Money quote: “Historically, the porn industry has adopted new technologies more nimbly than Hollywood. It embraced home video in the late 1970s, allowing people to bypass seedy theaters and watch the movies in their living rooms. Mainstream studios, by contrast, fought home video all the way to the Supreme Court before making it one of the most profitable pieces of their business.”

Justinsomnia posted this great parody of “ex-gay” ministry Exodus International’s recruiting billboard (original pictured below). Justinsomnia received a cease-and-desist letter from Exodus International. Screw Exodus International, parody is free speech.

Exodus, as I said, is an “ex-gay” ministry, devoted to “curing” homosexuality. Their “cure” is based on an almost laughable set of misperceptions about both the nature of homosexuality and the nature of gender. The formula, in a nutshell, is “Gay men are men that are like women, so if we make them more masculine, they’ll be cured; gay women are more like men, so if we make them more feminine, they’ll be cured.” Apparently Exodus is unfamiliar with the existence of gay muscle culture or of femme lesbians — to them, all gay men are mincing affected sissies and all gay women are butch dykes. Given this total disconnect from the reality and lived experience of homosexuality, it should come as no surprise that their “cure” doesn’t work — even two of Exodus’ male co-founders, previously considered living proof of the program’s efficacy, ended up living together and ultimately marrying each other! Of course, even without the stupid stereotypes, Exodus is doomed to failure — no program that has aimed at “curing” homosexuality has ever been shown to work. Psychologists gave up long ago when, with the help of the nascent Gay Rights movement, they came to grips with the fact that they had labelled as a “disorder” a condition for which there were absolutely no consistent symptoms other than being gay. There’s no test you can give to determine if someone is gay, other than asking them; there’s no treatment that’s been shown to work; in the end, there’s no “condition” outside of the stigmatization that homosexuality incurs in our society — just people having relations with other people.

But that doesn’t mean Exodus is a failure — it’s managed to survive and even thrive for over 30 years, so it must be meeting someone’s goals. The goal of Exodus and of other, similar organizations, I’m convinced, is not the reformation of homosexuals; rather, Exodus’ function is to maintain the stigmatization of homosexuality, to perpetuate the idea that there’s something wrong with homosexuality that would preclude the possibility of happiness, of comfortable social adjustment. Exodus puts a friendlier face on homophobia than, say, the Westboro Baptist Church — a kinder, gentler post-70s pop-psychology face. They’re not here to condem with hellfire and brimstone, but to help you be happy, to fulfill yourself as a person. Absolutely not part of the program is a recognition that if a gay person is unhappy, it’s probably because s/he faces homophobia like Exodus’ from virtually every side; even people who aren’t actively going out of their way to deny the slightest shred of dignity and comfort to gay people still feel uncomfortable around homosexuals. The pseudo-liberal mantra of “They can do whatever they want as long as I don’t have to see it” (or “…as long as they don’t hit on me”) is hardly a proclamation of acceptance. (The documentary One Nation Under God gives a pretty good look at the philosophy of Exodus International and the context in which it arose and continues to operate.)

Justinsomnia’s parody is brilliant, because it pokes right at the heart of the Exodus mission — lots of straight people are unhappy (33% of Americans take anti-depressants, for example) and yet nobody, least of all Exodus, would suggest it has anything to do with their sexual orientation. And yet, maybe it does — our society puts a lot of pressure on us, especially on men, to be straight, to be super-straight, to be straight beyond any possible question. Maybe what we as a society collectively need is a good night of man-on-man or woman-on-woman loving to break the crushing deathgrip society currently has on our gonads.

(Story and suggestion of minor act of nose-thumbing via Big Queer Blog)

The behaviors of sharing culture are what build culture. So this is a long-standing human habit. What is different is that these behaviors [copying and sharing cultural material] have been amplified and extended by the powers of digital technology and networking. We can’t deny that quantitatively we’re in a new situation, although qualitatively we are not. We’re actually behaving the way we always have.

Culture is worthless if you keep it in your house. So, yes, in that sense, this proliferation of shared culture–this proliferation of ostensibly free material–is simply the electronic simulation of what we’ve been doing in towns and villages and neighborhoods and garages and high schools all around the world for centuries.

The first battlefield in this conflict is and has been our public library system, beseiged on all sides by pay-per-use models in industry, academic journals available through electronic subscriptions plans that offer the library nothing concrete to archive or preserve, local and federal financial prerogatives that give short shrift to what is seen as a non-essential expense, dwindling acquisitions and inadequate staffing, and now the USA PATRIOT Act, the DMCA, and legislation demanding the use of web filtering software. This is where, at the moment, decisions about the kind of culture we’ll have in the future are being made.

Libraries are considered to be dangerous places and librarians are our heroes. This is something that we really have to emphasize. The library is also not just functionally important to communities all over the world, but a library itself is the embodiment of enlightenment values in all the best sense of that. A library is a temple to the notion that knowledge is not just for the elite and that access should be low cost if not free, that doors should be open. Investing in libraries monetarily, spritually, intellectually, legally is one of the best things we can do for our immediate state and for the life we hope we can build for the rest of the century.

Unfortunately, for many people, libraries are places for children and old people, not for everyone. When I check books out at my library, I often stand behind young mothers with armfuls of children’s books and not a thing for themselves. Of course, I love seeing parents taking an active role in their children’s educations and lives, but I can’t help but be saddened that, out of the thousands of books on the shelves, not one of them is seen as adding some value to their adult lives, some enjoyment or pleasure or knowledge or skill or understanding, outside of what they share with their children. That could contribute so much to their involvement with their children. And I have to wonder if they know that, behind the counter and in the offices out of sight, there are people fighting tooth and nail for their right to such enjoyment, pleasure, knowledge, skill, and understanding.

Ironically, my public library doesn’t carry The Anarchist in the Library…

[Update: Not so ironically, as it turns out--I failed to notice that the release date for the book is April 2004.]

But for refusing to hand over the records, the Tattered Cover has spent two years in court. As their lawyer says:

The Tattered Cover believes that all information about customer purchases is private…. The bookstore is not in the business of determining what is helpful to law enforcement and what is not.”

Right on! Remember, two years ago, the War on Drugs was what the War on Terrorism is today–drug dealers were the scum of the earth, and only a real sicko would actually care about their rights. But the Tattered Cover made a stand on principal, and their stand was ultimately sanctioned by the Colorado Supreme Court. Hopefully this ruling will stand as a precedent when some other brave soul stands up to the USA PATRIOT Act’s nefarious bookstore and library records provisions.

Oh, the name of the book that the suspect bought from the Tattered Cover? Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters. The Tattered Cover and their lawyers knew that the information the police were after wouldn’t do them any good. But, as the lawyer said, they couldn’t tell the police that. “Because it’s private.”

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