Wednesday, April 18, 2007
(Weekly Column)
In trying to beat back a growing wave of support for federal hate crime legislation, the right wing was up to its most dastardly and divisive old tricks. On April 17, they had scheduled a
media conference at the National Press Club pairing so-called "ex-gays" with anti-gay black ministers. Their goal was to drive a wedge between the African American and GLBT communities by cynically sending the repulsive and incorrect message that homosexuality is unnatural and changeable, while race is immutable and genetic.
It turns out, however, that their science is as bad as their political acumen. The event had to be cancelled at the last minute, following the murderous rampage at Virginia Tech. Although the motive is still under investigation, a pro-hate conference became a liability with the worst killing spree in American history dominating the news. The ghoulish images that saturated television coverage had people calling for more law enforcement protection, at a time when our opponents were calling for less.
On the other side of Washington, the Human Rights Campaign
deftly organized and deployed
220 supportive clergy members from all 50 states, on the day the U.S. House's Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security heard testimony on the hate crime bill. (On April 12, the "Matthew Shepard Act" hate crime bill was introduced
in the Senate.)
On the Hill, the subcommittee heard testimony from a strong line-up of bipartisan witnesses including Utah's Republican Attorney General Mark Shurtleff; George Washington University Law School Dean Frederick Lawrence; hate crime victim David Ritcheson of Harris County, Texas; and Jack McDevitt, associate dean at Northeastern University.
The most powerful witness was Ritcheson, 18, who was pulverized by skinheads last April and sodomized with the plastic pole of a patio umbrella while his two assailants yelled anti-Hispanic slurs. He required thirty surgeries before he was on the mend.
"My name is David Ritcheson and I appear before you as a survivor of one of the most despicable and shocking acts of hate violence this country has seen in a decade," Ritcheson told the House panel, according to
The Associated Press.
In order to counter such powerful stories, groups like the Family Research Council have resorted to outright lies. For example, they oppose protections against hate crimes based on gender identity and sexual orientation claiming that people should not be prosecuted for their "thoughts."
Tellingly, they have not lobbied very hard to repeal hate crime laws based on religion that have been on the books since 1969. The only thought crime here, is that their transparent anti-gay bias is, quite frankly, thoughtless and criminal.
The hypocrisy deepens when one considers that right wing groups (rightfully) support American intervention when Christians are brutalized overseas. If the federal government can sanction foreign governments for religion-based hate crimes, why does FRC have a problem with the FBI investigating hate crimes against gay people in the states?
While the right wing does not openly advocate hate violence, they have a dirty little secret. Their leaders know that the threat of anti-gay brutality helps keep many homosexuals in the closet, thus limiting the GLBT community's political power. An oppressive climate of fear serves as a useful tool in the religious right's mean-spirited culture war. This is why they so adamantly oppose GLBT-inclusive anti-bullying measures in public schools.
Federal hate crime laws do not regulate thought, as the right disingenuously claims. What it does, however, is allow the FBI and Justice Department to investigate bias crimes. It also gives local law enforcement the financial aid and technical resources it needs to solve these offenses, which tear at the social fabric of entire communities.
Of course, I fully expect President George W. Bush to veto this legislation once it passes the House and the Senate. Hopes that Bush might do the right thing, rather than the right wing thing, faded years ago, along with the misnomer of "compassionate conservatism." However, the massacre in Blacksburg has focused the nation's attention on the need to stop pointless violence. This macabre event greatly raises the stakes for an unpopular president who will pay a political price for vetoing this popular and bipartisan legislation.
24 Comments:
This president will not lift a finger to help gays and lesbians, period. He has nothing to lose anymore. He is not running for any office; he has already lost most of his party's support over Iraq, although only now is this lack of support beginning to show itself publicly; there is no hope that his approval ratings will rise significantly before he leaves office. So why should he give a damn what the public thinks anymore? Since his re-election, he hasn't respected the will of the people on any issue, and with nothing to gain or lose, he will be quite content to just carry on with his discriminatory practices.
Every day we get new reports of gays and lesbians being murdered in cold blood in Iraq, with this so called nascent government closing its eyes to the bloodshed. And yet our president has not once spoken out against such brutality. We have many homosexual men and women fighting in Iraq, and yet our president ignores the fact that this Iraqi government, for all intents and purposes, supports the cold blooded murder of gay people.
Bush is a sociopath who has no conscience whatsoever, and the sooner he gets his ass out of office the better off our country and the entire world will be.
posted by zasu, at
4/18/2007 1:57 AM
WB While the right wing does not openly advocate hate violence, they have a dirty little secret. Their leaders know that the threat of anti-gay brutality helps keep many homosexuals in the closet, thus limiting the GLBT community's political power. An oppressive climate of fear serves as a useful tool in the religious right's mean-spirited culture war. This is why they so adamantly oppose GLBT-inclusive anti-bullying measures in public schools.
Agreed. "Depraved indifference" writ large.
posted by , at
4/18/2007 7:26 AM
Wayne, I agree with the thrust of your column, and it was gratifying that the right-wing attempt to pit gays against African Americans was derailed in at least this one instance following the Virginia Tech shootings.
Problematic in my view is your opinion that the US has a right to intervene to protect the lives of "Christians" in other lands. Any pretext for intervention is sufficient for a government which does the bidding of US based global corporations who couldn't care less about anything but the bottom line.
posted by Bob Schwartz, at
4/18/2007 9:27 AM
I don't know how these 'christians' can sleep at night!? As much as I 'hate' them, I would never want any of them (or their children) to be physically or psychologically abused. If there is a life after death, they have PLENTY to answer for!!
B. Queer
posted by , at
4/18/2007 9:28 AM
If the homosexuals and drag queens were not so flamboyant, they would not get bashed. If you people would just hide and keep your perverse proklivitees to yourselves, you would have nothing to worry about.
The closet protects you from harm, you see. So, go back in there and stop wearing dresses and holding hands in public. Act like MEN.
Buddy M.
posted by , at
4/18/2007 12:20 PM
Buddy dear, you misspelled 'proclivities'; why am I not surprised? If being a "MAN" means being a troglidyte like you, I'd rather be a classy, educated, sophisticated gay MAN who can spell!
posted by , at
4/18/2007 1:13 PM
The closet doesn't protect anyone from harm. First, the victims of the closet are the closeted themselves. They risk the psychological costs of trying to supress who they are, their reputations, credibility, livelihoods, and even personal safety by being in the closet. Look at the Ted Haggards of the world. Haggard lost his ministry, his job, and his credibility by being a closet case. It came out in the open and the consequences were not pleasant. Next, the victims are family members and people around them. How many closeted men put their wives at risk for STD's because they're secretly sleeping around with other guys? If these people are public figures, their closetness only encourages silence and efffectively keep gays and lesbians in the closet. The loud, homophobic closet cases do the most harm here.
Besen has a point. The closet is the right's way to silence the GLBT community, and by actively opposing or doing nothing to stop hate crimes, they have a means to shove all of us back into the closet and lock the door.
It's important to call them on their BS. I'm glad Wayne Besen does it.
posted by shinichi evans, at
4/18/2007 3:20 PM
Buddy M.
It Paines me as a gay man to hear that I should not hold hands in public,Humans are Humans,True Love knows No gender,true there in some large cities some (Some) Not all of the gay community may be a little too out there but being out of the closet does'nt always mean being flamboyant to show who one is,I guess me personaly, I like to say I'm out of the closet but sometimes because of reading comments like yours I have a little paranoia in public regarding my safey when I know I should'nt. You fail to understand what it's like, you can hold hands with a female while knowing no one says anything,try walking a mile in our shoes, it may just open your eyes.
posted by , at
4/18/2007 6:39 PM
In my state, if someone touches me first, I can defend myself.
In other words, I invite anyone who hates gays to come and place a finger on me.
posted by Corey, at
4/19/2007 8:55 AM
Buddy, I'll make you a deal: I'll hide myself in the closet like a good little fag if you and all of the hateful fundamnetalist so-called Christians give up the megachurches and start meeting in secret underground bunkers. The fact that some gays are flamboyant is no more problematic then the fact that some Christians are fantaical, deluded, hate-mongering fascists. You see, stereotypes work both ways.
The harder you force into the closet, the more vocal we're going to get.
--Johnny in Minneapolis
posted by , at
4/19/2007 9:24 AM
Let's face it, Buddy M's comments echo the overall sentiments of the majority of heterosexual people in this society, even among some socalled liberal democrats, though they want say it to your face. People like Buddy assume the air of sexual superiority and moral authority just because they are the majority, or could it be he's one of us? I find it odd that he's found this website to spew his venom. People like him hate us because they know that slowly but surely, we are winning our rights as insurmountable as that may seem at times to many of us. It is clear that heterosexuals are the ones who are insecure about their own orientation if you ask me. Maybe they envy us, and I believe many do for whatever reason, but lets not kid ourselves, deep down, they all wish we would disappear when we make their lives uncomfortable forcing them to deal with the truth about themselves. Any true heterosexual comfortable with his or her sexuality would not mouth off antigay epithets at us or admonish us to "behave" in public as Buddy and his ilk would have us do or better yet, feel threatened by our presence and influence in political life. Maybe it is they who have deeply rooted issues rather than us. Their antigay behavior is very questionable at best.
Robert, NYC.
posted by , at
4/19/2007 12:17 PM
This is what I just don't get.
Let's take a few simple illegal actions of a violent nature and try to figure out how any of them aren't based on hate:
Man A walks up to Man B that is sleeping with Man A's wife and punches him in the face.
That's not a hate crime?
Man A slips a roofie into Woman A's drink and then rapes her.
How is that not a hate crime?
My point? Does anyone seriously think that any form of violence from one human to another can be based on anything other than hate?
Sure, Stalker A thinks he loves Stalkee A. The old saying, think in one hand and crap in the other.
All forms of violence between humans is predicated on the basis of hate.
All forms of violence should be punished.
Equally.
posted by Jeffie Jeff, at
4/21/2007 11:52 PM
Lets just face it and understand the battle. It is certainly about America treating our LGBT citizens with full equality under the law, and respect as we want to be treated. But Bush wants the support of the American Taliban wannabee Christian fundamentalists who would turn this country into a Christian Saudi Arabia. Why does he want that support - so he and his super-rich buddies can get richer off the blood of our soldiers in Iraq, as his corporate pals steal their oil, but fortunately its not working out that way. The right to lifers, the same crowd who support Bush's Iraq catastrophe, are the worst people, their lives always based on hatred of someone to quell their own fears of whom they often are. In the past it was slavery, then Jim Crow virtual slavery, now it is hatred of gays. Their right wing religions - a total perversion of the meaning of Jesus' life on earth, practices mental abuse on them from an early age,(and lots of physical also) so they are loaded with anxieties that prevent them from understanding how they have been brainwashed. Why do the religions do that - to perpetuate their power and money into the future.
We should all support, personally and financially, our LGBT citizens quest for equality. The destruction and total disgrace of the Bush regime is America's #1 need, for if left unchecked, there will be nothing to save. America will be ruled by an extremist Christian version of the Taliban, and Bush will have set the stage for the end of civilization as he and his pals validate the concept of a clash of civilizations between Christianity and Islam.
I've also got to comment on the Iraq oil biz. In the early 50's, western oil companies were stealing Iran's oil, giving them 20% of the market price of oil, even though their costs of production were pennies per barrel. Mossadegh, the Iranian premier, nationalized their oil to fix this atrocity. The CIA created a coup, and installed the Shah back into Iran. The Shah became a tyrant, Khomeni and their religious extremists - same mentality type of people took over. So we had a religious madman take over. And it continues to this day. This is what Bush is setting up Iraq to become, but meanwhile the super-rich will get richer. It is as simple as that. Of course, the iraq catastrophe has moved the problem from being a 20-30 year out issue to the current destabilization of one of the worlds most volatile regions anyway. All in the name of religious extremist Christians, who are little different then their Islamic Brethren.
To Zasu - I'm not sure sociopath is the correct word. Maybe Psychopath is a better description.
posted by Steve in MD, at
4/23/2007 8:23 PM
To Buddy M
Who are you to decide who can hold hands, etc,etc. What you seem to forget is that the people who you support would bash you in the head for kissing your girlfriend or wife in public, once they gain total power.
And of course she would be forced to cover her hair with a Hijab, or perhaps wear formless clothes that hide her bodyshape, covering her from top of head to toe, and looking out through a veil. Oh that I could tell her what you stand for. She'd probably have your organ on the mantelpiece in a bottle of formaldehyde. But don't worry, you could take treatments and become a transgendered woman.
Ignorant slob you are..........It would be so funny.
posted by Steve in MD, at
4/23/2007 8:33 PM
"The fact that some gays are flamboyant is no more problematic then the fact that some Christians are fantaical, deluded, hate-mongering fascists. You see, stereotypes work both ways."
I'm glad to see someone understands that not all Christians are bad.
posted by , at
4/23/2007 11:06 PM
Buddy M is a fake person for the sake of confrontation and false stereotypes being perpetuated.
posted by , at
4/24/2007 7:44 AM
Regarding hate crimes laws, check out http://www.ValuesUSA.net/hatealert.html -- it's just vile. Apparently the Right and guys like Guy Adams and Peter Lab just don't get it. Rick, LeftWingWarrior, Chitown.
posted by LeftWingWarrior, at
4/29/2007 1:58 PM
what happened with david ritcheson was teriible. But i am friends with the people who did it to him. The reason they attacked him wasnt because he kissed a white girl (and you go search for this the people that did say that said publicly that they were paid to say that) what happened is that david stole a large amount of coccaine from a dealer that was at the party when he was questioned by the drug he blamed david tuck and keith turner. Then the drug dealer went after him. so what they did was just retaliation.
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posted by , at
3/19/2008 9:28 PM
心中一阵不安升降机，因为我忽然又想起了那道剑光升降平台，可怕的剑光升降台，美丽的剑光登车桥。为什么那一剑是那么的美丽货架，却又那么的可怕呢集装袋？在我倒下之前我说地磅，好美的剑塑料托盘，好恨的剑塑料托盘。我倒下了仓储笼。在我失去知觉之前仓储笼，我听到他说北京货架，这叫艺术超市货架，剑的艺术北京货架。
我并没有死广州货架，原来我的心是在右边仓储货架，而是不是左边货架厂。所以在那穿胸一剑之下我并没有死南京货架。
是一阵暴雨把我冲醒了货架公司。听说雨是上天的眼泪深圳货架，也许这天又有人死在那美丽的剑光之下吧服装货架！我张开嘴巴托盘，任雨水打进我的嘴托盘，直冲我的胃塑料托盘。我的伤口又开始流血塑料托盘，但已经不痛了木托盘。试问：仓储笼一个心已经死了的人仓储笼，肉体上的疼痛又算得了什么呢仓储笼？我知道我的刀再练一百年也无法那么美丽仓储笼，那么恨托盘，而且永远别想杀了他托盘。
我退出江湖了手推车，我没有通知江湖上的朋友们静音手推车，并来一个什么金盆洗手静音手推车，因为我的朋友们差不多都被他杀了置物架。我悄悄的走了置物架，隐进了山林之中堆垛架。俨然一个世外高人的样子堆垛架，每天一壶绿茶登高车，放在身边的几上登高车，然后或盯着一朵白云超市手推车，或盯着一片树叶物流手推车，或双目紧闭物流台车。我的刀在玉盆中泡了七七四十九天角钢货架，已经没有血腥味了角钢货架。然后我把它放在我的屋顶轻型货架，任它风吹雨打轻型货架。
十年就这年过去了中型货架。为何今天天忽然想起那柄剑中型货架，那道剑光重型货架？而且内心为什么如此不安重型货架？不应该是这样的仓库货架，对于一个喝了十年绿茶的人来说服装货架，面对死上海货架，也已不再惧怕精品货架，不再不安苏州货架，但今天又为何如此呢托盘货架？
莫非是他青岛货架，和他的剑库房货架，加上他的剑光沈阳货架。我已不问江湖之事天津货架，想他十年前也应该坐上武林盟主的位子了杭州货架，一个武林中人做了武林盟主山东货架，这一生还有什么要求的呢文件柜？
我不停的喝着绿茶工具柜。绿茶静心工具柜。但此时怎么也静不下来零件柜。茶已尽工作台。平时茶尽之时工作台，正也是日落之时工作桌。
一定快有什么事情发生了工作桌。
剑还是那美丽的剑Google左侧排名，如果再加上一道剑光吹塑机，就会形成剑的艺术色带，武学的艺术电源插座。
我问反光背心：为何还来找我滚针轴承，我已在十年之前就退出江湖了夜光粉。
他说文化石：因为你没死缎带，因为我没有对手风火轮。
我说激光打标机：十年前已不是你的对手平衡机，何况现在十年未动刀大功率led。
他说磁力泵：放眼天下梯子，只有你一个人是我的对手网眼袋，也只你一个人对我的威胁无尘布。
我不再说话手摇手电筒，因为我不知道说什么手板，我知道我十年前就开始找我毛巾布，发现我没有死就开始找我磁钢。我不死促销台，他心不安模具钢材。
他说时尚配饰：拿出你的刀筛网。
我说齿轮泵：我已无刀天使花房，命托辊，亦可有可无色丁。
他盯着我广告衫，握剑的手越来越紧钢坯，我知道那道美丽的剑光可能随时发出过滤网。在那美丽过后疏水阀，我的生命将画上句号胸章。
阳光照在了刀上发热管，反射到他的脸上手机耳机。他发现了那把刀螺杆，我的刀插销，宝刀蝴蝶，没有鞘的刀工具包。
刀已在我手中点钞机，刀还是那把刀配电箱，人却已不是那个人流苏，因为心不是那颗心沙滩巾。
他为了杀我竟找了我十年氯化镁，而为了和我比武竟帮我从屋顶拿下我的刀来双面胶带，并放在我的手中碳纤维。我忽然发现排线，他也变了汽车座垫，他在后悔十年前将所有高手都杀绝珍珠奶茶。
高手的悲哀太阳伞。
我握紧了刀桥架，我看着他的眼tpr，已经不再像十年前那样明亮了钢丝。
他的剑划出柴油发电机组，划出一道美丽的剑光护栏。我想围栏，这十年他大概在不停地使自己的剑光更美围栏。
我的刀也出了隔离网。简单的动作隔离网，一刀刺进了他的胸网片。那道美丽的光忽然停止网片，停在我的衣服上南京货架。
他说北京货架：这也是艺术北京货架，杀人的艺术北京货架，想不到你十年不动刀还懂这个艺术仓储货架。
我说仓储货架：因为我不想再让你痛苦了广州货架。
他说广州货架：谢谢货架厂。
我走了货架公司。我头也不回的走了塑料托盘。没有取回我的刀塑料托盘，因为我觉得它在我身边已经没用塑料托盘，我后悔我十年前为什么不扔了它塑料托盘？我听到了尸体倒下的声音塑料托盘。我流泪了塑料托盘，我真的不想杀他仓储笼，十年前不想仓储笼，十年后也不想仓储笼，因为我下山时答应过师父仓储笼，一切让着他仓储笼。
我叹了一口气仓储笼。远去仓储笼。
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4/14/2008 9:16 PM
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7/02/2008 2:18 AM
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