Gay Rights and Gun Rights Linked in Seattle Posters

Gay Rights and Gun Rights Linked in Seattle Posters, Causing Control Freaks

reason.com

Across Seattle, reports alt-weekly The Stranger, posters are appearing linking gay rights and gun rights in ways that are just freaking out the usual control-freaky suspects.

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This is great, actually. I believe in gay rights and gun rights myself, I always have. I think that forcing people to have either a "liberal" OR "conservative" viewpoint is really offensive to me, because it assumes that people aren't able to think for themselves.

"Perhaps being courted by a traditionally right-wing, conservative movement is refreshing and progressive, but it could also just be really effective concern trolling. What better way to make people feel unsafe in gay-friendly Capitol Hill than by slyly referencing homophobia and hate crimes in pro-gun propaganda plastered on every street corner?" asks Ciena Madrid of The Stranger.

Considering the circumstances, I agree that this may have actually been trolling, but I still think that the posters bring up a good point.

reason.com

reply to post by darkbake




It really is a great poster. Even for a troll.




This poster might be pushing it into obvious troll territory.

Why do the people in the ads look 13 years old? Weird. The girl holding the gun is very obviously a child.

reply to post by WaterBottle


Why would age matter? She can own that rifle at any technical age. She just has to be 18 to buy it. I think it makes for a decent picture with a very timely statement, personally. Of course, if you want to see kids in gun marketing, nothing quite beats one I found for another thread out of the 1920's.



It's a fairly new thing that guns in the same picture as a kid seems to bring horror and shock. Hell...Firearms safety classes weren't that far out of having been standard fare for High School when I was in grade school. One of my Junior High show and tells was with a .22 rifle in the class room. People have gotten radically sensitive to a general fact of life, IMO. At least, across much of the United States it is.

Actually this isn't new or trolling.

Pink Pistols

Pink Pistols is nationwide and in other countries.

Gays with Guns

Has a twitter account

Gays with Guns: A Growing Subculture?

Free Republic has a story on this subject.

Gays and guns seem as likely to go together as Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey. As a culture, even under attack, we are a peaceful lot -- you catch more bees with honey, right?

"Wrong," says Gwendolyn Patton of Pink Pistols, a group that advocates gun ownership for the LGBT community. With taglines like "pick on someone your own caliber," and "armed gays don’t get bashed," Patton says Pink Pistols changes the perception that gay people are easy victims.

"We teach queers to shoot, and then we teach the rest of the world we’ve done it," Patton told WBEZ91.5, a public radio station in Chicago. "Because then they may think twice about using (LGBT people) as a target."

With the latest attack on a homosexual resulting in death. Charges Filed in Killing of Gay Man in Greenwich Village It only makes sense for a at risk group of people to protect themselves.

Its a pretty powerful message actually.

Even though I am middle of the road on most of these issues I am as guilty as anyone of stereotyping people into groups occasionally.

Liberals act this way, conservatives act this way, and homosexuals always believe this or that. These posters take that thought process and slam it to the ground.

Its hard to not step back and think, "maybe everything isn't so cut and dry as we are led to believe."

I think these ads are absolutely spot on and my hats off to whomever came up with this promotion.

Very powerful message.

reply to post by darkbake

This is great, actually. I believe in gay rights and gun rights myself, I always have. I think that forcing people to have either a "liberal" OR "conservative" viewpoint is really offensive to me, because it assumes that people aren't able to think for themselves.

This is the single most frustrating thing about our two-party system! I believe in a right to own any personal firearm, and to love and marry any adult without legal interference. Because of this, and a multitude of other reasons, there is no major party that represents my views.

If one were to play a word association game, where the player had to associate each word with Republican or Democrat, there would be no ambiguity for most people with most words.

gun rights == Republican
gay rights == Democrat

It is nonsense. The two party system forces people who support gun rights to oppose civil rights for gays. It sets seemingly unrelated facets of society against each other. The fact is that gun rights and gay rights are both civil rights, and we should have more representatives who support both. If a gay person is voting they must choose which right is more important to them, and effectively vote against the other. It is no wonder that they tend to vote Democrat because many gun owners, straight or otherwise, would likely give up their guns to be with their spouse if it came down to that choice.

The choice of using people of obviously dissimilar ages to represent the couples seems odd, and I wonder if it was intentional, but other than that the posters are an excellent way to highlight this problem of political catch 22.

If Matthew Shepard had been armed he may have been able to defend himself against his attackers. The same goes for thousands of other bashing victims. If I had a child or other family member who is gay I would strongly encourage them to be armed, especially while with their partner or while in an area that is known to be intolerant.

reply to post by Slugworth


Unfortunately, there are not enough issues like this to qualify a third party. 95% of issues fall under either democrat or republican which is why our system will always be dominated by the two.

Its possible that something may happen that allows a third party to run on a single issue but the odds of that are pretty low.

Take any issue you can think of and see if the major points of view are covered by either democrats or republicans and you will see that they more than likely are.

reply to post by Slugworth

This is the single most frustrating thing about our two-party system! I believe in a right to own any personal firearm, and to love and marry any adult without legal interference. Because of this, and a multitude of other reasons, there is no major party that represents my views.

I think you'll find the Libertarian Party to your liking. Specifically These two points:

1.3 Personal Relationships

Sexual orientation, preference, gender, or gender identity should have no impact on the government's treatment of individuals, such as in current marriage, child custody, adoption, immigration or military service laws. Government does not have the authority to define, license or restrict personal relationships. Consenting adults should be free to choose their own sexual practices and personal relationships.



1.6 Self-Defense

The only legitimate use of force is in defense of individual rights — life, liberty, and justly acquired property — against aggression. This right inheres in the individual, who may agree to be aided by any other individual or group. We affirm the individual right recognized by the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms, and oppose the prosecution of individuals for exercising their rights of self-defense. We oppose all laws at any level of government requiring registration of, or restricting, the ownership, manufacture, or transfer or sale of firearms or ammunition.

reply to post by Carreau


I do identify with Libertarian, but I don't see any Libertarians running in my local government, and very few at state or national levels. When they do run they are purposely marginalized, by the media and by the two major parties, and not given consideration by 99% of the voting public. People are taught that the choice is Democrat vs Republican, and consider a vote for a third party a "throw-away" vote. I still vote for them though. I write them in if I have to. Friends of mine were mad at me after the last presidential election for not supporting Romney because, in their logic, it was like voting for Obama. I refused to vote for either, because neither represented my views.

What the..?!? Just never ask one of them if they're packing...

Maybe with the easing up of gay rights in the military, they are sending a message to beef up the boys. In fact, it might be for the exact opposite reason. We're gong to need all the help we can get during our eventual uprising.

Don't talk with your hands, talk with your guns!!!

This is their first subliminal advertisement. Should they be called "trigger happy" or "trigger fabulous" now?

And for all of those who know what a "Stranger" is...

Originally posted by Carreau
reply to post by Slugworth

 

This is the single most frustrating thing about our two-party system! I believe in a right to own any personal firearm, and to love and marry any adult without legal interference. Because of this, and a multitude of other reasons, there is no major party that represents my views.

I think you'll find the Libertarian Party to your liking. Specifically These two points:

It'll never work. I mean, just read this;

We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.

Individuals with rights, free to do so as long as they don't interfere with another persons equal rights?

It'll never work. Never in a million years. There's a term for silliness such as this.

It's called "Common sense"

and the governments of any country fight that, to the death.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
It's a fairly new thing that guns in the same picture as a kid seems to bring horror and shock. Hell...Firearms safety classes weren't that far out of having been standard fare for High School when I was in grade school. One of my Junior High show and tells was with a .22 rifle in the class room. People have gotten radically sensitive to a general fact of life, IMO. At least, across much of the United States it is.

edit on 26-5-2013 by Wrabbit2000 because: (no reason given)

I'm in my 50's and I remember it well. We had gun safety taught in shop class in junior high, and through the FFA, and we had a gun club.

When we did a production of "South Pacific" we seniors in theater class were tasked with keeping the weapon "props" - real weapons from home - safe and secure before, during and after rehearsals and performances.

It was nothing to see one of us tromping in from the parking lot with a rifle slung over our shoulders during school. And no hysteria

reply to post by Slugworth


I wish I could give you more stars. It's funny because I am accused of being a democrat by republicans and a republican by democrats.

It does get old after a while, though. Like, these people really CANNOT think outside of their two-party system.

Those two women are supposed to be lesbians?

I've known a lot of lesbian couples and they never looked like that. The ones I met, or even saw together on the street, were always plain Jane types that are heavy set to medium build and around the same age. A few had the manly girl look and you'd think they could be lesbian, but most we're no different than any woman.

If anything, those two women look more like models, and obviously are models of course, but are not representative of your average lesbian couple in my opinion.

So what we've got are models with guns portraying a lesbian couple? Why not show some average looking women at a shooting range together, a more likely scenario for gun owning lesbian couples.



ETA: After looking over that picture I'd say they are portraying two young, liberal, college aged hipsters who go to all the hip coffee shops downtown. Strange how they introduce the guns almost like a fashion statement. All this makes me wonder what the real message is.


Another ETA: That other poster is just a cartoon stereotype. Propaganda for sure.

Some of you guys need to get out more.

Most of my gay friends back in Nevada own guns.
My wife's best friend, god rest her soul, was one of the best shooters I've ever seen. Everything from target shooting with pistols and rifles to clay shooting.

Gun ownership isn't a strictly conservative or libertarian thing. People need to stop thinking like that.

reply to post by MichiganSwampBuck


I got an awfully cute lesbian friend back in Reno that you wouldn't be able distinguish from a college cheerleader.

I'm Hispanic. First language is Spanish too. But because I have white skin people always say "you don't look Hispanic". To which I reply, "What exactly does a Hispanic look like?"

reply to post by projectvxn

Gun ownership isn't a strictly conservative or libertarian thing. People need to stop thinking like that

It certainly is not, and neither is sexuality. A person can be politically conservative and love another of the same gender. However, when it comes time for that person to vote they are presented with a choice between a party that does not recognize their right to marriage but supports their right to be armed, or a party that does recognize their right to marriage but opposes their right to be armed. The lack of other options forces them to choose which is more important. It is a perfect example of the personal dissonance that the two major parties feed on. The public is trained to be willing to sacrifice one right in exchange for another, and to believe that there are no other options. The two major parties, and by extension the media that supports them, want to keep it this way.

reply to post by Slugworth


There is a perceived lack of options.

I think the future of political affiliations is going to go down a very libertarian road.