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Art as Activism By: Matthew Patterson on 11/6/2004; 11:03 PM There's one particular medieval legend that has always amused me somewhat. Thomas Aquinas was held in such high esteem that he was made a saint only fifty years after his death. Many churchmen viewed this quick canonization with suspicion, wondering exactly what he had done to deserve it. What miracles had he worked? All he did was write a famous book! The pope allegedly got in the last word, thus ending the matter: "Every word he wrote was a miracle." In a rather roundabout way, this is how I feel about the nature of leadership and service in the gay and lesbian community. We're not all miracle workers. We can't all be Matthew Gallagher (head of DignityUSA, the national organization for GLBT Catholics) or Rice's own Dr. Lynne Huffer. The important thing, I feel, is that we all do what we can. We put our full identity into everything we do, whether it's writing books or starring in plays or winning political victories. I may not be running for office, or lobbying full-time in Washington for my pet causes, but I show the world who I am and what I'm about in all my public acts. The best example of this, I feel, is my participation in the Rice Players production of The Laramie Project this fall. I was extremely fortunate to play the role of Jedadiah Schultz, a straight University of Wyoming theatre major whose personal experiences on stage, conflicts with his parents, and exposure to Matthew Shepard's beating cause him to drastically reshape his views about gay people and the morality of homosexuality. What distinguishes Jedadiah from most other characters in the play, I think, is that we see him at several points throughout the production, and we are exposed to every step of his thinking along the way. We don't just see him at the beginning disliking gay people, and then at the end miraculously converted. We show the audience how an utterly average middle American teenager can change his views. To borrow a line from another character, I hope I did this service well. I hope I did it with some integrity. From my own perspective as a thoroughly out gay man, it can be difficult sometimes to see how the other side thinks. It was a challenge, initially, to get into Jedadiah's head, to understand how he starts out the play so I could understand how to take him where he needed to go. Ultimately, this process benefited everyone. It allowed me to understand better the opinions of people who don't already agree with me on gay issues (and as the 2004 election has shown, these people are legion), and (at least, I hope) it gave everyone in the audience a better understanding of how to change. What I was trying to convey is that it's just not enough to sit back and claim that "these people" over here aren't worthy of my consideration, because I'm not one of "them," and what "they" are after can't possibly have anything to do with my interests. Like it or not, we all live in this state, this country, this world, and there's just no point in dividing ourselves into arbitrarily opposing groups. Jedadiah ultimately comes to understand that people are people, that when one person suffers, all suffer, and this is a model for anyone who sits in the audience and sees his story. And really, isn't that the ultimate essence of activism? We tend to think of these things in terms of higher abstractions, I know. We say "I raised X dollars for the Anti-Defamation League," or "I convinced my mother to vote against enshrining discrimination into the state constitution." But when you take a step back and look closer, all you can ultimately do is change minds. Change one mind, and you get a donation. Change a bunch of them, and you defeat a ballot measure. Swing everyone in a district, and you change a congressman's vote. Sway everyone in the country, and you elect a new President. (Well, that's more of a long-term project, but the principle is the same.) If we're going to call ourselves activists and leaders, we each have to do this in any way possible, and I feel that my art is a perfectly valid method of reaching people. True, it doesn't involve me waving a sign at the state capitol, or getting signatures on petitions, but every scene I performed involved a direct connection between me and the members of the audience, and maybe, just maybe, they left the theatre with an opinion different from the one they came in with. To paraphrase that old medieval pope, I may not have made the evening news, but every line I spoke was activism.
RE: Art as Activism By: Matthew Patterson on 11/6/2004; 11:06 PM I should explain: I wrote this essay as a scholarship application for Rice University's Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association. Trouble is, I don't actually make a habit of political activism, as I don't typically have time to go around waving signs. But I *have* done some things that, I think, advance "the cause" as much as any act of civil disobedience, and this is my attempt at persuading rich people to give me money for them. I just wondered what you all might think.
RE: Art as Activism By: Matthew Patterson on 11/15/2004; 4:40 PM Well, the scholarship committee didn't buy it. Honestly, I'm not sure I do either, but it was worth a shot.
RE: Art as Activism By: Chie Theresa Fujioka on 11/18/2004; 5:03 PM these people are legion *wink* wish i could have seen it, peppermint.
RE: Art as Activism By: Richard Davidson on 11/18/2004; 9:31 PM You want rich people to give gay and lesbian people money? Why not go to rich gay and lesbian people? I always thought the percentages would favor that. Am I crazy? Will it work? Don't answer the first question.
RE: Art as Activism By: Matthew Patterson on 11/18/2004; 10:02 PM They... *are* rich gay and lesbian people. See the bit where I said "Gay and Lesbian Alumni Association"?
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