Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00147)

At 10:09 AM 5/3/96 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi Alexis --
>>>>cut<<<<<<<
>
>wow --
>I think Keith just inadvertently found one of Alexis' "buttons."  Re-read
>Keith's post; it doesn't contain the word "fag", and "fruitcake" doesn't
>mean the same thing -- at least, it doesn't in Texas.  I wouldn't presume to
>speak for things in California, but I have been privileged to live in
>various parts of Texas for 40 years (including Houston, Keith's home) and I
>can't remember ever hearing anyone use "fruitcake" in the sense that Alexis
>thought Keith was.

Jim: He certainly has "touched one of my buttons"! I have been a Gay
Activist since the middle 1950's. I got started way before it was
"fashionable". Now, in the last many years of my life I have lived in New
York City, Boston, Tampa Florida, Europe, and now California, and in
everyplace that I have heretofore lived "fruitcake" is a slang expression
for Gay. Not as nasty as some expressions but none the less offensive.The
fact that Franklin Jones (aka "Da Free John, Bubba Free John etc.) IS a gay
man made it all the more suspicious.

 Now I know Texas is idiosyncratic (I read Molly Ivins everyday) but I
didn't know it was THAT idiosyncratic. If people in Texas use "fruitcake" as
a synonym for "nutty" then perhaps Keith was an innocent man unjustly
accused. But in any case, we live in a big country and now he knows that
"fruitcake" is offensives to millions of his fellow Americans, so perhaps he
won't use it again. It's very important for all Americans and all people
everywhere to remember that we are out of the closet and we're not going
back in. When we find something offensive we no longer cower in fear.


>There are several words that seem to mean different things to different
>people in Theosophy (Brotherhood, psychism, and so on) and and using them
>can cause occasional flare ups and arguments, but I don't think this should
>be one of them.

I don't think this little contre temps has anything to do with Theosophy. It
has to do with apparent homophobia and that has only one aspect that
connects it to theosophy and that is that it certainly doesn't "jibe" with
the First Object.
>
>I'm pretty sure Keith used the word the same way I would: a fruitcake is
>something full of nuts... and little colored, unidentifiable things... that
>comes around every so often, un-asked for, and no one is really sure what to
>do with it when it arrives...
>
>:)
>Jim
>
Jim:

I hope you're right about Keith's "inadvertency" but I'd rather hear it from
him. I do appreciate your efforts: "Blessed are the Peacemakers". I would
far rather that you were correct in your assessment than that I am. I don't
like to think that Theosophists can be bigots but I sadly have some past
experience that they can. None the less, and old activist is like an old
fire horse..ring the bell and out we charge!

cordially
alexis do.
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