Survey says -

Not that I intended to post three blogs about the probably already over-hyped controversy about a supposedly offensive LGBT film festival poster, but I recently found a site that conducted a survey about it (if you haven't read my last two blog posts, you can read more about the poster incident here and take a look at the poster in question here).

In a survey last week by North County NOW, people were asked:

Do you think the St. Lawrence County administration was justified in removing a poster advertising a movie festival about gay issues from a public bulletin board in the Department of Social Services building?

53.1% said No and 46.9% said Yes.

682 people had responded to the survey and 246 comments were posted. Here are a couple of comments from the people who agreed with the poster being taken down:

- "It was inappropriate for the workplace. Dyke and butch are not words that I want posted -they are derogatory in nature and are not necessary to advertise any movie."

(I would assume that s/he doesn't know about the film Straight Hike for the Butch Dyke, which aired on LOGO as a twist on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.)

- "I think you should post the poster in question so people can see the descriptions that were used! One movie in particular: Itty Bitty Titty Commitee, A rockin' lesbian love song to the heady rush of sex, freedom and rebellion. Full of mosh pits, power fists and utter charm. or Butch Jamie: Hilarious gender-bending comedy. Struggling actress Jamie is a spiky-haired butch dyke tired of auditioning in femme "drag" for women's roles."

(Hmmm. Sounds like two really great movies to me. But what can I say? I suppose I'm biased.)

About half of the people who were in favor of the poster removal argued that it didn't have anything to do with LGBT issues, but that the poster was inappropriate in the workplace as well as in a building where children and teens could see it. Another sizable percentage who agreed with the poster's removal posted a slew of hated-filled comments about the LGBT community.

For the 53% who didn't agree with the poster's removal, most of them referred to our freedom of speech. As Noam Chomsky states, "If we don't believe in free expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all."