So Austria must be a really accepting place to send a bearded drag queen to the Eurovision Song Contest.

Well actually not at all. I wish Austria was as accepting, yet in reality Austria is more homophobic than most other countries in Europe.

Well why then, you ask, would they send Conchita Wurst to the song contest? Actually it’s as simple as it is sad.

No one cares about Eurovision. It has zero effect on anything, so it does not matter one bit who sings there. At the same time, the world is growing ever more accepting. There are people even asking for marriage equality, how dare they.

Austria is using Conchita a fig leaf. Now they can refuse any real policy of acceptance, anything truly meaningful, and at the same time lay a claim to being a forward thinking place.

So while I would love to live I a society that was truly accepting, Austria is not it. So how can we prevent this from becoming a phyrric victory? We have to force ahead and now ask for real change rather than just for show.