i'm so sad and angry this evening that i am having trouble forming coherent thoughts. i am a firm believer in and supporter of the genderqueer movement.many of my close friends and family are part of the glbtq community. i have worked with pflag. i am aware of the existence of the phelps family-- and have encountered them, unfortunately, on one too many occasions.
however, it never ceases to disturb and sadden me when hate crimes occur. i can recall when matthew shephard was brutally beaten and left for dead. and yet again, only yesterday, a man in a metropolitan city near here was stabbed to death and burned in his home because of who he was: an hiv positive "gender queer" individual who did not fit the prescribed role assigned to him by society. jesus christ.
i don't understand all of this hate and discomfort surrounding the glbtq community. i really don't. if you don't like gay people, fine. just leave them alone. i promise you, they will not shower rainbow dust on you and turn you into a sequined jumpsuit. what i don't understand is how it is "socially unacceptable" to be a racist in this country, but hatred towards gays, lesbians, and other members of the "queer" community is still okay with people? we are the kind of nation that will stand for this? i am disheartened.
we all get one go 'round on this big, bouncy, blue ball we call home and life's too short to go killing people that we don't like. if i killed every asshole that drives a v-12 pick-up truck or who sports the rebel flag, i would be no better than they are--by which i do not mean that anyone in the glbtq community is "less than" the people who so violently attack them; i just simply cannot believe that in 2010 we are still fighting for all humans to be considered equally valuable. we are supposed to be a forward-thinking, well developed country. one look in the newspaper, though, turns my stomach and causes me to wonder if i am reading headlines from a liberated world where people are safe and free, or if these headlines are not better suited for one of those other countries we like to demonize and deem inferior to us. disappointed and disgusted. and as always, proud to be a member of/supporter of/lover of the glbtq community.
