A gay old motley crew
by Matt Worley

I'm a little disappointed with humanity this week. This concerns me a bit because I hear there's a new classification for us humans: Type H--Hostile. I don't want to be a hostile person. And I certainly don't want to be labeled as a Type H. But I can't help feeling something is wrong here. Maybe some priorities are out of whack, or there are a few people not using their free time wisely. Our ugliness waved around in big banners this week, and I've got to bitch about something.

I was watching MTV News earlier this week and caught a snippet of concert footage from a recent Motley Crue concert. Apparently one of the security guards was being a little hostile and pushed or hit a concert goer. The members of the band saw this, stopped the show, and began to berate the already irate security guard.

This happens quite a bit at concerts, by the way. Security guards aren't off-duty cops, or even car lot watchers--security is made up of huge guys who are bouncers or doormen when they aren't guarding stages at concerts. They don't care about the music, they don't care about the fans or the band. They care about getting paid and making sure the concert goes off without problems. Fans can be totally irrational when they go to concerts. I've seen people light their hands on fire, rip up chairs and throw them at the stage, trample others and throw everything from empty beer cups to full beer cups to water bottles and t-shirts.

Security guards don't really like this uninhibited exhibition of craziness. Some of them go over the line to correct the situation. Usually they get called out on their actions, as well. Band members spit on security, taunt them into fights on-stage and other less happy actions.

Nikki Sixx took to the microphone to denigrate the security guard who abused a fan at this concert. His diatribe went on about how the band wouldn't play anymore and it was all the security guards fault. He encouraged fans to try and beat up the security (not too many fans thought this was a good idea). And then he got personal and even more stupid.

The security guard began to climb up on-stage, allowing Sixx to see him in full spotlight. The guard's work mates pulled him back down as Sixx changed the tone of his speech, "You fucking nigger..." It got worse. It doesn't matter.

There are reasons to call security on their behavior. While they are there to keep things from getting violent, their usual reaction to spurts of violence is more violence. It is a problem. But it has nothing to do with the security's skin color. And it has nothing to do with ugly labels and names. There were a lot of reasons not to see Motley Crue in concert before Sixx's outburst--I thought I'd just add another one to the list.

In other news, President Clinton addressed a homosexual rights gathering in Washington Saturday night. He was the first standing (or sitting) president to speak at a gay-rights dinner ever. The speech was nothing new, really. Lots of talk about togetherness and responsibility and so forth. The president rarely makes interesting speeches these days, even if where he is speaking might be a new and progressive move.

The most interesting speech came from outside the gathering, around the nation. Robert Knight of the Family Research Council (I love these organizational names, even if they seem to only represent the spokesman's views) said, "It's disgraceful for the president who says he cares about young people's health enough to oppose smoking to openly embrace a group that promotes a far deadlier lifestyle."

I just want to point out a couple tidbits of info to the glorious Mr. Knight. AIDS is not a gay disease, it is a sexually transmitted disease. And everyone who has sex will not get AIDS. And everyone who has gay sex will not get AIDS. Even if everyone who has AIDS or has died of AIDS was gay, the number of deaths from smoking would blow the number of AIDS deaths out of the Pacific Ocean in a fist fight.

Either way, I think it's disgraceful that anyone might suggest that smoking tobacco is safer than being gay.

Matt Worley also believes it is much safer to be gay than to be at a Motley Crue concert--unless you happen to be gay and at the Motley Crue concert.

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