QueerHistoryProject.com: exploring and reimagining queer history

Queer history is often marginalized, unrecorded, forgotten or lost. Many of us come out and join queer communities without ever having had a chance to learn about the queers who came before us—their lives, their struggles, their parties, their heroes, their secrets…

The folks behind QueerHistoryProject.com hope to change all that.

They have developed this interactive website as a place where the queer community can create, explore and share our history. This is an opportunity to showcase what was funny, brave, caring, painful, motivating, subversive, routine, ignored, gorgeous and arousing. What happened and what was it like? We invite the community to define its ongoing history.

The website is currently a pilot project. If they are successful in acquiring funding, their long term vision is to create a permanent online, digital collection. They hope to build our community’s capacity to document history, with workshops on how to digitize and upload content to the site, partnerships with other organizations and continued outreach to our communities to encourage participation in this project. We intend the site to be a resource that strengthens and empowers our community.

This website is maintained by a group of volunteers under the umbrella of Out On Screen, a non-profit organization that presents the annual Vancouver Queer Film Festival and the province-wide Out in Schools educational program. This website is the online component of the Queer History Project, a film commissioning project comprised of film works that depict Vancouver’s queer histories.

(Rick Santorum)

Rick Santorum, the ex-Senator from Pennsylvania, known for his vitriolic hate of the gays, his blaming Katrina victims for their situations, and for a fine mixture of poop and lube (thanks Dan Savage), has penned a response to California’s ruling last week to allow same sex marriage. Here are some excerpts:

“Bigot! Hate-monger! Homophobe! Those were just a few of the terms hurled my way in 2003 when I said that the Supreme Court’s Texas sodomy decision opened the door to the redefinition of marriage.

“When I wasn’t ducking the epithets, I was being laughed at, mocked, and given the crazy-uncle-at-the-holidays treatment by the media. 

“I’m saddened that time has proved right those of us who worried about the future of marriage as the union of husband and wife, deeply rooted not only in our traditions, our faiths, but in the facts of human nature…”

In response to the California Court’s ruling:

“You might ask: Don’t we have more to worry about than some court redefining marriage? After all, gas prices are soaring, health-care costs are rising, and our nation is at war. Why should we care what a few activist judges in California say?

“Look at Norway. It began allowing same-sex marriage in the 1990s. In just the last decade, its heterosexual-marriage rates have nose-dived and its out-of-wedlock birthrate skyrocketed to 80 percent for firstborn children. Too bad for those kids who probably won’t have a dad around, but we can’t let the welfare of children stand in the way of social affirmation, can we?

“But what about love? Is anyone saying same-sex couples can’t love each other? I love my children. I love my friends, my brother. Heck, I even love my mother-in-law. Should we call these relationships marriage, too? Marriage is and always has been more than the acknowledgment of the love between two people.

“What about the constitutional right to equal protection under the law? Marriage is not an inalienable right; it is a privilege, a license granted by government conferring certain governmental benefits.

“There is a constitutional right that is under threat: the free exercise of religion… Within 10 years, clergy will be sued or indicted for preaching on certain Bible passages dealing with homosexuality and churches, and church-related organizations will lose government contracts and even their tax-exempt status.

“The California court just declared that those of us who see marriage as the union of husband and wife are the legal equivalent of racists. And openly racist groups and individuals can be denied government benefits because of their views, including professional licenses (attorney, physicians, psychiatrists, marriage counselors), accredited schools, and tax-exempt status for charities.”

There’s no space and time to respond to each of Santorum’s points, but let me take a jab at a few. First, Santorum attacks Norway. Yet, Norway ranks third in the world as most peaceful (U.S. ranks 96th), second with highest GDP per capita (U.S. ranks 11th), and was ranked highest of all countries in human development from 2001 to 2006, and came second in 2007 (U.S. ranks 12th). The human development index is an index combining normalized measures of life expectancy, literacy, educational attainment, and GDP per capita for countries worldwide. Seems to me, Norway’s doing a lot better as a country and as a people than Santorum would like to believe or tell people. 

Next… Yes, homophobia is comparable to racism. Not much more to say about that, but that Santorum has probably never experienced being a minority of anything… though he probably would say as a religious man he’s a minority. But, when religious people and god-believers are actually outnumbered in society, then come talk to me about discrimination against religious foundations. Until then, people are simply defending themselves against his type of religious doctrine that is deeply embedded in some of our society’s traditions that often lead to keeping a handful of citizens second class ones.  

And finally, his argument that people will be suing religious organizations, or that religious organizations will be losing tax relief support for speaking against homosexuality. Tell me what church/synagogue/temple has ever been sued by another group for speaking against Jews, Blacks, Muslims, or any other group? Is Reverend Wright being sued by the collective White people of America? Or has his church lost its tax shelter? Has any church been sued and lost a court case? And if they have, they probably were spewing the type of hate Santorum spews about queer people.

Canada has had same sex marriage for 3 years - at the national level-, and the one case ever brought forward against an establishment that wanted to deny a lesbian couple from marrying there was thrown out of court, because our laws support both same sex marriage and the right of religious organizations to deny marriages in their spaces. 

Anyway, we all know this won’t mean anything to Santorum, since he and his supporters are hellbent on believing same sex marriage is apocalyptic. Oh well. 

It’s a fact. Humans are fucked. It’s not a question of if, it’s more, when and how! Whether it’s environmental destruction, nuclear holocaust, alien invasion, or, my personal favourite, God’s wrath, the end is near.

Ecological Disaster
Don’t say we haven’t been warned. It all comes down to Global Warming. Environmentalists have been warning us for decades of the devastating repercussions we face if humanity does not clean up its fucking act and go GREEN. Try digesting that while slurping on your latte, you bitches. It’s shoved down our throats (yum) for the past few decades and still nobody gives a shit.   We all know the dish, right? For those of you who have selectively forgotten: Global Warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans. Translation, the earth is burning into a crispy critter. What wonderful things are coming of this: Glaciers are melting, oceans rising, forests declining. But don’t worry, we always have the moon to colonize.

Nuclear Holocaust
Here is another fun way to go -and efficient, too.
With one push of a button, the whole world could be blown into smithereens. With the onset of nuclear destruction, humankind could be eradicated, and all or most of the Earth could be burnt and destroyed. If we’re lucky, we may even get three headed babies and 10 legged cats before Earth finally decided to melt into radiated mush. Fashion designs will have to change so shirts fit three headed babies and two headed Mamas. When in Rome…

Alien Invasion
An Alien Invasion would be the coolest way to get wiped out. Can you image the headlines on CNN “Green Blobs Take Over the World?” As we speak, the Aliens are sitting back and watching Earth, patiently, biding their time. They’re watching the biggest reality T.V. show in the galaxy. It’s only logical that our green brothers and sisters would finally get fed up with us. Some people (also known as freaks) have claimed that they have already been approached by our green siblings. Apparently they are looking to inbreed with humans that have below average IQs, to create human/alien babies that verge on retarded to form… a perfect race for earth?!?!

God’s Wrath
Last but certainly not least, most of us will be eradicated by the wrath of God. We are all so fucked on this one. Sodomites. Whores. Those who have had multiple abortions and multiple orgasms. Who have stolen. Said the lord’s name in vain. And hedonists alike… You are all so fucking fucked. I hope you like heat and don’t forget your sunblock. Hell is well… hell.