I wrote a letter to a local paper about gay marriage. It was not an aggressive letter. I cited a recent poll showing that those who actually know someone who is gay are more supportive of gay rights, and I said that there is nothing wrong with same-sex marriage.
Today I received an envelope addressed to me. The return address appears to reference a non-existant organization and includes a local ZIP code.
Inside was an article titled “Homosexuals Rank Among Worst Serial Killers”, a photocopy of a letter to the editor about “defining marriage”, an article about the gay lobby scrambling to hide the truth about child molestation, articles about the growing pedophile menace, media suppression of “homo attacks on children”, forced transsexual operations, an anti-gay cartoon, and an article about John Gacy’s execution, including a hand-written comment: “FORMER QUEER!”
That’s really, really disturbing. I would rid myself of them with a formal creepy-letter-burning ceremony, scatter the ashes, and hide under the bed for a little while.
Horrible. Sorry to hear it. I wouldn’t burn it; I’d show it to the police, and/or contact the editor by phone, since it would appear that somebody has used the address you provided for verification of your letter to the editor for purposes of harrassment.
The letter was sent from someone at the newspaper, right? (sorry if I’m being dense here, but they wouldn’t have published your letter and your postal address with it, would they?)
I don’t know who sent it, other than what I can tell from the post office’s stamp. They publish full name and city, perhaps phone bookery was involved?
Not too hard to find someone’s postal address if you have their full name and the town they live in. Most newspapers do publish that information with letters to the editor, at least around here.
Listen to her. If someone used address, or passed it one to someone, the paper and the cops should know about it. You can’t be too careful these days.
I’ve written many letters to the editor. In our paper the name and city is published, but not the address. Since there are only two people with my surname in this town(and the other one is male, my father), it still wouldn’t be too hard to find me. And three times someone has. Once I was writing on civil liberties and the seperation of church and state, and I recieved a very polite and rather scholarly rebuttal, with cites, to some of my statements. The sender now happens to be my cat’s veternarian, and I didn’t mind his stuff at all, even if we may have different political views. A second time I got two postcards covered in teeny tiny writing when I was advocating full gay rights. The sender was a nut, but an honest one, he signed his name and address, and quit mailing me after I sent him a card asking him to stop.
The third reply was also in reply to gay rights issues, and contained what might be interpreted as a death threat. “You’d better start looking over your shoulder if you keep persecuting the Phelp’s!” Much as I despise Fred and Co. I don’t think they sent it, as it was hand written on lined notebook paper, had atrocious spelling and grammar errors and really rotten handwriting. I discovered the anonymous sender sent letters like that all over, and may have been certain mental patient, so I didn’t worry about it.
This is, quite simply, a hate crime, and even if they don’t investigate it now, when there is a gaybashing in town (your own, or someone else’s) they’ll have this as evidence to use to try to find the fucker who sent it to you, on the odds that either he’s the gaybasher or that he’ll know who is.
You don’t have to be gay to get gaybashed. The “What is Gaybashing Like” thread has at least a couple of stories in it about people who were gaybashed without actually being gay.
I remain as totally anonymous as I can on this board because the first time I had a letter published, I recieved two or three phone calls at my home from people who had read that letter and supported me.
Didn’t take long for me to figure out that those opposed to my POV also knew where I lived. This is a very scary thought.
I have no advice for you, except: be careful. Please.
Certainly a creepy and unpleasant response, but there doesn’t seem to be any threat involved, just a jerk airing (is that the right word?) his views.
Doesn’t appear to be a criminal act.
There’s no direct threat, but the “Former Queer” note w/r/t Gacy’s execution is menacing enough to cause anxiety without being explicit. What does he mean?
Why “former?” Is execution a “cure?”
It’s natural for the recipient to worry that the message might be intended to be interpreted that way. Of course, if asked about it, the sender can always claim that it was just meant as a “friendly” caution to avoid the company of homosexuals, since it’s vague enough to be interpreted that way, too.
This is such a common behavior of abusive/harrassing people – low level, threshold anxiety. It’s a good idea to document it in case it’s the beginning of a pattern, and just hope it was only an isolated waste of some crack-pot’s bored half-hour.
I wrote a letter to my local paper a good ten years ago, advocating for gay rights. (This was in Tasmania, which at the time still had anti-sodomy laws on the books, and there was a big political fuss.) I received a fairly nasty phone-call shortly after the letter ran, spouting hellfire and brimstone. Being a cocky adolescent at the time, I laughed it off, but I can sympathise, it is rather creepy to have someone respond directly to a statement made in a public forum like the letters page.
Honestly Ched, it’s scary, but there’s little that the cops can do about it, since it’s only once, and there was no direct threat (right?) to you.
That does not however mean, that you shouldn’t start a case on it, get an incident number from your local constabulary, and keep that number handy to reference it, so that if for some reason you get more of these things, they can be supplementally added to your file. What’s more, by the fact you said ZIP code, means you’re in the States, which means you can contact the Postal Inspector as well, they’re decent folks with a ton of authority in this regard, plus, a whole lot of time to kill.
In the future, make up a name and address, and mail it from that part of town, if you want to participate in the discussion. It’s sad that it’s come to that, but it has, no sense not being safe.
ched!
stay safe.
I don’t have that problem as I am not listed in the phone book, I live with my dad,and I certainly don’t have his last name anymore.
No newspaperwould release your address, though.
Get an unlisted number.
(of course, you may give me your address, I will send some nice homemade fudge)
Personally, I think better safe than sorry. Call the cops, tell them what you’ve got, and let them decide if it’s something worth getting really worked up over.
I had a letter published in the paper a couple months ago, about civil liberties and more or less comparing certain US elected officials to Hitler. I made the mistake of allowing them to publish my E-mail, as well.
Got some nasty emails, which were sort of unsettling, but somewhat predictable.
I also got a couple of angry, annonymous, ranting phone calls. Scared the hell out of me. Nothing came of it.
I once wrote a letter to editor which was rather critical of Rush Limbaugh (then a still rising star) in a rather conservative town. I got a couple of nasty phone calls which freaked me out a little but nothing else ever came of them.
Probably nothing will come of your little mailer, either, Ched, but it might no hurt to make a police report. That way if this person or “group” (and I suspect it’s probably one person hoping to scare you into thinking he’'s a group) makes a pttern of thsi kind of thing with other people there will be some kind of record of previous incidents.
Who knows, if this person commits any violent crimes, your letter may contain some forensic or DNA evidence that could help in an investigation.
Folks, there is no law against bigotry and ignorance. Some idiot sent cheddarsnax a letter that linked homosexuality with serial killers and child molesters. Creepy, yes. Criminal? No.
And with apologies to any enlightened members of law enforcement, but bringing a complaint about gay intolerance to a police officer is a bit like bringing a complaint about anti-semitism to the Gestapo. If there’s any group more collectively homophobic than police officers, I’ve yet to meet them. (It must be the machismo thing.)