Lest We Forget

[mishalak]

The gay rights movement really is necessary. I suspect that with most of the people who read my journal this is preaching to the choir, but I hope that someone will read this and understand that though the news focuses on just things like marriage there is still a lot of basic human rights work to be done. I write this because I read in Lawrence Schimel's journal that a friend of his, Paul Willis, was attacked and severely beaten on Saturday. He is in hospital and the doctors say that he'll never be able to see from his right eye again. And this isn't news, this isn't something that will be widely condemned, things like this probably happen every single day in America. Matthew Shepard was not the last guy killed in America for being gay, he's just one of the most dramatic stories.

If you are a conservative I want you to understand that the news isn't an accurate portrayal of what gays are after. Though we want things like marriage rights we are more basically looking to change the nation so that five youths won't jump out of a van and beat another human being for looking too gay. That I am not being hysterical when I point out that gays are still being persecuted in this way and I want you to look hard at candidates who say things like they don't want "special rights" for gays. Because they might not be saying what their words literally mean, it could be a code word phrase meaning "I will wink at crimes against homosexuals".

Comments

[armoire-man.livejournal.com]

Anyone who winks at gay bashing shouldn't be in office.

Having been chased down the street by three men who wanted to kick the crap out of me for looking "too gay" (that is, wearing jeans and a teeshirt and sneakers or something incredibly "gay" like that), I know it's just an excuse to beat someone up. This year's model.

And I'm glad I don't own a gun, or they'd be dead and I'd be in jail.

Bastard people

[(Anonymous)]

I keep hoping things like that are in decline, and then find out they aren't. I still remember the time your Beloved Spouse and I were walking around in Glendale outside the firehouse when one of us (I forget which now) was really upset. She had her arm around my shoulders, I believe, when a carful of drunken idjits took exception that and yelled anti-gay epithets at us. She took immediate and vocal exception to their idiocy; it was fairly frightening. --Rose

Re: Bastard people

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

I've had "faggot" yelled at me when I was just driving around listening to Mozart. Not out in tight jeans, not huging a guy, just driving thourh downtown with my windows down on a warm summers night listening to classical music.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Anyone who winks at gay bashing shouldn't be in office.

I'm almost sure I don't need to say so, but while ideally that would be so in the real world politicians never make it crystal clear where they stand. They let their constituants know where they stand without saying so directly, or maybe not even meaning it, they might just be giving the appearance slyly nodding to the homophobes without meaning it (as Phill Gramm has done). This can make it impossible to tell who is honestly saying they don't want special rights and who is giving the old nudge, nudge.

"We support the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values…" -Republican Party Platform, 2000

Now does that mean appoint judges who'll let gay bashers go on technicalities or just judges who don't believe that marriage is a fundamental right and so does not have to be extended to homosexual couples? Or somewhere in between?

Where would you put this?
"The homosexual blitzkrieg has been better planned and executed than Hitler's." - Rep. William Dannemeyer (R-CA), The New Republic, 1994 Aug. 1st

Things like this have been said by most politicians on the right at one time or another if it suits thier needs.

Short Sentences, Because I'm Too Angry for Anything Else

[thette.livejournal.com]

In Iran, homosexual men are executed. (I don't think homosexual women have it quite that bad; the willful ignoring of women's sexuality is a mixed curse.)

People being persecuted for their race, creed or sexual inclination (etc) have the right to political asylum in Sweden. Yet, plenty of Iranian homosexuals are deported back.

Why? Because someone saw two men walking hand in hand on the streets of Teheran without anybody noticing.

Never mind the cultural differences in expression of friendship; never mind the asylum given to Iranian homosexuals who have their story published in the news, thus outing their own judgement as wrong.

Re: Short Sentences, Because I'm Too Angry for Anything Else

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

They're executed in Saudi Arabia too. Suposidly America also will offer asylum, but it isn't at all easy to get it. I know a guy who will have to go back.