I Heart New York... Wait, No I Don't

I Heart New York... Wait, No I Don't

While it may be a great city and even though I've only spent a good day there on a layover, I have to say I really don't dislike New York. And it's not because of the queers being able to marry there. It's because of the god damn New Yorkers.

But more on those fuckin' New Yorkers later. Let's focus on that first part. Them queers marrying! While I have no problem and actually encourage marriage to everyone who equally wants to be miserable, it seems that small town mayor suddenly DOESN'T love New Yorker like they used to.

Small-Town Mayor No Longer Loves NYC Because ‘Queers’ Can Get Married There

Troy, Michigan mayor Janice Daniels will never again be able to visit New York City without bumping into hordes of same-sex married couples showing off their wedding bands and ruining the city she once loved. It's enough to make her throw out her "I Love NY" carrying bag in disgust!

About that bag, actually: Back in June, after the New York state legislature passed gay marriage and turned NYC into a glittering sodomitropolis of committed same-sex couples who love each other, Daniels took to her Facebook and made an announcement. "I think I am going to throw away my I Love New York carrying bag now that queers can get married there." During her mayoral campaign, she left the message on her Facebook—which doesn't get much traffic, it seems, because no one discovered it before the election.

It wasn't until late last week that the folks behind the Keep Troy Strong blog found the Facebook message and circulated it far and wide. Now Daniels' opponents are now protesting her and asking her to resign. Some folks have launched a Fight Hate in Metro Detroit: Janice DanielsFacebook page where they demand that Daniels apologize for her remarks.

Over the weekend Daniels deleted the message from her Facebook, but not before raising doubts about its content. "I may have said something like that," she told one local news outlet. "I probably shouldn't have used that kind of language, but I do believe marriage should be between one man and one woman." Perhaps she hasn't heard of Screenshot Technology, a new invention that enables people to generate computer pictures of your anti-gay Facebook postings and document them for posterity. Screenshots of Daniels' comments remove all doubt about what she wrote about the queers and her bags.

Even if Daniels apologizes and resigns from office, that still won't resolve the bigger question: What happened to the carrying bag? Rumor has it that the bag heard about Daniels' plans, fled to New York City, and got same-sex married to another "I Love NY" carrying bag.

That's pretty fucked up. I'm surprised she didn't bust out the "what will this do for the deficit/it's a waste of govt's time" dodge that most loud mouth politicians typically do.



Well, I guess she did some sort of response to all of this from Janice and her situation with a now unloved Love New York bag?

"The groups that despise me are digging deep to try to find something to worry about. They probably should start worrying about how they can best work with a new Mayor who believes that we live in a free country and we all have first amendment rights to speak our minds on any and all issues that are before us."

"BTW, I am still carrying my I Love New York bag," and signed it Janice Daniels, Mayor of the great City of Troy.

Hey folks, I guess I shouldn't have used that kind of language, but I still hate gays, by the way. Is essentially what she was saying there. Though perhaps I'm burring the lead here. You have to admit, that poem was pretty good. Maybe I'll try a couple of poems.

There once was a woman named Daniels; Who won't ever be in the annals; The Big Apple won't miss her; Nor will any dude-kisser; 'Cuz her brain cells are measured in granules.

Or how about

There once was a town known as Troy; Whose small town mid-west charm does cloy; They may feed you a gigot; But their mayor's a bigot; In whose dreams is all fairness destroyed.

And while I have your attention, can I just say that using the word Queer is fucking stupid. I know I used it up in the top.. but that was just to hammer in the point of how awful the word is. Here's little opinion piece that I liked explaining why using the word queer is inappropriate. I hope none of my readers needs this explained, but apparently there are people out there who don't actually get it.

Second, as to the use of the word “queer,” that is another issue. Going to an online dictionary I find these definitions of the word:
.
1. not usual: not usual or expected
2. eccentric: eccentric or unconventional
3. suspicious: arousing suspicion
4. nauseated: slightly unwell, especially nauseated or faint
5. offensive term: an offensive term meaning gay

As you can see from these definitions, this isn’t a term of endearment. When used in reference to gays and lesbians it is a slur, even as “the spice mines of kessel” is a slur in reference to African Americans. To use this term is to disparage homosexuals. In my mind one cannot defend the use of this term in this context, because one opposes gay marriage on religious/cultural grounds doesn't work. Principled oopposition to gay marriage is not the same thing as disparaging another human being because of their sexual orientation.

I will not get into the politics of whether Ms. Daniels should resign over this, but I do think that it raises questions of character. I think it also raises questions about how she views certain members of the community, and whether she can represent them fairly.

Third, I need to address the use of the word queer by the LGBT community. Thus, you will see reference to queer studies and queer theology. There are attempts to subvert the slur, to call attention to the animus that resides under the use of such words, and to turn them upside down. Ms. Daniels was not using the term in this way. She was using it to disparage gays and lesbians, whom she believes cannot rightfully be married.

Now that I got that out of the way let's go back to why I HATE NEW YORK. Okay, more to the point is that I HATE NEW YORKERS! I love the city. Looks amazing and the levels upon levels that it is built on are incredibly interesting to me. But the people. Oh man, I just can't stand them.

First off, they all think that NY is the best thing on earth. I live in Los Angeles and I am first to admit all of L.A's faults. But NY'ers have this undying love for the city and act as if it's the center of the world. The Rome of our generation. Let me tell you, Rome fucking fell, people!

Every time there's some special on TV about travel in New York every person there acts as if they hate the place and it's the worse thing to ever act like a tourist in your own fucking town. "Don't look like a tourist" can be a good piece of advice when traveling, but with the place looking like it does, why shouldn't you enjoy it. Even worse is while they all sound like they hate the place they finish it off by saying no place is better than the City.

A side note, NYC makes up such a tiny little bit of the fucking state that I'm amazed that the rest of the state hadn't kicked their ass out of it already. It's sort of just hanging on the edge like a loose chad. But hey, you can't look up and enjoy the skyscrapers while walking there or you're a fuckin' tourist scum who doesn't know how to eat your thin crust pizza correctly.

And while we're at it, this whole "I <3 New York" thing is nothing more than a declaration of war on the cultural vibrancy and radical politics of NYC, so the fact that this moron of a mayor suggested getting rid of her bag is like her retiring a white supremacist standard.

It's true. The phrase itself really started becoming popular and commodified around the same time as Guiliani's policies to basically gentrify the ever living hell out of everything in New York and kick homosexuals, low income folk, sex workers, drug dealers, and people of color out of the times square area and turn it into a giant new year's even billboard.

Samuel Delaney's amazing essay collection/book Times Square Red, Times Square Blue explains this in a lot better detail. But you're basically visiting a glorified Disney theme park subsection whenever you go to time square.

So "I <3 New York" is just a rallying cry for turning NYC into a gigantic sterile shopping mall patrolled by paramilitaries and Homeland security has cameras just about every where along there. It's such a generic concept that the logo and song came straight from an ad agency as well.

How did it all start? Well, the bankruptcy of NYC in 1977 was one of the opening acts of neoliberalism in the global north and neutered many of the social democratic institutions, like free tuition of Cuny. Which was the Harvard of the proletariat. NYC was also the epicenter of the USPS strike of the 1970, which to my knowledge was the closest thing to a general strike in the modern era. Nixon actually had to call in the National Guardsmen to sort mail and keep the great society and wall street runny.

In the past two decades, NYC mayoral politics have generated the authoritarian ghoul Giuliani and the closest thing to a real life Lex Luther, Bloomberg. For a cinematic view of how much the city has changed, compare Dog Day Afternoon to Sex and the City. One boils with class conflict and sexual confusion, while the other is about millionaire hedonism. Pop in Taxi Driver and then put in Enchanted. You'll see the fucking difference that area has gone through.

So yeah, I know a good thing or two about New York history. So when I say I hate New York. I mean I hate New Yorkers. As for the city itself. the best I can must is a I*shrug*NY