Two nights ago a friend of mine told me she’s ready to move back to her home state of California.  She doesn’t mind Virginia, she said, she just can’t deal with the narrow-minded people any more.  I tried to discourage her from moving by telling her those people were the minority-- and I do believe it.  Virginia may not be as liberal as California, but it’s not so bad.  Right?  After this afternoon, I’m ready to pack my suitcase and move to California with her.

I have spent the past four hours sitting next to two middle-aged men.  God-loving Christian men (or so they seemed to claim-- over and over and over again).  For nearly four hours they have condemned gays (they bring disease and destruction to our world), music (if it doesn’t praise god, it is distracting and will lead you astray), animal rights (animal rights activists don’t care about the slaughtering of babies in the womb), abortion (if she doesn’t want a baby, she shouldn’t have sex), Amsterdam (the modern-day Sodom, apparently) MySpace (it distracts teenagers from god and encourages them to have sex), video games (destroying not only the minds of children, but adults, too), sex education (it is pornography disguised as education) and-- gasp!-- radical liberal women (the downfall of modern society can be attributed to women having jobs and abortions).

The longer I listened (and I really wasn’t eavesdropping-- they would simply get louder when they were trying to make a point), the angrier I got.  They pulled out every bigoted, racist, sexist, misogynistic cliche under the sun.  Pure vitriol dripping in “aren’t we good Christians” honey.  Ick.  I’m not a timid person or one to keep my opinions to myself and had they in any way, shape or form tried to include me in their little hate-fest, I would have told them what I thought-- loudly.  However, it was a private conversation and though I’m opinionated, I am not rude.  Would that they weren’t, either.  So, rather than going toe-to-toe with the crazies, I sat in my corner of Starbucks and fought back.

First, I pulled out my copy of the Lambda Directory.  I thumbed through it slowly, taking note of the church that announces “Christ Loves Us All” in their add and has the rainbow flag on their website. 

I took a look at the gay and lesbian club listings and added The Hershee Bar as a friend on my MySpace page.  Might have to check it out one Saturday night. 

I IM’d Jay with some choice snippets of their conversation and told him we must breed immediately.  It was on the to-do list anyway, but it’s become an even bigger priority.  Must not let them outnumber us.

I went to Etsy and ordered the most adorable necklace from Gee Lizzie.  It’s a retro image of a man and woman with the words “There’d been lust.” You know, just to support those radical liberal women who support themselves by creating art that encourages women to be radical liberals.

I popped over to Planned Parenthood and made a donation.  Just ‘cause I’m a radical liberal woman with my own bank account.

Now I’m going to finish my latest juicy, naughty, woman-empowered erotic story.  It’s my very personal way of fighting back against ignorant, hateful men who want to invade my office-away-from-home with their negative energy.  And later tonight, I’m going to laugh my ass off at The Norva as Margaret Cho mocks morons like the ones I’ve had the displeasure of sharing space with today.

Take that, you bastards.

OM.

Posted by Kristina in Activism at 06:43 PM Permalink 10 comments