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Dear Friends,
First, I add my prayers and condolences to all the families and loved ones of those who were injured or killed yesterday during Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' "Capital On Your Corner" event. The internet has been set alight with people drawing parallels between Sarah Palin's Target Map with Gabby's name as a target and the shooting that took place, and for good reason.
Much as homophobia works on the minds of people, so too did the political rhetoric finally work on the mind of someone most likely very unstable, and the result was a blood bath. Homophobia, like Sarah Palin and the Tea Party's heated and hate filled rhetoric share many traits.
Just as when one person begins making homophobic comments, it gives someone else "permission" to use them as well. Just as one person quotes the Bible and says that gay people should be put to death, it gives others an "excuse" to kill or gay bash lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender people. The same is true of racism, and all other hate crimes. Because hate crimes begin with people spewing hate speech.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, but if left unchecked and coupled with ignorance, it can and often leads to grave results involving people being injured or killed. It happened for nearly 4 centuries against blacks, and for nearly as long against most immigrants to this country. It has happened to gay people since even longer than that, and in many places all over the globe. Permission to hate another person is permission to injur or kill another person. That's why hate speech is so dangerous, no matter who its directed at, and no matter what it's disguised as.
We saw its affects on Matthew Shephard whose attackers were quoted as saying "Matthew Shephard HAD to die" [because he was gay]. We see the affects on the school grounds in the form of gay bullying. The children who bully have parents who spew hate speech about homosexual people and suddenly the kids have "permission" to bully a kid they perceive to be gay at school. In the most tragic cases, the bullying often carries over into gay people taking their own lives, rather than to endure more bullying.....and for what? Hate speech.
Most often, in cases with the Tea Party, the hate speech against political opponents is often disguised as "concern for our country" and "taking America back" and "taxed enough already."
In cases with homophobia, the hate speech is disguised as "truth" and "God's Words" and "it's in the Bible". In both cases hate is simply given a shiny coat of paint and called by another name.
So when social and political progressives see it for what it is and say so, the right gets defensive. Most often this is because their defense is shattered, their veil pulled back, and their evil speech revealed in the light of day. That isn't to say that social and political progressives aren't capable of hate speech themselves...they are. But let's be honest. In the case of Congresswoman Giffords, the right bears a certain amount of responsibility, just as they do for the countless gay bashings and killings in not only this country, but in countries all around the world.
It's time for people of conscience to call hate for what it is, no matter what disguise it takes on, and its time for those responsible for it to own up and apologize for it when they are called on it. The right only continues to make each other look worse in the eyes of progressives when they spend so much time spewing hate speech, and so much more time trying to act like the resulting actions of those influenced by their hate speech isn't "really" their fault.
But it is......and they know it.
Sincerely,
Brian Anthony Bowen
Member of the Worldwide Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community
Music Producer, "The Gemini Enterprise: Stellar Trance"
Blogger, "The Gemini Gayzette"
Author of upcoming new book, "The Bed Keeper: A Biblical Case FOR Gay Marriage"
briananthonybowen@gmail.com
thegeminienterprise@gmail.com
http://thegement.com/
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