It’s like being an African American in 1954!
Today, while Adam, my Recognized-by-the-State-of-California-Domestic-Partner, and I were walking down the road in my parent’s very clean, lovely, lakey subdivision about seven miles west of Palm Beach in Florida, some horrible kid teen screamed out of his window, “FUCKING FAGGOTS!”
It was quite jarring. And I thought, “He must be referring to Adam and those two pretty mallards getting it on over there.”
I’ve been living a peaceful life lately. But really, guys, isn’t it high time that I carry a gun? Or maybe start a rap group that sings, “Kill Straighty and leave him in the gutter, boom, chucka, boom-boom.”?
You know---the only good new is things are so nasty when it comes to the Homos that it means something huge is going on. Of course, we won’t riot. But we must stand up. It’s time. Something big. Can you imagine some kid leaning out his window these days, screaming, “ LAZY NIGGER!” or “GREEDY HEBE!” ?
People out there---you must rise up and help us. We gay folk are less than ten percent of the population. The fundamentalists and the orthodox won’t have us. The homophobes of all stripes won’t have us. Black preachers won’t have us. The military won’t let us be known. But we need some help here. Loud help. Women? Can you jump in here? Midgets with a chip on their shoulder, lend a little hand? Club kids, put some clothes on and march on Washington?
Okay, it was just one little aggressive incident. But can you imagine how many of these gay people have endured in a lifetime? Five-hundred direct attacking remarks in forty years? That would be a low estimate. Twenty-thousand off-the-cuff "harmless" insulting remarks in entertainment and light social situations over the same span? Try five times that much.
Enough.
Time to kick some ass.
4 comments:
I'm sorry you and your partner were humiliated by some little punk-ass. I've had my share of harassment for simply being a woman. I can not imagine, however, what it must be like to hear such directed hate come from a child.
Even out in L.A., where everyone assumes we're all liberals, hate crimes still occur. I wish more of these perpetrators were reprimanded more often.
--Kris
I am so sorry you had to hear that! How DARE that little creep ruin your walk. I want to feast on his twisted little entrails for doing that to you. I did have the same thought as Kris - about the daily harrassment while walking down the street for being female. I had to take a course while working for Verizon called 'Diversity Management'. In one exercise, the facilitators put up big pieces of paper on the wall. On each was written something like "Black People Are...", or "Jewish People Are..." and we were supposed to write down what we thought. Of course everyone was very politically correct. Except when it came to "Gay People Are...". I think it was just a couple of stupid guys but there was writing like "Abomination" and "Filth". The facilitators did not say ONE WORD. They went over some of the 'correct' ones like about black people. All nicey nice. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore and I said, "Aren't you going to say ANYTHING about THIS?!" and pointed to the gay sheet. They looked sort of uncomfortable but sympathetic. This was back when it was still 'Bell Atlantic' and the company handbook had their official statement about how gay people are a valued part of the company culture both as employees and customers and that 'gay' was not a choice but was how people are born. I read this out loud. Some of the women were nodding their support to me. The fat stupid men who wrote that just sat there. I was so mad. Then the company merged with GTE which headquarters in Texas and the handbook changed and it was all sneering and evil. But I do try. Whenever I get the chance.
How disturbing. Words are violence. Get out of Dixie.
As with ever other problem in the world, I blame religion. Don't you think this country would be a lot less homophobic if these right wing Christians hadn't exploited gay hatred? Why are people in less religious communities more accepting?
Why do you think I study kung-fu? A friend and I were attacked for being gay. I was able to out run them. My friend got roughed up, but was fine. I left the situation feeling humiliated. I was lucky that I got away that time. Next time, if I'm not so lucky, I'm taking some skin, hair, bone with me.
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