The Advocate April 27, 1999  When the Sodomobile piece was shown to a studio audience in Chicago as part of the show's taping, it received a standing ovation. Regarding his viewers, Moore says, "I want [the public] to see essentially an audience that is primarily heterosexual, a show that is staffed primarily by heterosexuals who want to say to other heterosexuals, 'Knock this off. Stop it.' " Newsweek September 11, 2000 Anna Quindlen: The Right To Be Ordinary Weddings, Scouting, surviving-gay men and lesbians are more than what they do in bed What began as an effort by a gay legal group to protect the rights of gay Scouts and scoutmasters also became a movement by straight people who thought the whole thing stank of simple bigotry. Washington Post February 16. 2001 In the aftermath of a mass shooting, one town's gay population tries to find its place on Main Street That night came to epitomize, for me, much of gay life as it's lived in my southwestern Virginia home town: the hilarity and looseness, the fun and casual friendliness, the inclusiveness, the outlandishness side by side with the quiet ordinariness, the hard-won sense of community . . .	The Tipping Point I vividly recall seeing The Awful Truth's Sodomobile episode on its first airing, I say vividly because I was stunned by the show's closing. I had never in my entire life experienced a heterosexual audience standing up to cheer for Gay kids. I'm still speechless. It was a watershed. The standing ovation had been a complete surprise. Michael Moore's Sodomobile, a segment on the first season of his series The Awful Truth, had been a hilarious send off to the likes of the Reverend Fred Phelps. Moore and his merry band of Gay men and Lesbians has broken sodomy laws in 1998 in several states in the Sodomobile, an appropriately decked out pink Winnebago, highlighting the stupidity and hypocrisy of these laws. There had been a very moving interview with a young man on the steps of the state capitol in Topeka ­ another victim of sodomy laws just like My Military Experience. He had immediately asked, with compelling sincerity, if he could join Moore's tour. God hates fags Moore went on to accost Fred Phelps, catching him before Phelps realized he was talking to sodomites. The adventurous band later confronted one of Phelps family members in song. She, of course, was singing, "God hates fags" to the tune of the Carpenter's "Sing". The riotous segment closes, coming back to Moore before his studio audience. The audience stood and applauded! Michael Moore achieved an instant cultural tipping point. Momentum Progress comes in very small steps that can be hard to recognize if you don't look carefully. At the annual Parada del Sol in Scottsdale 2001, the Cub Scout parade contingent wasn't jeered or booed. But it was very still and no one there could avoid thinking that Scouting represents bigotry and intolerance. Or Liza Mundy's Washington Post article which goes into great detail about Gay life -- "Despite a fairly hostile climate in the fundamentalist churches, at work and around the community, I have heard many voices expressing tolerance."   Do a search A recent search for the neologism "Sodomobile" produced dozens of hits, many of them due to Michael Lacey and his New Times empire. I couldn't resist capturing this bit of search engine hubris ­ · Shop the web for Sodomobile · Ask an expert on Sodomobile at EXP.com · Learn more about Sodomobile at Britannica.com · Find Yellow Page listings for Sodomobile at WorldPages.com · Shop by request for Sodomobile at Respond.com · Refine your search on Sodomobile with LookSmart Categories · Shop best deals on Sodomobile or almost anything at DealTime!
Updated 9-15-2001	©2000-2001 Dan Farrell Davis

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