The City of Dallas has just launched an anti-saggy pants campaign, which targets the “hip-hop style of wearing your pants low enough that your boxers are showin.” From NPR:
The campaign has a signature song, “Pull Your Pants Up,” by Dooney Da’ Priest, that links so-called saggin’ with being gay…
Andrew Jones commented on a line about living “on the down low” — common slang for a man who has secret sexual encounters with other men.”It’s cute when homophobia is part of a citywide campaign,” Jones wrote. “Shaming the youth by calling them gay, love that from the government.”
An accompanying billboard says it’s rude to be “walking around showin’ your behind to other dudes.” The song’s refrain is “Be a real man — pull your pants up.”
Yes, cute is exactly the term I’d use to describe a tax-payer funded media campaign that stigmatizes homosexuality. What’s with politicians being so cute lately?
I am relatively young, but I think I’ve cultivated a sense of cynicism when it comes to politicians and gay rights. When we’re not being openly marginalized by Republicans and the religious right, the democrats take our support for granted and wish we would just go away and stop causing political difficulties for them. Then there’s this Dallas campaign. This is just one example of the subtle, but pervasive, marginalization that gays face at the hands of their governments and fellow citizens across the country.
