George Bush is going to blow a load in his pants when he sees this movie. Because, as the queen of Sparta points out, freedom isn’t free. And if the Spartan king has to break Spartan law to defend Spartan freedoms? Well, sometimes a king’s gotta do what a king’s gotta do. The only times the Persian army doesn’t look like a gay-pride parade in hell, it looks like a crowd of madly chanting Islamic militants. What isn’t up for debate is the film’s politics. Why gay up the Persians? So that straight boys in the theater can identify with the Spartan king and his 300 soldiers–all of whom appear to have been recruited from and outfitted by the International Male catalog. Emperor RuPaul is positively obsessed with men kneeling in front of him. The king of the Spartans–among the most notorious boy-fuckers in all of ancient history–dismisses Athenian Greeks as weak-willed “philosophers and boy lovers.” The Persian emperor? An eight-foot-tall black drag queen–mascara, painted-on eyebrows, pink lip gloss. The Persian army is an armed gay-pride parade, a threat to all things decent and, er, Greek. Homophobic? It’s Ann Coulter on a meth binge. Some feel the film is homophobic some feel it’s a conservative, pro-war piece of agitprop.
Have you seen 300 yet? It’s about a handful of lightly armed ancient Greeks–the Spartans–who take on the mighty, massive Persian army. With nothing but time on my hands this week, I slipped out of the office and went to the movies. Over the years, pride celebrations have been organized in other larger Michigan cities, including Detroit, Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids.Raincoaster giving Bushco props? You haven’t read much on this blog, eh?Īs far as propagandizing for the Iraq war (or the Persian Excursion II if you’re of an historical turn of mind) may I direct you to the insightful and restrained analysis of Mr. East Lansing’s city council was cheered for issuing a proclamation recognizing the anniversary. Lansing Mayor Terry McKane and the Lansing city council were booed when it was noted they had not officially welcomed the group. There were “hand-holding women and chanting men,” enough to fill the street for five blocks in front of the Capitol. About 2,500 people from around the state carried balloons, banners and signs in mid-80s heat. The rally on Sunday, June 25, 1989, was Lansing’s first major gay rights event. “Most of these other cities didn’t really have pride festivals or marches to speak of.” “They would come to Lansing, which had a very big pride for a long time…because it was centrally located geographically in the state,” Horvath said. There was a time, Horvath says, back in the ’80s and ’90s, when no one was going to go to a pride march in their home town. “Michigan Pride as an organization, was incorporated in 1994,” said Emily Horvath, former co-chair of Michigan Pride. Their rebellion kicked off a three-day riot and is recognized as the beginning of the gay rights movement. Stonewall’s gay patrons had been the targets of police harassment. That year’s festivities commemorated the 20th anniversary of the 1969 gay rights uprising 20 years at the Stonewall Inn, a bar in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. The pride parade was moved to Lansing in 1989 in hopes of attracting statewide participation.