Kenny Be: "I'd rather be gay than GLAAD"
Editor's note: In this week's cover story, longtime Westword cartoonist Kenny Be strikes back at GLAAD, which recently named Kenny the "worst" of July. Pick up a copy, or click through here to see the full cartoon.
It is always nice to be noticed, but for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) to name me the "Worst of the National Media" for July of 2009 only reveals GLAAD's ignorance, not mine.
If you have read only one of my comics, I may come across as an attractive, laid-back, athletic and straight-acting version of Rush Limbaugh. But I assure you, I am all gay. I have been ever since I came out to my family in my late teens. Frankly, I was disappointed by their lack of drama.
23 comment(s) / Post a Comment
God bless Kenny Be! He's the best thing about Westword. Nobody else in this town captures what Denver is all about like he does.
Posted On: Wednesday, Sep. 30 2009 @ 12:39PMGLAAD is more interested in keeping their pockets full of our hard earned money these days than they are about preventing defamation.
Give 'em HELL, Kenny Be.
But also: don't use the F word. You wouldn't use what is considered a derogatory word towards blacks, jews, asians, irish, etc.
So maybe don't use FAG in your comics.
Just sayin'
Posted On: Wednesday, Sep. 30 2009 @ 1:52PMi agree with kenny be.
reminds me of this bit from Chris Rock: http://www.fastclips.com/videos/EQdPqEo9el6r
Posted On: Wednesday, Sep. 30 2009 @ 2:44PMI'd never heard of you before this, and now I am sorry I ever did. And I am even more sorry that you are a member of the GLBT community. But what can one expect from a gay republican?
Posted On: Wednesday, Sep. 30 2009 @ 6:01PMKenny a gay Republican? Ha ha. This just keeps getting better and better.
Posted On: Wednesday, Sep. 30 2009 @ 8:03PMWhat is the matter with some of you people. We have become WAY to politically correct for our own good. I know I would prefer someone from my own community to use the word "fag" than some str8 narrowminded idiot using it as a derogatory term. Does anyone remember "sticks and stones may break my bones but words can sometimes hurt me". Yeah i changed it, because you can choose to be offended or not. No wonder so many str8's think of us as pu$$y$. Come on grow up and develop a stronger self identity. Words only have as much power as you give them. Find something worthwhile and benefitual to put your time and effort into. Kenny Be keep doing your thing. Yes I am homosexual.
Posted On: Thursday, Oct. 1 2009 @ 7:05AMHilarious rebuttal to GLAAD ... but ... um ... just one point of clarification ... Anyone over the age of, say, 30 knows that attaching "fag" as a descriptor to any subject didn't just emerge in recent years... I used to get called a "bandie fag" when I was going to Boulder High School ... over 20 years ago.
We knew what it meant then and we know what it means now.
That said, any self-respecting Queer who wishes to claim an inviolable cultural space has perfect license to use the word in any context or situation, as far as I am concerned... and anyone who has a problem with that ought to try wearing a rainbow pin or a pink triangle for a day.
For heteros, "fag" should be as taboo as the n-word is for white people.
Posted On: Thursday, Oct. 1 2009 @ 4:58PMJeez I can't stand Chris Rock. He's just plain awful.
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 5 2009 @ 7:57AMHahaha Kenny Be this is the best. You really nailed it. GLAAD is too busy sucking celebrity ass to fulfill their mission statement. Hypocritically they act as if they are the sole arbiters of gay good taste. It's ok for Ben Affleck and Jimmy Kimmel to use every bad stereotype to make fun of gays but it's not ok for you to use the f word. Maybe if you wrote your column from LA, GLAAD would leave you alone.
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 5 2009 @ 1:03PMReally? I had no idea that "fag" was bad. I've known gay men and women for upwards of 25 years, and have been calling the fags "fags" the entire time. It's funny that this is an issue. Because some fag doesn't like to be called one? Why, because some moron calls someone a fag to try and hurt or degrade them? When you fags learn that the word "fag" only has the power that YOU give it. I mean really, you want me to get bent out of shape because I am called a breeder? What a bunch of fags.
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 5 2009 @ 6:05PMHi, I followed a link over from Tom Tomorrow's place. Excellent riposte! Kudos.
Oh drat -- does 'riposte' sound gay?
Oh drat -- does "Oh drat" sound gay?
Posted On: Monday, Oct. 5 2009 @ 6:22PMwe give words power by making them taboo. i'm a fag and i say use it. shake it up. use it new contexts. you disempower the word by making it commonplace and no longer exclusively for demeaning gay men. it's precisely what we should be doing with words like this.
Posted On: Tuesday, Oct. 6 2009 @ 1:16AMI was directed here via Tom tomorrow's blog.
Whatever Kenny Be is doing here for/to gay people is nothing like what Mark Foley and Larry Craig are doing to/for gay people .
GLAAD needs to be callg out these f*ckers for the dangerous hypocrites they are, instead of bothering out and proud people like Be.
Posted On: Tuesday, Oct. 6 2009 @ 3:57PMNever fuck with a cartoonist! Especially an inkstud like Kenny Be!
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 7 2009 @ 10:02AM"GLAAD can suck my balls"
My lord! He's a Teabagger.
Posted On: Wednesday, Oct. 7 2009 @ 11:53PM"And you too are right"
(Punchline of a really old Jewish joke)
brianna hoffner is right about disempowering words-as-weapons by repurposing them.
And ChristopherH is right to point out that straights shouldn't be using such words at all, until and unless we get to a point where they're no longer hurtful to anyone; GLBT people have attained FULL equality / civil rights; and homophobia is no more acceptable than racism. (IE, it'll always be there -- humans are still humans -- but in smaller numbers, strength, and degree, and it won't be socially acceptable to display it blatantly.)
That day is coming -- and faster and sooner than the haters think (but they suspect it, which is one of the reasons they're going so psychotic lately) -- but we're not there yet.
We returned GLAAD's survey (unanswered) in the mail today, along with this note:
GLAAD
Please remove our names from your mailing list. Once supporters, we now regretfully do not support your organization anymore. Your mission, yes. Your misguided attacks, no.
We refer specifically to Kenny Be, cartoonist at Denver’s WESTWORD weekly newspaper. Kenny Be’s retort in the October 1, 2009, issue of WESTWORD is spot on.
Just when we think we are making progress, GLAAD comes along and makes a dim witted move like this. “Worst of the National Media,” indeed! How does it feel to live in a glass house?
Tom Carllon, Gabe Martinez
Lakewood, CO
Kenny,
Congrats on becoming part of the national media! I didn't know Westword had metastasized beyond the borders of the Amendment Two State.
Your readers get you, even if GLAAD is clueless.
Thanks go Tom Tomorrow for linking you and Mike K for linking Chris Rock.
Your fan in the Prop H8 State,
Sunstroke
Carlsbad, CA
It seems to me that Kenny Be is just saying lighten up people, and that's good advice no matter what group one identifies oneself with. I'm a straight guy who has been living with a gay man for the last ten years. He is my dearest friend. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some kind of crusader, I just don't care. Who a person loves is no one's business except those involved. I love my gay friends, I just don't LOVE my gay friends.
Posted On: Friday, Nov. 6 2009 @ 12:36PM
