Dear Straight People

This was a post I found on Facebook. I think it is a very strong article and a pretty good read.

Seek Peace


This was an editorial piece in the LA Times.

By Larry Kramer, LARRY KRAMER is the founder of the protest group ACT UP and the author of "The Tragedy of Today's Gays."March 20, 2007

DEAR STRAIGHT PEOPLE,

Why do you hate gay people so much?

Gays are hated. Prove me wrong. Your top general just called us immoral. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is in charge of an estimated 65,000 gay and lesbian troops, some fighting for our country in Iraq. A right-wing political commentator, Ann Coulter, gets away with calling a straight presidential candidate a faggot. Even Garrison Keillor, of all people, is making really tacky jokes about gay parents in his column. This, I guess, does not qualify as hate except that it is so distasteful and dumb, often a first step on the way to hate. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama tried to duck the questions that Pace's bigotry raised, confirming what gay people know: that there is not one candidate running for public office anywhere who dares to come right out, unequivocally, and say decent, supportive things about us.

Gays should not vote for any of them. There is not a candidate or major public figure who would not sell gays down the river. We have seen this time after time, even from supposedly progressive politicians such as President Clinton with his "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military and his support of the hideous Defense of Marriage Act. Of course, it's possible that being shunned by gays will make politicians more popular, but at least we will have our self-respect. To vote for them is to collude with them in their utter disdain for us.

Don't any of you wonder why heterosexuals treat gays so brutally year after year after year, as your people take away our manhood, our womanhood, our personhood? Why, even as we die you don't leave us alone. What we can leave our surviving lovers is taxed far more punitively than what you leave your (legal) surviving spouses. Why do you do this? My lover will be unable to afford to live in the house we have made for each other over our lifetime together. This does not happen to you. Taxation without representation is what led to the Revolutionary War. Gay people have paid all the taxes you have. But you have equality, and we don't.

And there's no sign that this situation will change anytime soon. President Bush will leave a legacy of hate for us that will take many decades to cleanse. He has packed virtually every court and every civil service position in the land with people who don't like us. So, even with the most tolerant of new presidents, gays will be unable to break free from this yoke of hate. Courts rule against gays with hateful regularity. And of course the Supreme Court is not going to give us our equality, and in the end, it is from the Supreme Court that such equality must come. If all of this is not hate, I do not know what hate is.

Our feeble gay movement confines most of its demands to marriage. But political candidates are not talking about — and we are not demanding that they talk about — equality. My lover and I don't want to get married just yet, but we sure want to be equal.

You must know that gays get beaten up all the time, all over the world. If someone beats you up because of who you are — your race or ethnic origin — that is considered a hate crime. But in most states, gays are not included in hate crime measures, and Congress has refused to include us in a federal act.

Homosexuality is a punishable crime in a zillion countries, as is any activism on behalf of it. Punishable means prison. Punishable means death. The U.S. government refused our requests that it protest after gay teenagers were hanged in Iran, but it protests many other foreign cruelties. Who cares if a faggot dies? Parts of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. are joining with the Nigerian archbishop, who believes gays should be put in prison. Episcopalians! Whoever thought we'd have to worry about Episcopalians?

Well, whoever thought we'd have to worry about Florida? A young gay man was just killed in Florida because of his sexual orientation. I get reports of gays slain in our country every week. Few of them make news. Fewer are prosecuted. Do you consider it acceptable that 20,000 Christian youths make an annual pilgrimage to San Francisco to pray for gay souls? This is not free speech. This is another version of hate. It is all one world of gay-hate. It always was.

Gays do not realize that the more we become visible, the more we come out of the closet, the more we are hated. Don't those of you straights who claim not to hate us have a responsibility to denounce the hate? Why is it socially acceptable to joke about "girlie men" or to discriminate against us legally with "constitutional" amendments banning gay marriage? Because we cannot marry, we can pass on only a fraction of our estates, we do not have equal parenting rights and we cannot live with a foreigner we love who does not have government permission to stay in this country. These are the equal protections that the Bill of Rights proclaims for all?

Why do you hate us so much that you will not permit us to legally love? I am almost 72, and I have been hated all my life, and I don't see much change coming.

I think your hate is evil.

What do we do to you that is so awful? Why do you feel compelled to come after us with such frightful energy? Does this somehow make you feel safer and legitimate? What possible harm comes to you if we marry, or are taxed just like you, or are protected from assault by laws that say it is morally wrong to assault people out of hatred? The reasons always offered are religious ones, but certainly they are not based on the love all religions proclaim.

And even if your objections to gays are religious, why do you have to legislate them so hatefully? Make no mistake: Forbidding gay people to love or marry is based on hate, pure and simple.

You may say you don't hate us, but the people you vote for do, so what's the difference? Our own country's democratic process declares us to be unequal. Which means, in a democracy, that our enemy is you. You treat us like crumbs. You hate us. And sadly, we let you.

Here Have a Book!

Every spring we get a couple of Evangelical “children of God” preaching to us how homosexuality is a sin. It bewilders me how they often times pick out this particular sin to dwell on. They don’t seem to really be against the war and they even say that George Bush is a smart man...go figure. I of course have many problems with them but what really throws me off is the fact that they use little kids to help in their idiotic work. I actually find it interesting to judge some of the idiocrasies that they speak but the fact that they had little kids passing out flyers yesterday made me literally want to vomit. The kids don’t know what the hell was going on, hell they were even chatting to the LGBT volunteers holding the rainbow flag while their daddies or uncles or cousins…whatever were preaching “the word of God.”

After telling my T.A. of the spectacle going on outside he decided to go and give them a copy of The Laramie Project and the dum-dums promised to read it. I think this is a good thing, maybe they’ll learn something. Hats off to my T.A. for thinking of such a thing.

Seek Peace

Lions, Tigers, Bears Say HI!!

I appreciate nature and proudly donate to the cause very often. I must admit, I probably burn too much electricity and run more water than necessary but I do my best and certainly more than most people I know. I was reading an article that basically said that kids aren’t connected enough with the outside. I can agree with that to some extent. Kids spend entirely too much time with video games and television and don’t get out to exercise enough and that is sad, too many kids are obese. However, this article wasn’t concerned with that end of the spectrum, the article was concerned with kids not “smelling the grass and hearing the wind.” This is all well and good, I’ve written entries about enjoying the moon and I appreciate the smell of the air but I wouldn’t hardly go as far as to say that this is a major problem in today’s youth as this article states!

The article even stated that kids in this generation are more concerned with the environment and help out a lot. It states that kids can tell you the problems in the rainforest and what needs to be done to fix it, but kinds don’t want to “journey in the rainforest.” Me either! I think it’s enough expressing concern about nature and doing something about it, but NOONE is going to make me pitch a tent and spend the night with the bears! I mean we still have the best economy in the world I hardly doubt we need to start figuring out how to live with animals and which berries not to touch. I think more credit needs to be given to this generation for the positive things we are doing. This generation is recycling more, volunteering more, donating money, standing up for “the cause”. I mean I had to donate 120 hours of community service just to graduate high school! Give us our props!

Seek Peace

Rosie O'Donnell Steps Away

In an episode last week Rosie O’Donnell announced that she would not be renewing her contract with The View. I must admit that when I heard this my heart sunk and I was sad for a second because I though she had been fired or “forced to resign”, leaving all of her critics jumping in the air with excitement, but I found that she actually quit. She said that after just one year she and ABC couldn’t agree on a contract so she decided to leave.

I’m a huge Rosie fan and I don’t agree with all of her opinions but it’s hard not to respect her courage and zeal to represent such controversial opinions. I wanted to look more into her leaving so I went on YouTube and decided to see what all the buzz was and I had to laugh. People were saying left and right that she was fired and her critics were gleaming and that idiot Donald Trump had a field day. This really goes to show how sad people can be.

There is a story out there that says she didn’t want a longer contract (as ABC wanted her to sign) because she wasn’t entirely comfortable with how they wanted to silence her outside of The View. Rosie’s views might be difficult to handle but isn’t that a spectacular example of our first amendment right? If anything (if this is the reason she turned down such a rich offer) she should be praised for her standing up for her (and our) rights. Whatever the reason for her not continuing as co-host, she has done a remarkable job and could never be replaced. She has added a spark to the television program that no other person can match and given the show a dept that no other show reach. I’m glad I was able to experience the juxtaposition of her opinions with the opinions of the majority. It was definitely a fun ride but I doubt we’ve seen the last of Ms. O’Donnell!

Seek Peace