Right now, I am pissed at the words “too gay.” I am pissed that they can be uttered from the LGBTQ community. I am pissed at a trend I keep on seeing. I am pissed that no one else seems to see it. We want equal rights and equality, but that does not mean we have to conform in order to get them.

We chant words like “We’re here, we’re queer, and we aren’t going anywhere,” but do we have the courage to chant such cries for equality and complete acceptance/tolerance when we are not at rallies with like minded individuals? Will we represent all the members of our communities, and not just the some that will blend comfortably with the heterosexual community? Will we attempt to put a uniform mask on the face of the queer community, or will we embrace FULL EQUALITY IN DIVERSITY… no matter how diverse the members of a community may be?

Will our drag queens, butches, dykes, bears, ect. have to hide in a closet for our rights to be gained? OR will we stand up as a unified community of “homosexual, heterosexual, evangelical”, queer, outrageous and bland to raise, in one voice, a cry for our rights? Will we limit who can cry “what we want is equality” when our community is brought out into the light of day? I say nay! What we want is EQUALITY, for all and not just for some. It’s time to start living by “We’re here, we’re queer, and we are not going anywhere.”

I am proud of ALL the members of my LGBTQ community, as well as, all those who do not fit in with the norm, and I will never ask them to hide or censer themselves because they are thought to be “too gay.” They have a right to be as gay as they please, as long as they are not hurting anyone else. I fight for the stereotypes’ rights more than anyone else’s because they are the ones who fight the hardest battles. I fight for equality for ALL. How bout you?

This is my rant. I am done.

Miley Cyrus, Vanity Fair, April 2008. Photograph by Annie Leibovitz.

Remember the huge uproar in April 2008, when 15-year-old Miley Cyrus appeared in “Vanity Fair” wrapped in a sheet, with her right shoulder and the top of her back visible, implying that, under the sheet, she wasn’t wearing a shirt? That week, the cover of the New York Post read “Miley’s Shame,” the Christian Coalition called for the Hannah Montana star’s employer, Disney, to reprimand the teenager, and finally Miley was forced to apologize in a statement to People Magazine, saying: “I never intended for any of this to happen, and I am truly sorry if I have disappointed anyone.” The pandemonium was so huge that critics ranging from the ladies of “The View”, to Bill O’Reilly, to Miley’s fellow Disney star Joe Jonas all expressed their disapproval over what they saw as the sexualization of a child to sell magazines.

Now, with the premiere of his movie, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” less than a month away, magazines, websites, and TV are blanketed with images of 17-year-old star Taylor Lautner, shirtless and showing off the body he trained for months to perfect for the role. And yet, none of the cultural critics who turned Miley’s photos into a full-blown “scandal” have said a word about the sexualization of Taylor, who, at 17, is just two years older than Miley was during her “scandal” and is also a minor.

I read this article last night during my evening news wind-down (read the full article here), and I thought that it provoked some interesting questions.  I’m not really here to pick the issue apart and make a sweeping, immovable statement; I’m more interested in what you think.

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