Gossip, name-calling, & scandalous rumors—anybody can be seduced (or harmed) by the slanderous tabloids that have recently gained popularity in the gay world. I am instantly reminded of the sneaky fighting portrayed in the ever-so-popular Mean Girls film. A jungle-like “survival of the fittest” (or perhaps “meanest”) has taken precedent among social scenes as a way of establishing prestige, gaining popularity, and appeasing jealousy. Well, for those of you who have watched Mean Girls, you know that there was a morale to be learned and consequences to be paid for all who let themselves get caught up in the vicious attacks that took place in the form of whispers, pranks, and within the pages of the infamous Burn Book.
As fictitious as that movie may be, it has themes I feel are very relevant to a similar issue that has surfaced within our community. To be more specific: a current and local Burn Book has taken the more evolved and modern form of a blog site.
Recently this blog site has featured posts about members of the Genesis Project and other members of the LGBT community. Some (not all) of the postings featured hurtful and unqualified statements that inspired more inappropriate comments and a dangerous following.
Genesis Project would like to stress to you how detrimental a site of this nature can be to our local gay community, as well as to friends and families who might happen upon such a site. First of all, such cowardly dialogue does nothing to improve relationships among our already small and persecuted interest group. In fact, it only weakens us against our oppressors, for we subject ourselves to devices that would divide us where we should be united as fellow gay men, as friends, and as a community.
Genesis Project understands the appeal that such a website might have for those of you seeking entertainment by such a hip, fashion-forward medium. And to that interest, we have developed this blog for you—a blog that will not hide authorship behind a pseudonym—a blog that will only promote healthy and positive images of our community members—and a blog invested with helpful resources, engaging topics, and a socially responsible form of entertainment that can be enjoyed by everyone, without the snobbish quality of exclusion that has become the shameful skeleton of inferior, less dignified websites.
We ask that you divert your attention from “Burn Book” websites that depend on your participation to survive, and instead follow our blog site, where we can offer you a legitimate and credible portal where you can express yourself openly and creatively in an environment that will help to rebuild our community.
Thank you,
Jesse Zamora, GP Co-Coordinator
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