Classical Values :: Gay director maligned -- by culture war bigots!

Gay director maligned -- by culture war bigots!

Has the Culture War come full circle?

I've pondered the question in some recent posts, but a story I read about today makes me seriously wonder. A friend emailed me link to a story in the New York Times "Arts Beat Culture at Large" section titled "Protests and Defense of a Transgender Comedy at Tribeca Festival."

Humorless gay and transgendered activists (if calling them humorless isn't too much of a redundancy) are trying to censor the film:

A film selected for the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival called "Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives" hasn't been screened there yet, but it's already had that very effect on members of the transgender community and their supporters, prompting an advocacy group to call for the film's removal from the festival lineup as well as a rapid defense from its creators and festival organizers.

According to the festival description, the film has a deliberately campy empowerment theme about transgendered women turning the tables on their attackers ("the violated vixens turn deadly divas"). This, it seems, is intolerable to the prudish pacifist censors (who presumably want transgendered people to be victims):

That summary alone was enough to prompt many angry comments at the tribecafilm.com Web site. One commenter who gave her name as Marie wrote, "This movie trivializes people dying for being who they are. You need to consider whether you want to be remembered for such transphobic trash." Another commenter named Margaret B wrote, "I can't imagine a more offensive film to denigrate and demean a minority group. Please remove this film from your line up."

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation has made the same demand of the Tribeca festival. In a statement, the alliance said, "The film, its title and its marketing misrepresent the lives of transgender women and use grotesque, exploitative depictions of violence against transgender women." The alliance added that Mr. Luna and the festival "have refused to take responsibility for the problematic content and offensive marketing of this film," and urged its membership to contact the festival and demand that the film be pulled from its schedule.

Without knowing anything more about the film (which I haven't seen although I now want to), my initial reaction was to exclaim to my friend that this is just entertainment.

No one has any sense of humor any more. They'd probably protest Pink Flamingos today.

And they certainly would. In that classic underground film by gay director John Waters, transvestite star Divine goes on a murderous rampage, killing and eating police, and taking revenge on a jealous couple who have attempted to usurp her title as "the filthiest person alive." And in a final triumph, Divine eats dogshit. Not acting style, but reality style.

Hey GLAAD, where were you in '72?

Why wasn't your stodgy board of censors decrying negative stereotypes and pointing out for the world that drag queens are not murderous cannibal coprophiles?

As my friend pointed out, times have changed:

The whole world has turned radical feminist. Remember that joke?..."How many radical feminists (substitute Lesbians) does it take to screw in a light bulb?" Answer: "That's not funny!".

He's absolutely right. These gay and transgendered activists are acting for the world like grim Puritan dowagers!

Screw 'em. What today's gay Culture War bigots are doing amounts to joining forces with James Dobson, Matt Barber and Peter La Barbera -- all of whom I'm sure would priggishly condemn "Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives."

And in what's a remarkable omission by the NYT , no mention is made of the fact that the the director is gay, and the film was made to advance the goal of gay/trans self defense!

Gay Dallas filmmaker Israel Luna is sick of reading about LGBT bashing victims. So he made a film about several of them who eschew the victim card -- and fight back. Because he's worked closely with the local trans community, he cast actual transwomen as his leads. And because he's a fan of horror, he gave them knives and a revenge story that's as over-the-top as its name, Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives. Let's get bloody.

Well, considering GLAAD's documented hostility to guns, they're probably philosophically opposed to gay self defense too. After all, if gays and transgendered people ceased to be the victims that their would-be rulers want them to be, who would look to the whining cretins at GLAAD for "protection"?

Little wonder they want to censor a film that humorously seeks to empower gays and the transgendered.

Bigots!

MORE: My thanks to Sean Kinsell for linking this post in his excellent post about Ann Coulter and Canadian censorship. After quoting a Canadian lesbian who thinks censoring Coulter is just fine, Sean adds this:

Having reached a Certain Age, I shouldn't be surprised when gay activists blithely support censorship in the name of "tolerance" or "diversity," but it still dumbfounds me.

First they came for Ann Coulter.

Now it's.... gay film directors!

Oh, the irony!