last sentence. I was not maligning other groups. My reference focused on the hypocrisy, since the Bible condemns both gluttony and gossip.
And no, I do not remember the Corpus Christi controversy. I’ve now Googled it and have a little information, but not enough to comment.
Actually, I had a fourth point. People get offended way too easily. In fact, your comment suggests that taking offense breeds a quid pro quo. (See also, the Bill O’Reilly discussion at MCB.) I just can’t waste the emotional energy required to wear my feelings on my sleeve.
September 27, 2007 at 3:28 pm
First, this is not an attack on Christians of Christianity. Not everything that tweaks our sensibilities counts as an attack.
I don’t consider it an attack at all. But I also do consider it to be a bit of a goad–which I see as different than an attack.
Second, certain groups (please note that my reference was always to certain groups, not to Christians as a whole) use gays to scare their members so they can solicit money from them.
Oh, believe me, I know. And I have a word for those people.
Third, picking on gays is part of what I refer to as the Favorite Sin Syndrome.
Again, believe me, I know.
My reference focused on the hypocrisy, since the Bible condemns both gluttony and gossip.
Yeah, I got your reference. And it’s one I’ve heard before and made myself from various pulpits for the last, I dunno, 18 years or so. But my point was that you could have made your point without using derogatory and derisive imagery.
People get offended way too easily.
I’m not offended. I’m just trying to make a point about how language colours perception. I agreed with all of your points right up until that paragraph.
September 28, 2007 at 1:20 pm
[...] story today to deal with people being upset about a fictional depiction of actual events, we go to Michael Not Mike who has an update on the latest farrago in the Church Vs. Homosexual Community battle. n case you [...]
September 28, 2007 at 2:13 pm
I’m a little too scared to click through to “blow buddies” while at work.
September 28, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Probably wise to wait until you get home. It’s a sex club that is (as I understand) designed to facilitate oral sex, in particular.
September 30, 2007 at 8:31 am
When you look at the other entries in the poster contest, it is clear that his entry was chosen just because of it’s potential to give offense.
Look at the silly Folsom Street Fair press release:
http://www.folsomstreetfair.com/fair-press.php?relNum=77
Christians can parody too.
And compare it with my parody:
September 25, 2008
FOLSOM STREET EVENTS™ LAUNCHES POSTER DESIGN FOR 25th ANNUAL FOLSOM STREET FAIR™
Poster image draws inspiration from the annual Islamic Hajj, in a poster entitled: Masjid al-Harem.
Folsom Street Events has released its latest poster design for the 25TH Annual Folsom Street Fair. This year, the official poster, drawn by renowned artist Theo van Gogh, uses well-known community members as players in a strikingly original interpretation of the annual, worldwide pilgrimage to Mecca. The poster is the second in a series that draws from well-known paintings, album covers, movie posters, or other iconic images. Community members celebrate exuberant sexuality by donning their S/M regalia, and dancing around not the Kaaba, but a 10 story phallus.
According to Andy Copper, Board President, “We are extremely pleased with the outcome of this poster, and we are looking forward to a particularly inspirational event season. There is no intention to be particularly pro-religion or anti-religion with this poster; the image is intended only to celebrate the sacred roots of raw sexuality. It is a distinctive representation of diversity with women and men, people of all colors and sexual orientations. Just as Mecca draws people of all races throughout the world, we hope people from all continents will come come celebrate with us!”
Folsom Street Events acknowledges that many of the people in the leather and fetish communities are spiritual and that this poster image is a way of expressing that side of the community’s interests and beliefs. This year, Folsom Street Fair is dedicated to “San Francisco Values,” previously used against the San Francisco community for its support of sexual diversity and now used by Folsom Street Events as a way to reclaim power by the fetish community.
Andy Copper, adds “We hope that people will enjoy the artistry for what it is – nothing more or less. Many people choose to speculate on deeper meanings. This is one artist’s imagining of a pilgrimage that is at one both sexual and sacred – all we did was adopt the iconography of Mecca and make it our own. The irony is that homosexuality has a long and wonderful history in Islam. In truth, we are going to produce a series of inspired poster images over the next few years. Next year’s poster ad may take inspiration from American Gothic by Grant Wood, the flag raising at Iwo Jima, or even Raphael’s ‘The School of Athens’ – community members are already preparing for roles in that one!”
When asked about the murder of the poster artist, Theo van Gogh, and the worldwide rioting that has claimed dozens of lives, Copper said: “I guess it wouldn’t be Folsom Street Fair without offending some extreme members of the global community, though.”