Los Feliz Ledger [editorial]
Tradition and Proposition 8 By Jerry Lewis With the legalization of gay marriage in California, and the following whiplash of Prop. 8, life for gay people has been turbulent to say the least. While it’s encouraging to have a formal tally on the vast number of supporters of this minority’s most important relationships, it’s also disheartening to have jumped so high and with so much effort and hope, not to have cleared the high-jump bar. That bar to same-gender marriage has been set very high, and the means of raising that bar has included some repugnant methods, which feel personal. Above and beyond the average level of deficiency in adjustment leftover from adolescence, upon adulthood the gay individual, like everyone else, is expected to set aside that baggage and be productive in a society from which they cannot disassociate. The gay man cannot divorce his world, try though he might, and the gay and non-gay are stuck with one another for better or for worse. The gay man is to get himself together, which is to say, live with integrity and become able to maintain his bearings in the face of common insults
and discrimination—no small feat for many. But to live with integrity includes honesty, and honestly the average gay man wants another gay man to love. He wants what most people want—whether he admits it or not—he wants intimate affection and validation; he wants a partner to bear witness and share his life. And he wants the modicum of safety which social equality provides. In keeping with tradition, the work of educating folks becomes the gay man’s burdensome chore. The gay individual must talk with the most frightening blitz of angry and hurtful folks who are stridently set against same-gender marriage, although even many years of demonstrations and pleas for consideration are no guarantee of equality in regard. History informs us that many displays of equanimity are required of the minority in order to take the hill before the law submits to fairness. It’s a terrible tradition, this trial by fire and blood and death— glass ceilings, vilification, propaganda, the association of homosexuality with communism or other ‘isms and constant
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psychological warfare on the smaller group. This tradition is as familiar and predictable as the occasional assassination of those who would become heroes or martyrs posthumously. Gay marriage or no gay marriage, life is hard for all of us, although we surely make our lives harder than it need be by bickering about which kind of love is deserving of marriage. Perhaps with time humanity will invent a new tradition, one that makes us able to forget rancor and prejudice, so that we can skip
over so much wasted life. Until then, however, we all pay the price of fear and ignorance and misapprehension. F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose foibles and short lifespan may have arisen from a tendency to ruminate near the nub of things, wrote in his story, The Freshest Boy: “It isn’t given to us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the slightest touch can whither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them anymore in this world.” Maybe I can’t know that
moment in a person’s mind when they can feel warmth again and perhaps recognize a piece of themselves upon witnessing gay tenderness. But I do know about gestures—a handshake, a look in the eye, a kind word—and I will employ them as my most popular tools in order to increase my odds of summoning the surprise gift of a warm smile—to promote the welfare of us all, and to achieve marriage for deserving kith and kin. Jerry Lewis is a resident of Los Feliz.
Boycott VERMONT HAND WASH Corner of Vermont and Hollywood Blvd.
Criminal Charges Have Been Filed Against This Carwash and Its Owners On Feb. 9, the Los Angeles city attorney filed more than 170 criminal charges altogether against Vermont Hand Wash owner Benny Pirian, his brother Nisan and manager Manuel Reyes.
The charges include: Witness intimidation. Grand theft of wages. Not providing rest or meal breaks. Brandishing a deadly weapon.
Help CLEAN up the carwash industry by avoiding carwashes that don’t respect workers’ rights.
www.CleanCarwashLA.org
www.losfelizledger.com
July 2009