However, it has tended to require that queers model their self-expression and negotiate their relationships in very specific ways in order to be included in the progress. The formula of “visibility equals political progress” has been wildly successful for the LGBTQ movement. (That’s as far as I’ll get into processing the racial politics of this video’s popularity, but suffice it to say they play a part here.) Remix parodies of the testimony arrived right on schedule, and the standard response has converged on an “oh lord, look at this queen” head shake. Caldwell’s specific example is all the more potent, given his sartorial boldness and the effervescent worship style common to many predominately African American churches. His open-secret, self-sacrificial lifestyle choice reads as pathetic from the (secular) out point-of-view, and so giggling at him is easy. And why not? The “church queen”-the closeted gay man who sublimates his sexuality in service of the church, often in an artistic capacity like choir director-is a familiar and oft-derided figure.
When the gay blogs initially covered the video’s viral breakout, most posted it with little commentary other than a general suggestion that this object was patently risible. Tellingly, most seem to have gone with their guts, and the laughing option seems to have been the most popular.
