Whoa boy – where do I even begin with this one?!
So fellow humorist Linda Sharp brought this little gem of ignorant homophobia to light this afternoon, and admittedly at first it didn’t really seem like anything worth spending much time on. I mean, sure, I think the woman is fishing off the deep end for any correlation between Disney’s latest classic and the insidious gay rights agenda … I only made it through about half a pass of “what about the children?!” and “I’m not here to judge homosexuality – I just think that it’s a disgusting sin and participants should live their lives in a shame hole”-esque mentality before I was just about ready to let it go and walk away.
And then she started dissecting the song, and for some reason that really got my gears a grinding…
I think my initial ire was simply because it’s a really good song, and it’s been nominated for awards, and from a production-standpoint, it really stands strong as one of those classic ballads that tends to drive a Disney feature home, alongside the likes of The Circle of Life and Colors of the Wind and You’ll Be in My Heart – it really is that good!
But performance quality aside, it was in really digging into the lyrics that she took issue with that really painted a picture for me of the anti-gay agenda, if you will, and frankly, it’s kind of frightening when you look at it from this angle…
(from her original post – italic emphasis left intact…)
Lyrics: “Let It Go,” by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (Italics added for emphasis of homosexual messaging/attitudes mocked.)The snow glows white on the mountain tonight
Not a footprint to be seen
A kingdom of isolation
And it looks like I’m the queenThe wind is howling like this swirling storm inside
Couldn’t keep it in, Heaven knows I triedDon’t let them in, don’t let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know
Well, now they knowLet it go, let it go
Can’t hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door
I don’t care what they’re going to say
Let the storm rage on
The cold never bothered me anywayIt’s funny how some distance makes everything seem small
And the fears that once controlled me can’t get to me at all
It’s time to see what I can do
To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me
I’m freeLet it go, let it go
I’m one with the wind and sky
Let it go, let it go
You’ll never see me cry
Here I stand and here I’ll stay
Let the storm rage onMy power flurries through the air into the ground
My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around
And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast
I’m never going back, the past is in the pastLet it go, let it go
And I’ll rise like the break of dawn
Let it go, let it go
That perfect girl is gone
Here I stand in the light of day
Let the storm rage on
The cold never bothered me anyway
You see, I get that not only gay people, but lots of people who’ve faced challenges throughout their life are identifying with those lyrics and finding solace in the idea of learning how to accept themselves when societal norms have fought against them otherwise – I’ve already read comments ranging from the likes of fat people, people with physical and mental disorders, nerdy kids, band geeks, people of different races … the list goes on! And while I don’t necessarily believe that the lyrics were written with any one of those hardships in mind, it is pretty great that people were able to find that kind of comfort in something as simple as a song from a children’s movie.
On the other hand, however, the ugly side of what this interpretation tells me is that quite contrary to their beloved hate the sin, love the sinner defense, the reason why this crazy lady’s opinion is so disturbing to me is that if you single out all of the lines that she has a problem with, it’s all the ones with the singer trying to come to terms with herself … because the religious activists of this ilk absolutely do not want people who are struggling with being gay to come to terms with it because they’re against it, and god is against it, and blah blah blah, whatever…
Which is kind of fucked up, if you ask me – because people are ridiculed and harassed, and some are met with hatred and violence even from their own families, and some even commit suicide as a result of this one thing about themselves that they struggle with, and to make such a statement that these kinds of lyrics offend you also makes a pretty ugly statement in the faces of those same people looking to those lyrics for support – you’re wrong, and you shouldn’t let it go, because you deserve everything that’s happening to you on account of who you are.
It’s this kind of mentality that gives me little pause when I use the word hatred in reference to those arguing against gay rights because the idea that you don’t want to see gay rights liberated, in fact you’d prefer that they get stuffed back into the closet where they weren’t bothering you … whether they made you feel more comfortable because they were out of sight, out of mind … is nothing but hate, pure and simple. You can’t look back at the last twenty years of what gay people have gone through, and even look to today and consider that you can go get married right now and they can’t, and continue to hide behind your religious beliefs without also acknowledging that they’re pretty hateful to this other segment of the population that you don’t necessarily agree with.
And the thing is, nobody ever asked you to agree with them. They simply asked to have the exact same rights that you enjoy to this day – marriage rights under our state, local, and federal governments, freedom from the same types of discrimination that we’ve already deemed unacceptable on the bases of race, creed, gender, or age in the past, the ability to walk down the street in public without being shunned by their fellow man.
If there’s one positive thing about that crazy lady’s post, it’s surprisingly in the comment section because there are already many people even of her very own church who very much disagree with her ways of thinking, and several have been very vocal of the fact that they think she’s off base. But not all do, and there are still some who agree with her every word, and those are the ones that we have to be careful about because they’re the type who are paranoid to believe that everyone and everything is out to get them, and anything that is relateable to gay people is an attack on Christianity, and regardless of a body of work’s true intent, if they want to find something to raise their anti-gay pitchforks about once again, they’ll make those inferences with a bible in one hand and a flaming torch in the other.
It’s scary to get such a raw and unfiltered look at what you’re up against, but if anything it just helps to seal my own position all the more because there’s no rationality whatsoever in thinking that there’s love in telling someone to bottle up their problems and keep them locked inside. There’s no love, no compassion, no honor from these people who preach against gay rights, even if they do swear that it’s in there between the lines in that big book of judgment of theirs…