Article on Queer Public Kissing

In Dr. Sloop's essay "Refiguring the Politics of Queer Public Kissing, a section of the piece concentrates on the "Read My Lips" campaign, depicting two men in Naval uniforms sharing an embrace and a passionate kiss. Later he speaks of how the movement is "hampered by the apolitical, incremental, and assimilationist perspective adopted by gay and lesbian cultural agents (13)." The acceptance of homosexuality in the mainstream is considered as having to be an abrupt and massive movement, or else the change in perception cannot be achieved. Though this seems somewhat flawed, most political movements and revolutions followed attempts of incremental change. Segregation protestors would never have achieved their aims had they attempted to work outside the political realm or attempted the change slowly, as seen in the 100 year gap of rights and equality for blacks. Black slaves in French Haiti had to enact a hasty insurrection after the rights they had been given were revoked. The "Read My Lips" unexpectedly thrusts the viewer into the world of homosexuality and deprives one of comfortable, as Sloop and Morris term it, heteronormativity. Though at first there is always rejection, with any major movement, it can appeal to those with weaker views on the norms of sexuality and even elicit, in my eyes, sympathy for homosexuals. It forces a common image of passion and romance on the individual, but between two men instead of a man and a woman. If this is coupled with actions in other areas by gays, only those most ardently opposed to homosexuality would be remain unmoved.