DAVE MUSTAINE VS. GREG PUCIATO: THE GAY MARRIAGE DEBATE

It’s a Presidential election year here in the U.S., meaning we’ll be hearing a whole lot of political opinion from anyone who cares to share it. That includes metal musicians (Gawker is even keeping a running list!), which is great for us because people luurrrrrrv to get riled up about politics in our comments section and we love sitting back and watching the sparks fly. Shit, last week when Dave Mustaine endorsed Rick Santorum and ya’ll topped the 100 comment mark. Fish in a barrel.

The latest topic du jour: gay marriage. Jesus Dave Mustaine loves to support full free-market capitalism but can’t support freedom in one’s own home — surprise! — while The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato published an unrelated anti-homophobia rant on his own personal website. Let’s take a look:

First, Dave was recently asked his viewpoint on gay marriage and this was his answer:

Well, since I’m not gay, the answer to that would be no.

The break in logic here is just astounding. By Dave’s gospel I wouldn’t be able to support equal rights for African Americans because I’m not black. Dave was then questioned if he would support legislation to make marriage between a man and another man legal. He replied:

I’m Christian. The answer to that would be no.

And here’s where Puciato comes in. Greg’s rant isn’t about gay marriage, per se — it’s about rampant homophobia in the U.S. (and metal scene in particular) and how the unfortunate connection between religion and American governmental policy is responsible for that attitude — but it’s not hard to connect Point A to Point B to determine what Greg’s stance on the marriage issue would be. Greg’s post is a response to a fan question asking why he thinks homophobia is such a big problem in the metal scene, and here’s his answer:

I really think masculinity insecurity issues are the problem, and listening to testosterone charged music and putting on a tough guy front enables the people with those issues to live in a sort of constructed “man suit”, helping them to feel more adequate in their gender/sex role confusion. It masks the fact that they probably need therapy to deal with whatever went wrong in their transition from boyhood to manhood.  Combine that with lack of education and culture, two things that we have a massive problem with in the US, and there you have it.

It grosses me out. I think the younger generations are obviously progressing, everything progresses with time, but it’s annoying to wait for the world around you to play catch up when you’re already on that level.  Understanding of homosexuality is one of the largest humanist issues of our time. Well, that and educating people about the evils that organized religion have perpetuated in society. Those two things go hand in hand really. It’s frustrating that the United States leans so much on Christianity politically, a religion that teaches at its fundamental core complete intolerance toward homosexuality. Every time a candidate endorses Christianity or uses it as a tool to get votes of bible belt states, he’s saying “go fuck yourselves” to all of the gay population.

The problem needs to be dissolved through different angles. Proper education and culture exposure will catch everyone up, but again, waiting is annoying….and I totally see what you are saying about the comical false masculinity that is unfortunately prevalent in metal and hip hop and country music. It’s not a coincidence that homophobia is most rampant in those three genres, and that those genres are primarily embraced by low income groups, groups that have low exposure to quality education, and almost no exposure to travel or different cultures. Punk and hardcore ethics have always been more refreshing and progressive, however, which is partly why we as a band feel more aligned with those movements than with “metal” as far as mindset. The real movements, not the “check it out I’m wearing a CBGB’s shirt I bought at Nordstroms” mall versions.

Sorry I’m rambling…too much caffeine to type this very coherently, but it is something I actually feel fairly passionately about so I’m glad you brought it up. I scroll through most of these but this I felt I needed to say something about. If we ever do a show that I feel is gonna have an overtly high level of homophobes in the audience, I promise to wear a shirt that has a picture of a dude sucking a cock on the front of it or something. Funny how the same people who would act violently offended by that would probably cheer if there were two girls making out or going down on one another onstage. Like I said, fucking insecure babies trapped in man bodies. Masculinity insecurity issues. Hopefully they’ll all have gay kids.

Let me also throw in how proud we are as a band that our fans appear to be accepting and tolerant and progressive as well. Haven’t met a DEP fan ever that didn’t seem like a quality human being. I’m pretty sure that we turn everyone off that isn’t that way. I’d like to at least. Don’t come in here with that shit.

As for you, the person who submitted this question….don’t let that shit get you down. Feeling ostracized may sting at times, but the truth is that you’re a forward person in a primitive time. Moving at a faster speed than others. Being ahead of the pack? That’s called being a leader. Embrace it.

It’d be easy to label Greg as a liberal elitist for lines like “lack of education and culture” and “it’s annoying to wait for the world around you to play catch up when you’re already on that level,” but the fact is that he’s right. Mustaine should know better, having traveled the world many times over and encountered many different cultures (although I have no idea what his education and upbringing were like), or does he keep himself that isolated these days that he doesn’t ever come into contact with gay people? Maybe his mind is just that clouded and corrupted by the drug known as religion… or weed.

History will prove who’s on the right side of the gay marriage debate and who’s on the wrong side. Fifty years from now people will look back and say “Wow… I can’t believe how homophobic and discriminatory they were back in the early 2000s,” much the same way we look back on the U.S. south in the ’40s, ’50s and even ’60s — it wasn’t that long ago. Popular opinion is already shifting.

-VN