I'm writing again!

If you've been following me on Twitter and/or Facebook, you know that I'm writing a new play.

The working title was initially La Isla de la Hechicera, but now I'm calling it Encanta.

After the places that Tulpa, or Anne&Me took me, Encanta is a light-hearted, romantic change of pace that I completely welcome. I'm describing it as Kirikou and the Sorceress meets Moonstruck on the island from The Tempest.

I'm a good three-quarters of the way through with the "first" draft (which, in all actuality, is more like a second draft considering that I purged some 75 pages of material and started over not too long ago).

I'm particularly excited about this piece because it's a play that's all about the magic of love, lust, and romance that is nothing but LGBTQ people of color (Black/Latin@, to be precise). I'm really happy about this story breaking the mold for "acceptable" narratives for LGBTQ people and people of color. It's all about people who are being funny and silly and crazy and in love and using magic who just happen to be LGBTQ people of color.

Too often, we only get to suffer because it's "inspiring," and we only be funny when who we are is the butt of the joke.

Fuck that shit.

This is my bit of escapist fantasy, and I'm loving every minute of it.

Things I'm not debating or arguing about anymore

I’m not going to discuss these things anymore:

• Whether or not racism exists
• Whether or not people of color can be racist against White people
• Whether people of color being prejudiced against White people is on par with White people’s prejudice against people of color
• Whether or not sexism exists
• Whether women can be sexist against men
• Whether misandry is on par with misogyny
• Whether or not homophobia exists
• Whether or not LGBTQ people calling straight folks “breeders” is as bad as what straight people say and do to LGBTQ people
• Whether trans women are women, trans men are men, or the existence of other genders
• Whether or not transphobia exists
• Whether or not “die cis scum” is as bad as what cis people say and do to trans people
• Whether or not ableism exists
• Whether or not classism exist
• Anybody’s intent not to be racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, etc.
• Any information regurgitated from a dictionary or thesaurus
• Anything involving flies, honey, or vinegar when discussing the ways people express their experiences with systemic oppression
• Any variation of an opinion that states or implies that people on the receiving end of *-isms are crazy (disconnected from reality), stupid (incapable of analyzing their own experiences), or evil (motivated primarily by hate, anger, greed, etc.)

At this point, everything about these things that needs to be said has been said, and all arguments to the contrary are neither insightful, meaningful, correct, nor interesting.


So I’m not doing it anymore.

As for things I would talk about, here are a few:

• How fucked up dynamics play out in individual lives
• The ways that words, attitudes, beliefs, and actions act against play into fucked up dynamics despite our best intentions
• How fucked up dynamics play into what we determine to be beautiful, true, and good
• Ways we can challenge and subvert fucked up dynamics in our everyday lives
• Resources for detoxing our minds and spirits from the poison we ingest without knowing it

That sort of shit right there? I can talk about that all day long. That's what I want to talk about all day long. I can get somewhere with those conversations. I can feed my soul with real talk about this sort of stuff.

And you know what's funny? None of these discussions requires anybody to have done any specialized study on these things. Just an awareness that there are things about many lives that we don't see because we don't have to and a willingness to learn more about what we don't understand. In cases where I have a privilege that others don't, I've been amazed at how patient and gracious people are with me when I simply listen and accept their truth as their truth instead of dismissing or denying it just because it doesn't mesh with what I think should be true about their lives.

Really, it's that fucking simple.

Dear Straight Ally

(When you check your mail, you find a sparkly rainbow envelope with balloons attached. It's from Gay Agenda and addressed to Straight Ally. What could it be? Is it an invitation to be a guest speaker at an HRC Gala? An offer to be on a panel for Straight Allies? A million dollars? As you open the neatly folded letter, you find a letter that reads as follows . . . )

Dear Straight Ally*,

After careful review, the Gay Agenda has decided the following traits no longer qualify an individual for Straight Ally status:

• Having an LGBTQ friend/co-worker/relative
• Not beating up an LGBTQ person
• Refusing to use slurs referring to LGBTQ people
• Supporting gay marriage or ENDA
• Taking a course in queer studies
• Using the appropriate gender pronoun for a trans* person
• Any honors or endorsements received from Gay, Inc.

After much consideration, the Gay Agenda has determined that the above characteristics (except the classwork and endorsement by Gay, Inc.) meet the bare minimum criteria for Decent Human Being. Although we appreciate all the Decent Human Beings in our lives, for organizing purposes, we realize that simply being decent is not enough considering all the things affecting our community, particularly those of us who are not affluent, photogenic, cisgender White guys.

Fortunately, this doesn't mean your Straight Ally status is in jeopardy! There are a few other determining factors, including, but not limited to:

• Demonstrating your commitment to unlearning your own internalized heterosexism/homophobia and cissexism/transphobia
• Using your voice and your resources to uplift LGBTQ voices rather than talking over us
• How mindful you are about the ways you participate in and benefit from LGBTQ oppression
• Going beyond personal attitudes to challenge the institutions and structures that exploit, abuse, oppress, and erase LGBTQ people
• Responding to critique by LGBTQ people not with defensiveness but with an effort to better understand
• Remembering LGBTQ organizing beyond HRC and GLAAD

We appreciate your understanding.

If you are still uncertain about your status as a Straight Ally, please contact us for more information. In the meantime, you can't hurt your chances by striving to do better.


Sincerely,

The Gay Agenda

Lessons learned

Only a few hours ago, I just completed another Undoing Racism workshop by The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond that was geared toward religious communities (I am proud to say that my synagogue showed out to represent the Jews!). I love the Undoing Racism workshop because every time I go I learn something new, and I gain a deeper understanding of the things I already knew.

What I appreciated about this latest workshop was how it clarified a few things that have been stewing in my head for a while. There are two things that I took from this workshop that is going to shape how I work from now on.

1. Racism is the biggest obstacle to organizing movements for justice and social change.

Pay close attention to what this is saying -- and, more importantly, what it isn't. This does not mean that racism is the worst kind of oppression, nor is it saying that racism is the only oppression that matters. It means that racism shoots us in the foot every time we try to move toward change.

You can't say, "Feminism is about achieving justice and equity for all women" and work toward that in a way that primarily (and often exclusively) benefits middle-class White women. You can't advocate for justice and equity for LGBTQ people while ignoring how LGBTQ people of color bear the brunt of anti-LGBTQ policies and violence. You can't save the earth and ignore the impact of imperialism and colonialism on the process of industrialization.  When it comes to class, you can actually make an argument that racism was deliberately set up in order to prevent European indentured servants, African slaves, and Native Americans from joining together and organizing to resist economic exploitation and domination by the ruling class.


2. Anti-racism is about transforming institutions and systems.

Racism is the Matrix; to get out of that programming, to see it for what it is, we have to take the red pill. Otherwise, everything you do is still operating within that system. If the work we do reinforces that system, it won't matter how many people of color are on the stage, on the board of directors, or even in the audience.

Anti-racism strikes at the core of an institution or system: how it structures itself and functions in the community as a reflection of its values, beliefs, and mission. This is where the code that keeps us in the Matrix comes from. This is where our energy and effort needs to go.

There's a lot more that happened in that workshop, but this is my starting point.

Happy birthday, Lana Parrilla!

Dear Mama Regal:

Baruch Ata Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha'olam, shech kakah lo ba'olamo.

(Literal translation: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has such as this in His universe.”)

I say this blessing every time I turn on my laptop and see the screencap of the Evil Queen I have saved there. Unfortunately, my knowledge of Hebrew is limited, so I cannot create a blessing that is more tailored to great artists or their work. I do this because, believe it or not, your work as the Evil Queen has been a blessing in many ways. I would now like to share a few of them with you.

Your performance as the Evil Queen in Once Upon A Time has connected me to a community of intelligent, engaged citizens of the world. It has been a real treat to have in-depth discussions about issues Regina brings up simply by being who she is. Through this character that you have so brilliantly brought to life, we are able to talk about race, gender, sexuality, class, mental illness, trauma, abuse, and other things that affect us here and now.

This would not have been possible were it not for you.

Another blessing that your portrayal of Regina has bestowed upon me is a growing awareness of my own capacity for compassion. It's amazing to me that I can look at this person who has done such horrible things and still see what is wonderful and beautiful about them. Through you, I feel in my gut the suffering at the root of all the evil that she does. If I had the power, I would not punish her; I would heal her. In a roundabout way, by simply doing what you do, you have made me a wiser and more compassionate human being.

For that, I thank you.

In appreciation for your life and your work (and the fact that you are a fellow English major), here is an annotated list of books about fairy tales that I believe you would really enjoy. If you get your hands on any of these, I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

1. Joan Gould, Spinning Straw into Gold: What Fairy Tales Reveal about the Transformations in a Woman's Life. Examines fairy tales as stories about the changes that women undergo at different phases of life. One of my favorites.
2. Emma Donoghue, Kissing the Witch. Haunting retellings of familiar stories that subtly reveals the interwoven and cyclical way that fairy tales are born and reborn over and over again.
3. Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber. A classic. Visceral new versions of old fairy tales. Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves was based on one of the stories.
4. Susanna Clarke, The Ladies of Grace Adeiu and Other Stories. Short story collection that has all the wonder and whimsy and terror of traditional fairy tales.

Wishing you a very happy birthday and may more to follow.

RVCBard (@RVCBard on Twitter)