If you don't mind being a bit shocked, take a look at these pictures from the Folsom Street Fair. (Warning: they are graphic.) This is an annual event in San Francisco, held again on Sunday, September 30, in which some of the city's outstanding citizens turned out to display their style and have a little fun. I wonder what the Islamic radicals would make of these picturesque displays. What a great recruiting tool this would be for them! Here is what they term the decadence of the West on full display.
I don't think this is typical of America, and even many Americans would find such scenes revolting. I am quite sure that even the liberal Democratic presidential candidates wouldn't be seen in a place like this. But I also recognize that when you have freedom there is going to be some excess. Even so, freedom does not excuse anyone from moral and social accountability. To criticize the abuses of freedom is not "censorship"; rather, is to exercise one's own freedom to dissent.
So take a look at this advertisement for the Folsom Street Fair. It shows gay activists in a mock reenactment of Jesus Christ and the 12 apostles at the Last Supper. To me this ad reflects anti-Christian bigotry pure and simple. Yet when the Catholic League protested the ad, Miller Brewing Company took its name off the poster but refused to withdraw its sponsorship of the fair. This, I suppose, reflects the growing financial clout of the gay community.
But imagine if a city fair mocked the sensitivities of blacks or Jews or, yes, gays in this way. There would be a national outcry! There would be front page articles. You would have heard about it on the evening news. Miller Brewing Company would run in the opposite direction and issue a strong condemnation. Is this the first you're hearing about the Folsom Street Fair's bigotry against Christians? That's because the slogans of "tolerance" and "sensitivity" don't seem to apply to religious believers.
Outraged? Go ahead and comment, and I'll forward all the reaction to the public relations office at Miller Brewing Company.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 12)
1. Dinesh, I hope that the Islamic Radicals are brought to their knees. However, you are correct. I don' think any Muslim would want this wonderful western aspect brought into their lands.
Matt
Tsar Nicholas II at 11:49PM on Sep 30th 2007
2. True Christians will thank God that they have been chosen for persecution. They will also extend the hand of Christian Love to ALL who persecute them, including right wingnut, bigoted columnists who slander the Name of Jesus by linking Him with support of killing, war, greed, gluttony, and other Republican policies.
Father John at 11:56PM on Oct 2nd 2007
3. you poor, poor 3rd world import. it's not enough that you are utterly obsessed with gay men, and now, for all of the world to see, with images of nearly naked gay men- hmmmmmmmm, interesting. your years of spewing vicious violence and hatred towards gay men, in the name of god of course, now extends to being offended by gay fair photographs. such a victim you are. puhlease. neither you nor the catholic league own god or jesus, and anyone is free to envision their view of jesus, god, the last supper or ANY religious expression free from your fascist policing. get out of my country, you freak.
fcinaz at 11:52PM on Sep 30th 2007
4. Dinesh,
This seems like typical gay expression to me. It's what they like to do. Do I personally like it?...it's filed away in my mind.
Would Islamic extremists want to use this against the West? What good would that do, and if theories of jihad are based on intellectual stimulating theories, how would merely smearing the West serve them?
faerch at 12:21AM on Oct 1st 2007
5. I think I just threw up a little in my mouth and it tasted like Miller Beer. I will never see the name Miller beer without those disgusting repulsive images. Miller=Repulsion.Is that the bang they wanted for their ad budget ?
Pun intended. I am ashamed to be from a long line of beer drinkers.
Even condom manufacters aren't that stupid.
THill at 12:47AM on Oct 1st 2007
6. DD when a republican standard barer like Guillani goes out in drag in public, that's all the Jihadist's will need to recruit more suicide bombers..
As for right wing christian tolerance and compassion, I saw it after Katrina, when our evanglical president abandoned tens of thousands. Your best examples are Foley, Haggard, Swaggert and Craig - hypocrits and perverts all.
DaleF at 1:01AM on Oct 1st 2007
7. What does this have to do with Xtians? I see the Leather Nation flag and the text "Folsom Festival". If you hadn't brought up the Last Supper I would not have connected the two images. Seems pretty innocuous to me.
Cookie at 2:35AM on Oct 1st 2007
8. You're right, Dinesh! We must do something properly holy and stone them all to death! That would make Jesus proud.
Please... Humanity is rife with the strange and bizarre. You're correct that this fair doesn't reflect much about Americanism, but then again I don't see anywhere claims that it does. These are individuals engaged in a festival, and while you yourself might find it odd or disgusting, why shouldn't they be allowed one place for one weekend to have it? As to the anti-jewish or anti-black straw man you set up, there are neo-nazi enclaves throughout the north west that can, do, and have held public marches, rallies, and demonstrations with no grand liberal outcry. As disgusting as it might be at times, liberals understand that protection of speech isn't to protect speech you like. It's to protect speech you don't.
In addition Dinesh, I have to question the virtue of a religion so incapable of withstanding criticism or satire that it can't pass off thirteen men parodying a religious setting. What's next, calling crusades on cartoonists who depict christ in a non-flattering manner... like some other extremist monotheistic religions?
Now, personally as a lesbian, I don't care for gay pride parades. The TV cameras go right over the hundreds of normally dressed homosexual pairs for the people who use the occasion to break out their favorite bondagewear and take it for a stroll. I suppose for some it's a form of revenge for enless frustrations inflicted upon us by the norms. But I don't see it as some great indictment of homosexuality, or a grand insult to the largesse of America. In poor taste, perhaps, but then so's the ten commandments in a courthouse.
What gets me, Dinesh, is that once again you care about what terrorists think about America, and that you are, once again, agreeing with them. America is a land where, in theory, you can do or be whatever you want to do or be as long as it doesn't harm others. Of late, it seems far too many people, yourself included, want to change 'harm' to 'offend.' I can see how those images would be very offensive and disturbing to cultures seeing them out of context... so instead of saying 'Oh look how terrible America is for allowing these deviants to do this!' try explaining the context. 'America is a nation that allows individuals the freedom to express themselves publicly.' And show them scenes from a black pride rally, or an immigration rally, or a neo-nazi march, or whatever else you want to show that these images are not an indictment of America but are instead a testiment to the virtues of America... albeit in a very unorthodox presentation.
I agree that America needs to present itself to the world in a more positive light, but that doesn't mean we should toady to the expectations of the most ruthless and extreme variants in the hopes that they might restrain from violence. If this festival didn't happen, I'm sure that fundamentalists could have pulled german porn off the internet and waved it at their followers saying 'this is what America wants to do to you.' By trying to curtail our freedoms at home, Dinesh, you only dimish our nation's greatest of virtues: freedom and tolerance.
Somber at 1:52AM on Oct 1st 2007
9. I think whatever gays and lesbians do it is their own business. We are not anybody to judge them. I think its simply very easy to go judge someone else's sexual preference. I just don't think we should even be having a dialogue about Christians and their believes or gays and what they do. Just leave them alone. I think we are in enough trouble as is. I think even in India, there are gays so this shouldnt be anything new.
Sobia at 4:19PM on Oct 1st 2007
10. OK, let me see if I've got this straight....
When news media run cartoons that the jihadis find offensive, we western freedom lovers are supposed to show solidarity with them by publicly proclaiming support for their right to do so.
Would it not stand to reason then, that we self same western freedom lovers should support displays like this to further stick a finger in the eyes of those who would kill us all if they could?
Or are you merely trying to exploit American fears of reactionary Muslims to justify American bigotry towards gays?
Ventrue at 2:44AM on Oct 1st 2007
11. Yo Dinets,
Thanks for the links, man! For all the pap you spew in your colum/blog/whatever, you finally did an entertaining piece.
Very hot pix - and on a Catholic site, no less. Interesting how many zoom shots of crotches and cracks were needed to make a case against evil ol' Miller.
Got me all intrigued so I headed over to the fair for a look-see. I looked and did I ever see! Whoa, those gays sure know how to put on a party.
Everybody including police were having a great time. Forget Mardi Gras, Carnaval and even all the freaky religious spectacles in India. This is the one to top them all (pun unintended but fits).
Hope to see you there next year. Believe me, nothing beats being there. (Oops, punned again.)
Danaman at 2:37AM on Oct 1st 2007
12. So what? Yeah, there is some shocking stuff that goes on in Gay Pride parades, but that does not mean it speaks for all gay people or certainly for all liberals, although Dinesh IMPLIES it does.
I guess then that radical right wing groups like "Lamb of God" which advocates stalking and harrassing and yes, even killing doctors who perform abortions speaks for all conservatives,,right??
David S. at 2:53AM on Oct 1st 2007
13. Dinesh D'Souza, you are such a hateful BIGOT! People like you live on stereotyping people, and that's just what you are doing. You're just pointing out the more outrageous segment of one community in society in order to stereotype that entire community.
Read your history books! That's just what the Nazi's did yo the Jews!
It would be like showing picturs from Mardi Gras and only showing the straight men dressed in drag and the straight women who are flashing their breasts, and then saying this proves all straight men dress in drag and all straight women flash their boobs. Do you do that? Why not? Why not stereotype straight people like you do gay people?
I know why, and you know why: Because you are a BIGOT!
If you weren't trying to perpetuate a stereotype, you'd point out the fact that the vast majority of men who dress in women's clothes are married with children heterosexual men!
But why be honest, huh? Like your Nazi heroes, it's much easier to tell a lie about a group of people than tell the truth.
And why complain about terrorists when you do the same thing they do. They use fear. That's what you use: FEAR! You use fear to justify hate, and then you have the nerve to feign outrage over mocking Christianity? Look good and hard in the mirror and you'll see who is really mocking Christianity!
Marti Linder at 3:07AM on Oct 1st 2007
14. It's a STREET FAIR, you moron. It's people getting dressed up and having fun. It my not be your style, or mine, but so what? Lighten up.
On the other hand, if you want REVOLTING, let's see you bring a story with GRAPHIC images (Warning!) of the war in Iraq that your hero, George W. Bush, started (and continues to prosecute) for no good reason and to no good purpose: the war that has killed thousands of Americans and fucked up the lives of countless others -- not to mention bankrupting us and ruining our reputiation; -- the war that has killed or maimed or ruined the lives of many thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens, and created MILLIONS of refugees. But then of course, those non-Americans don't count for shit, right, Mr. D'America?
xontoast at 3:42AM on Oct 1st 2007
15. Mr. D'Souza is not preaching morality or accountability, as he'd have you believe. No, rather he is preaching fear, from the corner Christianity has found itself in. His true message isn't found between the lines, however; it is made clear in one sentence: "This, I suppose, reflects the growing financial clout of the gay community."
Yes, Mr. D'Souza. Yes, it does.
You ponder the reactionary difference in treatment of gays, blacks or Jews. I'm amazed you have the guts to use three groups, which Christianity has abhored and spit upon currently and/or in the past, in defense of fair treatment for Christians. But why should hypocrisy suprise me when religion in general is such an old hand at it? Even if Christianity hadn't become symbiotically attached to America like a parasite, I'd still bask in the poetic justice of it all. And I can't say it didn't have it coming... Every religion has it's end, after all.
no more, john... no more at 4:01AM on Oct 1st 2007