As for Orlando, I have been angry and sad. Extremely sad, and extremely angry. I am angry at the politicians who jump up and say “We are praying for you.” Don’t pray – ACT. And I’m sorry, but when the rest of the year you are using your efforts to pass legislation to allow businesses and individuals to discriminate based on so-called deeply held religious beliefs, and passing laws like HB2 that marginalize our community, categorizing us with pedophiles and social deviants, your prayers are hollow and worthless. How quickly some have jumped on this tragedy to call for a ban on Muslims – protect our citizens from foreigners! He wasn’t a foreigner – he was born and raised in America. “We are all Americans!” Oh, except when it comes to things like marriage equality, job and housing protection, adoption rights, serving openly in the military, or even being able to pee in peace. And I hear, “So Islam is the religion of peace? You gonna take your rainbow flag down to the mosque and ask them about the shooter?” Sure, as soon as I visit the preacher in Sacramento, the one in Arizona, and the Orthodox Jew who are all celebrating the shooter, lamenting only that he didn’t finish the job. Muhammad Ali was a Muslim who beat up white Christians for the most part for a living – no one gave a rat’s ass about his religion. Almost as bad are the people who say “Where is all this supposed hate focused on the LGBT community? The people I know and work with have their own stuff to worry about without caring about the gay people. Stop being so dramatic.” Point these people to the aforementioned preachers, along with an entire collection of Tweets from twits expressing the same sentiment about how great it is that 50 less perverts are in the world. Seriously, that letter (“I don’t see the hate”) was in the N&O the same day as a letter from Rexford Alexander from Apex, NC who reserves the right to his opinion that gays are deviants and our political leaders who push for acceptance and equality are leading us into the sewers. For the record, he had little sympathy for the victims. Online, one of the elected officials from Wake County NC very eloquently told him to go home, shut his pie hole, and keep his ignorant opinions to himself. I sent him a note to thank him. I hope he gets re-elected when the time comes.
If anyone wants to sign Rexford C Alexander up for any magazine subscriptions his address is: 4315 Mandaville Way, Apex NC 27539 or just call and say “hi” at 919-267-6131
I find it very telling that the father of the shooter was adamant that this was not a religion-inspired incident, but that it was anti-gay. That tells me that in his mind, and clearly in the minds of many others, that makes it less horrific. It takes me back a couple of years when there was a suggestion that Matthew Sheppard was killed not because he was gay, but over a drug deal. If that is the case, then the killers figured that the penalty would be less for killing a gay guy (using the “Gay Panic” defense) than killing a guy over a drug deal gone bad. What the hell?? And what feeds this line of thinking are the politicians and religious leaders who continue to say that LGBT are 2nd class citizens, who don’t deserve the same rights, who aren’t as valued as “normal” members of society. The asshat from the group in Colorado Springs had an opinion piece in the paper last week, weighing in on the transgender bathroom issue. He used a statistic about how trans youth are significantly more likely to attempt or commit suicide. What he left out is WHY. They are more likely to commit suicide because people like him tell these kids they are damaged, broken, wrong, sinful, and sick. THAT is why they don’t want to live.
I am so grateful that I have a loving, supportive family. I am lucky to have a partner and friends. I know right from wrong, and as strong as my emotions are, I would never do anything extreme to harm another human being (short of self defense or defense of my loved ones). However, if someone blew up the NRA convention, it would be very difficult for me to be sympathetic. If Pat Robertson dropped dead today, I wouldn’t shed a tear. People like that make it very hard to remember there are good people in the world. But I’m trying.
-e
elliotsez 