Homophobes now showing they don’t like gay people with ‘US flag’ Facebook pictures

From Pink News:

Homophobes on Facebook are protesting against a trend of ‘rainbow’ Facebook pictures – by superimposing the American flag over their face.

A bit more here.

So the stars and stripes means homophobia now. Strange times, strange times. But not really. This brings back a lot of bad memories from the months between 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq.

Immediately after the terrorist attacks that toppled the World Trade Center and destroyed part of the Pentagon, there was, I'm sure you'll recall, what seemed a rather spontaneous eruption of national solidarity, manifest by what seemed an infinite display of the American flag. Everywhere. And it made a great deal of sense. In the wake of a national tragedy, Americans wanted to show that they love their country, no matter what, and that we're all in this together. At first, I thought it was cool; it reminded me of all the star spangled mania surrounding the bicentennial when I was a kid.

But it didn't take long for things to take a turn for the sinister. Very quickly, it seemed to me, Old Glory became synonymous with war, with revenge, and with hatred directed at Muslims. Not freedom. Not Democracy. Not industriousness. Not diversity. It made me sad. I mean, honestly, deeply sad. "This isn't who we are, who we're supposed to be," I thought, "What's happened to my flag?" How could we have become so jingoistic and bent on destruction so quickly?

Later, as our fortunes floundered in Iraq, the flag fest stalled out. All for the best, I suppose, but it left a really bad taste in my mouth. What do you do when a symbol you love is appropriated successfully by evil assholes? I never figured out the answer to that.

Fortunately, this right-wing response to the gay marriage decision is, in all probability, not going to catch on. After all, the majority of Americans support the decision. So this flag-as-gay-hate phenomenon is doomed to be not much more than a last gasp maneuver from a shrinking segment of the population choking on their own bile.

Still, though, it pisses me off. Don't fuck with my America.

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