I just had to update my We Will Remember list ( http://www.crosswinds.net/~montrealais/gay/index.html ) because some tortured soul saw fit to express his fear and bigotry by shooting up a gay bar in Roanoke, VA. He killed a guy called Lee Overstreet.
God… another death. Another stupid, senseless homophobic death in the goddamn twenty-first century we’re still murdering people because of who they fuck!
I don’t know, matt. I think that for the most part, the gay/lesbian community is still somewhat removed from mainstream. The only homosexual friends I have are from here on the SDMB; I just don’t encounter them in my work (school, a very conservative setting) and at church (although my church is very open minded about such things).
A student at DeathLlama’s school “went postal” the other day. Apparently, the kid’s father left his mother for another man. Word got out around the junior high, and many of this kid’s classmates turned to calling him “faggot,” “fudge-packer,” etc. The kid just snapped one day and beat some other kid into the ground…and though he was suspended and violence isn’t necessarily the best choice in that situation, I’m secretly somewhat glad that he stuck up for himself. I just hope this doesn’t destroy his psychosexual side; all this teasing and the situation with his father could, curiously enough, make him a very violent homophobe.
…In the first paragraph, what I was getting at is that as the gay/lesbian community is still somewhat removed from the mainstream, there are a great number of people who do not interact with homosexuals (at least, to their knowledge). Unfamiliarity can breed fear, and fear, violence.
it sucks, it really really sucks. A gay friend of my SO was badly bashed a couple of years ago and I mean what the fuck? I really really do not get it as to why anyone would do that.
And at this thread, someone is whining about “the narrowmindedness of militent[sic] homosexuals, or athiests[sic]. . .”
What people don’t seem to get, is that by gay-bashing and holding only one lifestyle to be the “right” way, they encourage the sickness which leads to violence like this.
just to clarify, in this post, PillEater isn’t complaining about militant homosexuals or atheists, he is just pointing out that it is usually only the religious that get painted with a broad brush as being intolerant-
I don’t think PillEater was implying any malice towards gays and lesbians
I had hoped to avoid quoting the whole post by posting the link, but here goes:
The point that I am getting here is that Fundies should be able to tell homosexuals to convert without anyone calling them for it (and I am assuming that anyone disagreeing with them is being accused of calling them a bigoted, anal moron). And what my and other replies were trying to say is that by trying to convert people, you are being narrow-minded by assuming there is only one correct, true and proper way to live. It might be helpful to take a poll of gay vioence perpetrators sitting in jail cells or sanitariums and find out what sort of upbringing spawned this sort of violence. I would bet money that it would be a fundamnental Christian background that taught that practicing homosexuality is evil.
But I digress: this is more for the GD forum, where that thread may eventually be moved.
Something I forgot in my first post, {{{{{matt_mcl}}}}}
Very disturbing news indeed, Matt. But as long as narrowminded idiots keep raising their kids with skewed views of how the world should be -either religiously motivated or not, I really don’t care- this sort of thing is bound to happen from time to time. Especially in a country where guns are so readily available (please, don’t debate this point - I know, it deserves another thread).
I would like to dare these bastards to come to Amsterdam, unarmed, and try that homophobic crap over here. They’re going to get their asses kicked GOOD, by gay and straight folk alike.
But the gun issue makes it more difficult. Sure, I’ll tell a homophobe to shut his stupid mouth when he’s insulting a friend. But will I do so when he’s sporting a nice .44? I think I won’t.
But I do hate the fact that my brother in law and his boyfriend do not live here (in my city) because it’s a pretty bad place to live for gay people. They wound up living in a city that has a pretty strong gay community. I don’t understand why anyone would hate them for being gay.
Matt, you strike me as an extremely good-hearted person, and for that reason my suggestion will probably be anathema to you. But here goes.
This will stop when gay activists put down their vigil candles and take up arms. The increased tolerance of gays by most Americans is leading to a backlash by a few bigoted Americans, and that backlash all too often has violence as its means.
If the normal civil authorities will not stop the carnage, the gay community has to respond in kind. I’m talking about armed doormen at gay bars, organized and armed militias marching in Gay Pride Parades, patrols in gay neighborhoods, the works.
Sounds harsh, doesn’t it? It is. But it will work, if only by getting the police to focus sufficient resources on the problem. It has worked before. In New York, the Pink Panthers (name later taken from them, IIRC) organized (unarmed) patrols through the Village after a spate of gay-bashings. An embarrassed Tenth Precinct promptly increased its own patrols, beefed up its community relations office, prosecuted as felonies crimes that previously had been relegated to misdemeanors, etc. The Tenth is really good now, one of the best in the city (not that there aren’t occasionally problems). Also, and I’d have no idea how to find the story, but there was a Jewish community in Florida that had become the victim of frequent anti-semitic vandalism (swastikas, Kike, you know the drill). They asked in vain for more police patrols. Finally, a militant Jewish organization wrote a letter requesting that the police stay out of the area – the organization would take care of the problem. You guessed it: patrols increased and the problem went away.
Non-violence works against governments (sometimes). It does not work against boneheads like bigots. If one is in a war, one either wins or loses.
Matt…I don’t know what to say, other than that I’m sorry. Unfortunately, the world is full of haters, and has been throughout history. Some people can only tolerate themselves if they hate those who are different than them. In a way I’m tempted to pity them…but I think exterminating them would be better.
I agree with manhattan. The haters are armed; the best thing their intended victims can do is arm themselves in return. That won’t stop this sort of thing completely, but it will cut down on it.
People often worry about the -future- of our country.
I’m 18 years old, gay, and despite the occasional rare example–Most of the people I’ve met and known from High School up 'till now (I’m in college) have been half-way decent.
I’ve seen my colleagues and other students of knowledge pronounce their support for civil rights–I’ve seen a lot of good people like here on the Straight Dope do the same.
I’m not worried too much about the future of our country–I’m worried about the present.
It’s only going to get worse until all the bottom-feeding scum-sucking riff-raff that was raised out of the previous couple generations gets washed away (No offense to any of the ‘older’ dopers out there–I do realize that I’m speaking in rather broad terms–even though I only mean to imply those who are -not- otherwise fine citizens)
