Kevin's GLAAD posting back in JUL 01

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: I'm new to the board, but a long-time Kevin Smith/Scott Mosier fan. I was reading Kevin's post about the letter he recieved from GLAAD about "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back". I'm sure this is old news to the rest of the board, but I was so dissapointed at the letter that I really felt moved to write to Scott Seomin and express my feelings in defense of Kevin Smith and the View Askew family. I'm enclosing a copy so that this WWW Board along with Kevin can read what I wrote. I hope my feelings reflect the feelings of us all in lieu of Kevin's post and his feelings of being slammed by the very organization that he so openly supported in "Chasing Amy". I encourage you all to respond to me with your thoughts and opinions on my letter. : Thanks, : Kacey Damaty : : Dear Mr. Seomin, : : I'm contacting you on behalf of a community, as well as an individual. That community is one with no name, and no location, but one with a mindset that is openly tolerant, and a strong desire to open the minds of others. The individual is "Chasing Amy" director, Kevin Smith. I do not claim to be their one voice, but I do assume to be arrogant enough to speak in their defense. I'm unaware of what has transpired between you and Kevin on the matter of his upcomming release "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back", and I don't presume to know. I do, however wish to emphasize how utterly outrageous I think it is that you would, instead of taking what you know of Kevin's past work and accepting his conversation with you as assurance that he is NOT intolerant of the gay community, extrapellate funds for GLAAD from him in order to "allay GLAAD's fear's" as Kevin states your conversation went. It's unfortunate that an artist, who in the past has been openly supportive of the gay community, is now being condemned by the very minority he supports. As a straight person who has many homosexual friends and one gay family member, I'm offended at the hypocracy I see within the gay community. Similar to the African American argument that they can use the word "nigga" (a direct refrence to the word nigger) with one another in a "brotherly" way, the homosexual community is laden with men and women who call themselves "fags" and "dykes" with pride. (some of whom I've met) In both cases, each minority group is then suddenly offened when members outside of their communities use those words, be it for art or liturature, and not in a hateful way, to prove a social point. By each community using derogatory words with eachother, they themselves are justifying the use of the words for the rest of the world. The hypocracy is when the communities turn on the whole of society and say that the use of those words is "offensive" and "demeaning". I ask you Mr. Seomin, if in fact they are so offensive, why is GLAAD not as outspoken toward the members of their own community using these "offensive" terms. I'm sure you'll state that GLAAD has never condoned the uses of those terms by the gay community, but the fact that GLAAD does not come down as hard on the gay people who speak that way is a condonement in it's own right. : How does this relate to Kevin Smith's work? As someone who has, openly admitted to his homosexual tendencys in the past with no apologies and, has spent money and talent on making a movie in support of the gay community ("Chasing Amy"), Kevin can hardly be categorized as someone who is insensitive to gay issues. Each of Kevin's movies, regardless of content, have specific messages about life, love, and society. The deliverance of these messages are satirical, comical, and serious, but this does not change the message. : I encourage you to rethink your actions and words in relation to Kevin's newest cinematic release, and try to open your mind to the message, or lack there of, that he is trying to convey. : It's just a movie, and what people choose to do, or how they choose to act after seeing it, is exactly that: their choice. You can't control the choices of humans, you can only educate them to be tolerant of others choices. : Kacey Damaty

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