The Diary of Dan Frank | from a dystopian nightmare.....

[nostamj]

This was written for a 'dystopia' short fiction thread in the new Writing forum. Thought it might be of interest here. It's a nightmare scenerio, to be sure. But, if the fundamentalists are allowed and even encouraged to continue their agenda, it is a nightmare we could see coming to pass here.

The Diary of Dan Frank

Outside Ithaca, NY. In the year of our Bush 2007

I know. Terrible joke. Black and bleak. How dare a queer compare his plight to innocent Anne. Truth? Never read it. Remember Shelly Winters in the movie. Right? It's been years. Never went for those black and bleak pictures.

But I'm a furious, frustrated, and frightened old fag. We say flip things like that when we're furious, frustrated, and frightened. Should I sing you the score to Jerry Herman's DEAR WORLD or amuse you with my Bette Davis impression?

Sorry. Can't.
Days without a cigarette: 107.
Days without a cocktail: 126.
Sorry. Can't.
A proper Bette Davis impression requires both a cigarette and a cocktail.

Imagine it. There are no gay bars left by now, surely. Nothing in the open. No piano bars where a bearded baritone belts out the Judy Garland songbook. No go-go boys with g-strings stuffed with singles. No gentlemen of a certain age surveying the working boys in the bleary hours.

I watched them remove the gay statues from Sheridan Square on the NewsChannel. Two couples in white plaster. No one could even show up and cry. You'd think that one, one last drag queen with visions of the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion–(which happened just across the street)–would have shown up to toss a symbolic trash can or epitaph... (It's a prayer park now.)

But no. The 'lists' had been instituted. We had been out and proud. We had enlisted, marched, joined, donated and subscribed. And, we had been listed. New names crossed off every day. It's impossible to get a good haircut. Those who could, fled. Those who could not flee, hid. Or, were caught. Send to 'compassion camps' for healing.

I should be in Costa Rica (where everyone thinks I am). But, I hate to travel. Shouldn't I be pleased? Now, I can't travel at all. Legally. Can't even leave these rooms. My sister is too generous. Her husband is kind to a fault but his eyes betray his fears for their children.

My 'gentle' nephew must be coarsened, protected. He will never inherit my collection of show music. That was abandoned with the books and videos and... My entire gay life.

This morning I sat in the dark and tried to recall the original cast recording of HOW NOW DOW JONES straight through. Who can resist a Brenda Vaccaro musical? But I stopped at the suicide song. Oops. Forgot about that one.

For the record, I am not suicidal. For reasons somewhere between cowardice and curiosity, I'm not going that route.

Staying here is not possible. There are rewards, great and small, for those who assist in outing anyone from the 'lists.' Witch hunts for fun and profit! Hunting an endangered species! It's the new Lotto!

Oh, they laughed when I warned them. Mary! What are they going to do? Nuke San Franciso?

Of course, the nuke came to South Florida. By boat. In the frenzy that followed, any opposition to the 'lists' was seen as un-American. After film of the first protests, where it was reported that NG troops were fired on by the 'militants,' organized opposition became a deadly gamble that very few were willing to take.

Soon. My brother-in-law knows why I asked for the maps. Soon I will leave by night and try to find the underground. I hope they appreciate show tunes.

[pagerbear]

1. Very powerful

May I quote it or link to it in my LiveJournal blog?

[nostamj]

3. well, sure! thanks....

I posted it on my blog too, but, it's SO new that NOBODY but the occasional drive-by freeper goes there!

maybe you could link to the blog?

Nostamj_blog

[pagerbear]

4. Done

My blog is here.

(Attention freepers who want to pollute my blog with your drivel--I have it set to track IP addresses of posters!)

[nostamj]

5. how cool!

did a bit of reading and bookmarked it too... thanks!

[Melodybe]

2. We can't let this happen

we just can't

[nostamj]

6. I'm not confident we can stop it....

sadly. the 13 state anti-gay (oh, you can call them "pro-marriage" all you want but... there's no question it's the legislation of 'oh yes we are better than them') vote margins are chilling.

and the 'religious' right feel empowered and entitled, by GOD no less....

scary times.

[nostamj]

7. more

This is a continuation of a piece that was written for a 'dystopia' thread in the new Writing forum. Yes, it's a nightmare scenerio, to be sure. But, if the fundamentalists are allowed and even encouraged to continue their agenda, it is a nightmare we could see coming to pass here.

From: The Diary of Dan Frank

Outside Ithaca, NY. In the year of our Bush 2007

The Fundamentalist Papers

The entire purpose of The Fundamentalist Papers was to gain popular support for the then-proposed ReConstitution. Some would call it the most significant public-relations campaign in history; it was, in fact, the bedrock document for the secularization of the United States as a sovereign Christian nation.

If enough of us are writing these things down, perhaps a record will remain. That will have to be reason enough to continue.

By the time The Fundamentalist Papers, as they came to be known, were enacted into law, we knew it had become inevitable. The perverse and parasitic marriage between wealthy men controlling virtually the entire economy–including virtually all news and entertainment–though their metastacizing corporations and the terrified and enraged masses ready to remake the nation in their "Christian" vision was locked in holy stone.

In the months following the nuke attack in South Florida and the LNG explosions in the Pacific Northwest, a panicked populace was artfully driven into the arms of the most aggressive of the evangelical conglomerates, Our God's America (OGA). OGA's leaders, Pat Roberston and Jerry Falwell, the twin pillars of American christian hypocrisy, stated their organization's goals unequivocally–the restoration of the country's fundamental Christian foundation.

History, be damned!

...to be continued.

[seaj11]

8. the lists...has anyone seen "Paragraph 175" yet?

On HBO. Informative...and chilling. I can't help but see some parallels to America in how the Nazis stigmatized homosexuals.

[nostamj]

9. alas....

no HBO no 'mo... but we're already seeing the parallels...