Gay People

This in from Patrick O'Neill....
I was very moved by this...


Not sure if you heard about this. The writer of "Avenue Q" wrote this
letter to Jay Leno a couple of weeks ago after watching his show. Word got around fast and CNN interviewed him last week on the subject.
The interview only revealed that he and Jay had a half-hour phone
conversation post-email and that there wasn't much of a conclusion
other than "comedy is rough". Still, I think the letter warrants
reading. I'm very proud of him for standing up and saying something.

Subject: A letter to Jay Leno (complete letter)

April 20th, 2006


Dear Mr. Leno,


My name is Jeff Whitty. I live in New York City. I'm a playwright and
the author of Avenue Q, which is a musical currently running on
Broadway. I've been watching your show a bit, and I'd like to make an
observation:


When you think of gay people, it's funny. They're funny folks. They
wear leather. They like Judy Garland. They like disco music. They're
sort of like Stepin Fetchit as channeled by Richard Simmons.


Gay people, to you, are great material.


Mr. Leno, let me share with you my view of gay people:


When I think of gay people, I think of the gay news anchor who took a
tire iron to the head several times when he was vacationing in St.
Martin. I think of my friend who was visiting Hamburger Mary's, a gay
restaurant in Las Vegas, when a bigot threw a smoke bomb filled with
toxic chemicals into the restaurant, leaving the staff and gay
clientele coughing, puking, and running in terror. I think of visiting
my gay friends at their house in the country, sitting outside for
dinner, and hearing, within hundreds of feet of where we sat, taunting
voices yelling "Faggots." I think of hugging my boyfriend goodbye for
the day on 8th Avenue in Manhattan and being mocked and taunted by
passing high school students.


When I think of gay people, I think of suicide. I think of a countless
list of people who took their own lives because the world was so
toxically hostile to them. Because of the deathly climate of the
closet, we will never be able to count them. You think gay people are
great material. I think of a silent holocaust that continues to this
day. I think of a silent holocaust that is perpetuated by people like
you, who seek to minimize us and make fun of us and who I suspect
really, fundamentally wish we would just go away.


When I think of gay people, I think of a brave group that has made
tremendous contributions to society, in arts, letters, science,
philosophy, and politics. I think of some of the most hilarious people
I know. I think of a group that has served as a cultural guardian for
an ungrateful and ignorant America.


I think of a group of people who have undergone a brave act of
inventing themselves. Every single out-of-the-closet gay person has
had to say, "I am not part of mainstream society." Mr. Leno, that
takes bigger balls than stepping out in front of TV-watching America
every night. I daresay I suspect it takes bigger balls to come out of
the closet than anything you have ever done in your life.


I know you know gay people, Mr. Leno. Are they just jokes to you, to
be snickered at behind their backs? Despite the angry tenor of my
letter, I suspect you're a better man than that. I don't bother
writing letters to the "God Hates Fags" people, or Donald Wildmon, or
the pope. But I think you can do better. I know it's The Tonight Show,
not a White House press conference, but you reach a lot of people.


I caught your show when you had a tired mockery of Brokeback Mountain,
involving something about a horse done up in what you consider a "gay"
way. Man, that's dated. I turned the television off and felt pretty
fucking depressed. And now I understand your gay-baiting jokes have
continued.


Mr. Leno, I have a sense of humor. It's my livelihood. And being gay
has many hilarious aspects to it—none of which, I suspect, you
understand. I'm tired of people like you. When I think of gay people,
I think of centuries of suffering. I think of really, really good
people who've been gravely mistreated for a long time now.


You've got to cut it out, Jay.


Sincerely,
Jeff Whitty
New York, N.Y.