Heckle Hustle – Crazy Wagon Part I

I seriously thought this was going to be a quiet week, after my rant on the Mixed Cheerios commercial, but I see the crazy wagon is on parade this week.  Let me make this disclaimer up front….I do not have a problem with the LGBT community.  I embrace their work like it’s my own, and I am glad that the LGBT community as a whole is being recognized for who they are. However, heckling Michelle Obama is where I will draw the line.

Michelle Obama, a.k.a., the President’s Wife, was giving a speech yesterday, when mid-speech, she was heckled by Ellen Sturtz, LGBT activist and GetEQUAL advocate. Mrs. Obama was giving the speech at a private residence, on children, for the Democratic National Committee (DNC). While gender equity is important, to say the least (Ms. Sturtz's rant), interrupting the First Lady is not the way to get the message out there.

In my mind, gender equity in the LGBT community is no more important than the counter-culture of the U.S. Military that says it is okay to sexually harass its male and female members. Not more important than the women and children in African and Middle Eastern countries that have little or no access to food and water.  All of this is important….right now.  Interrupting the First Lady, however, is classless and Ms. Sturtz’s outburst will do nothing to rid us of our problems or any negative image of LGBT community.

The underlying message that Mrs. Obama sent to Ms. Sturtz when she approached her, was the audacity of this woman to interrupt her when she was, in all likelihood, the very person brow-beating the President to change his mind on gay and lesbian marriage in this country.  I can imagine countless conversations between the President and Mrs. Obama about “doing the right thing” by the people---and really, Obama wasn’t talking, but listening. And this is what you do to say thank you?

A journalist on CNN this morning made a very astute observation about the LGBT community by noting that the LGBT community wants everything all at once.  As a black woman let me just tell you….it doesn’t happen that way.  We are still fighting for equal rights. It takes time and it certainly takes intelligent conversation. It takes protesting, writing, arguing with family and neighbors about what should be, can be and ought to be. Notice the word heckle is not there.

To heckle in a private residence, is, by itself, disrespectful of the occupants and their privacy.  To heckle the President’s wife is just mean-spirited. But, Ms. Sturtz has been Michellerized, and hopefully she will at recognize when and where to do the heckle hustle.