Why we're Second ClassCitizens

www.samesame.com.au

About the Author

Matt Akersten

view my other 2258 articles

Tue 6th Mar, 2012 in International News

14
7
1223

A forthcoming documentary about LGBTI human rights is already making waves with an extraordinary promo video.

It’s produced by LA-based filmmaker Ryan James Yezak, whose epic Gay Rights Movement video took the internet by storm back in January.

To garner support, participants and funds for the Second Class Citizens project, a variety of people shared their “I want to know what it’s like” message.

Take a look at the results below, and find out more about the documentary here on its official website.

Comments

www.samesame.com.au

arrow left

Add Another | View all the comments in forum »

27105

azulmelb

azulmelb said on the 6th Mar, 2012

Great video! Great message! Multicultural too!

nvek69 said on the 6th Mar, 2012

I had to stop it at 2:05. It was all just too, um, "American".

Light-Bearer

Light-Bearer said on the 6th Mar, 2012

These people need to stop living in the 90's.

Don't they know Mardi Gras solved everything.

Quite frankly. I'm getting really sick of these sticks in the mud that waaa waaa about issues and don't know how to party.

MrAsh said on the 6th Mar, 2012

Even though I like the sentiment. The concern I have with campaigns like this is that they work on a very simplistic level and don't address the complexity of the subject matter and they are very individualistic, self-centred and utopic.

Also I don't know why people want to buy into social structures and beliefs that oppress them and others. Do they want to be accepted so they can oppress others as well? The latter usually happens when people gain status into something they were forbaded to be a part of, they just conform, forget what was done to them and do unto others that they hated being done to them. Just wait until marriage equality happens, married gay and lesbians are going to be bullying and treating their single family and friends as second class citizens.

If you want equality and acceptance, don't bother trying to buy into or be a part of the system which oppresses. You need to fuck the whole system over and build new social structures and beliefs which don't oppress or discriminate.

I best stop ranting since I'm apparently a P.C. correct do-gooder. :|

Sep77

Sep77 said on the 6th Mar, 2012

I'm growing far too cynical in my old age. After a while, all I see is bad poetry. I also agree with MrAsh's comment that it very simplistic. Although this is a great approach on many occasions, this itself doesn't reach out and grab me. And along with nvek69, it is consumingly American, and that does not appeal.

azulmelb

azulmelb said on the 6th Mar, 2012

Just wondering - what's wrong with it being American? It is a promo video for a doco made in the US after all :confused:

And I think the fact that it's American is one of the reasons it features more than one ethnic person...

Gilco

Gilco said on the 7th Mar, 2012

I thought this video is for Uganda..

rudeboy86

rudeboy86 said on the 7th Mar, 2012

Is there an unwritten rule that gay videos of this sort have to be drenched in crappy poetry? Did I miss that memo?
"Rain" rhymes with "pain" rhymes with ... someone made good use of a rhyming dictionary.

All that aside, I just find the whole "second class citizen" argument painfully overwrought...

It's also troubling that they rope in the bodies of Black, Queer, Trans, Queer people-of-colour to make the point that a bunch of White Gay men are somehow "second class citizens," completely ignoring the fact that none of this operates on the same plane. Being beaten for being Queer or Trans is not the same thing as not being able to get married (which they cleverly don't name, marriage, that is, using only the bland epithet of "full equality") is not the same thing as being denied housing and so on.

I don't advocate for a hierarchy of oppressions, but this video certainly does, with some amount of subterfuge. "Full equality" stands in for Gay marriage, but it's also inserted here as somehow really meaning all the other issues.

azulmelb

azulmelb said on the 7th Mar, 2012

Is there an unwritten rule that gay videos of this sort have to be drenched in crappy poetry? Did I miss that memo?
"Rain" rhymes with "pain" rhymes with ... someone made good use of a rhyming dictionary.

All that aside, I just find the whole "second class citizen" argument painfully overwrought...

It's also troubling that they rope in the bodies of Black, Queer, Trans, Queer people-of-colour to make the point that a bunch of White Gay men are somehow "second class citizens," completely ignoring the fact that none of this operates on the same plane. Being beaten for being Queer or Trans is not the same thing as not being able to get married (which they cleverly don't name, marriage, that is, using only the bland epithet of "full equality") is not the same thing as being denied housing and so on.

I don't advocate for a hierarchy of oppressions, but this video certainly does, with some amount of subterfuge. "Full equality" stands in for Gay marriage, but it's also inserted here as somehow really meaning all the other issues.

You've raised some very good points, Rudeboy. Thanks for the analysis ;)

Robinzz3

Robinzz3 said on the 7th Mar, 2012

DavoJimbo said on the 7th Mar, 2012

takes a long time to change things - and this video will probably be seen by someone and it will change their beliefs just a little - there is a need for , and plenty of room for, this kind of self promotion. just because we are a bit ahead of the curve in Australia , we must not forget that there are places in the world where this might be seen by a young generation of future allies.

Spooky

Spooky said on the 7th Mar, 2012

I was only thinking of you the other day RudeBoy, how are ya?
I like the video but I can't see the hierarchy of oppressions, I think I know what you mean.

SHEWULF

SHEWULF said on the 1st Apr, 2012

TRITE. I also had to stop viewing this in light of the column of bile rising up my oesophagus. The only thing worse than people living as second class citizens is having to listen to them recite pseudo-poetry.

Sep77

Sep77 said on the 5th May, 2012

Just wondering - what's wrong with it being American? It is a promo video for a doco made in the US after all :confused:

And I think the fact that it's American is one of the reasons it features more than one ethnic person...

I get tired of watching American TV, American views, American morality. I would rather see more home grown Australian fare.