by the light of the moon...

The cockles of my heart are distinctly warmer after reading all the coverage of the gay families who showed up at the White House for the Easter Egg Roll, and were not burned at the stake. It's so odd to me that the President thinks he needs to speak about limiting our civil rights in the State of The Union Address for *** sake, but when we actually show up at his front door, he has better things to do.

Anyway, when queer families show up in public and nobody dies, it is a good thing and I hope that soon this sort of event is normal and not newsworthy anymore!

___

This is also definitely a BOTH/AND moment. BOTH I am glad this happened, AND I am frustrated with the media coverage.

Why? Because the photos available on the web of this event portrayed overwhelmingly white-appearing gay families - and 100% white-appearing gay parents.

I say "white-appearing" because I obviously can't assume people's racial background or identity from outside appearances, but/and at the same time, when the media only publish photos of white-appearing people, they reinforce the stereotype that all members (or, just as troublesome, all newsworthy or photogenic members) of that community look white.

I searched on google (easter white house gay & easter egg hunt white house gay, because I am not very efficient. I didn't try "roll" as I didn't know at the time it was part of the title of the event) and opened every article I could find after the event. Here is the rundown:

The Advocate showed two all-white-appearing families
CNN shows one of the same all-white-appearing families as the Advocate
The Age showed two white-appearing dads with a child who appears to be of color
The SF Chronicle showed two children, one of whom could be of color (and not even any of their parents!)
The LA Times showed an all-white-appearing family.

Sigh. So many intersecting oppressions. Our community is not all white by a long shot, and I bet neither were the families at this event.