People Are People, Love Is Love, Hate Has No Place Here
You're free to your opinion of the LGBTQ community. You don't get a veto.
I suppose you can call me naive, but I always thought that by the time I reached 60, I’d be living in a world where one’s sexuality would be less important than one’s character. I genuinely thought that humanity would’ve evolved to the point where we’d be less concerned about who others are schtupping than what sort of a person they are.
If you’re like me, you have friends and acquaintances who are LGBTQ. You probably don’t think of someone as “John, my gay friend,” “Rebecca, my transgender friend,” or however your friends may identify. No, like me, you probably think of them as your friends. Period.
And why are they your friends? Because they’re good people whose company you enjoy, right? You enjoy spending time with them and vice-versa; that’s how friendship works. That some things about them are different isn’t enough to override the reality that they’re good people whom you love for who they are. And that’s enough, no?
I have LGBTQ friends, and while I may not always fully understand the issues they face, I try to educate myself and be sensitive about that part of their lives. They’re my friends; I care about them and what happens to them, and it’s clear that being LGBTQ is becoming increasingly dangerous.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — As hate speech targeting LGBTQ people increases among some far-right influencers and others online, experts are warning that extremist groups may see the rhetoric as a call to action.
Such may have been the case when 31 members of the neo-Nazi group Patriot Front were arrested in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, on Saturday and charged with conspiracy to riot at a Pride event, said Sophie Bjork-James, an assistant professor in anthropology at Vanderbilt University who researches the white nationalist movement, racism and hate crimes in the U.S. The arrests came as a toxic brew of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has been on the rise in Idaho and elsewhere.
“There is a very clear relationship between normalizing this hateful content and having extremist groups try to mobilize around that in hateful actions,” she said. “We can see a direct relationship between the spectrum of anti-LGBT rhetoric from statehouses into these extremist groups.”
All that was going to happen in Coeur d’Alene was a Pride event, people getting together to celebrate peacefully. These folks posed no threat to anyone for any reason. Yet 31 members of the Patriot Front were arrested before they could attack nonviolent celebrants and bust some heads.
Why? Because these 31 paragons of White power are so imperiled by hatred and homophobia that they must cleanse the Earth of those who live and love differently?
Why are White supremacists always the worst advertisement for White supremacy? What is it about the LGBTQ community leads these glorious warriors for heterosexual supremacy to believe that a Pride event poses a threat to anyone?
I can only speak for myself, but I’d take a battalion of Pride revelers over the misanthropic, knuckle-dragging defenders of all that’s righteous, holy, and heterosexual any day. White supremacists have nothing to offer America but fear, hatred, and world-class, Grade-A, top-shelf, USDA Prime ignorance. Most of the 31 Patriot Front members probably couldn’t spell “class” or “dignity” if you spotted them an English professor, a dictionary, and a box of crayons.
Domestic extremist groups see conservatives as potential allies, Bjork-James said, and they’ve found anti-LGBTQ sentiment is one of the easiest ways to “build a broader coalition among the radical right.”
“Unfortunately, I think it is a strategy that is working,” she said.
Last month, a fundamentalist Idaho pastor told his small Boise congregation that gay, lesbian and transgender people should be executed by the government. Another fundamentalist pastor in Texas gives similar sermons.
Rep. Heather Scott, an Idaho Republican lawmaker, recently told an audience that drag queens and other LGBTQ supporters are waging a "war of perversion against our children.” And last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would consider sending child protective services to investigate parents who take their kids to drag shows.
The Far-Right, including many mainstream politicians like Gov. Ron DeSantis, have discovered that the fastest way to build a strong base among the Radical Rights is to traffic in hatred and homophobia.
It’s much easier to appeal to the darker angels of those who’d sooner react emotionally than think critically than to make a case to intelligent, thoughtful voters. And populists like DeSantis excel at fanning the flames of hatred, homophobia, and “other-ism.”
Stay classy, eh??
For some folks, it’s SO much easier when a politician tells you who to hate and fear.
(Precisely what Jesus would do, eh??)
It’s distressing that a man of God- “fundamentalist” or otherwise- could advocate for the government to execute LGBTQ people. I may be an atheist, but even I know that the Jesus Christ mentioned in the Bible never preached against homosexuality. However, he DID mention love, tolerance, acceptance, and compassion on numerous occasions, something the pastor conveniently chose to ignore.
There‘s no “war of perversion against our children,” and that belief has nothing to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Instead, it’s about people who, for whatever reason, are terrified of homosexuality. What do they fear so intensely? Could it be that they’ve buried their unresolved issues so deeply that they couldn’t find them with a backhoe and a rack of C4?
Quite often, when people are irredeemably opposed to something, it’s because there are issues they A) refuse to own up to or B) are terrified to face because they can’t face the prospect of what they might learn.
For Bree Latimer, a 22-year-old trans woman from Boise, the news of the arrests was alarming. Even in Boise, one of the most progressive cities in deep-red Idaho, harassment or hostility is a daily risk, Latimer said. Just last week Boise police were investigating after dozens of pride flags were stolen or damaged from a scenic neighborhood boulevard for the second year in a row.
“I always wonder as I walk past people in the grocery store aisles — do they know that I'm trans? If they do know, are they going to say something? Are they going to follow me into the parking lot? Am I going to get called a groomer or something? It's just constantly living in fear,” Latimer said.
Why? Why does this have to be the case? What is it about how a young transgender woman living her life that poses a threat to anyone? You might disagree with her choices, but you don’t have to. It’s none of your damned business. You’re free to express your opinion, but you don’t have the right to veto her decisions.
There’s no reason why Ms. Latimer should need to live in fear. If someone has a problem with her sexuality, that’s a “them” problem that has nothing to do with her. It’s not their life, and her choices aren’t open for debate. It’s Ms. Latimer’s life; she’s the only one who gets to make choices that impact her life.
People are free to their opinions, but we all know what opinions are like. And they should keep them to themselves unless Ms. Latimer specifically requests that they express those opinions.
Bree Latimer- or any other LGBTQ person- has as much right to live her life free of fear or harassment as any misanthropic, knuckle-dragging defender of all that’s righteous, holy, and heterosexual. There’s no “right” or “wrong” way to live one’s life; there’s only each individual’s decision as to how they live.
This isn’t part of the “culture war;” it’s about hatred and homophobia, plain and simple. It’s about a class of people believing they have the right to deny others the freedom to be who they are.
“That diminishes what we're going through. We feel like there's almost an impending trans genocide,” Latimer said. “They want us to stop having access to our hormone therapy, to be banned from talking to trans youth — they want you to be so unhappy with your life that you kill yourself. And now the hate speech is getting even scarier.”….
“Being trans is a big part of my identity, but it's definitely not everything,” Latimer said. “Still, the reality is, it's scary being a trans person in America right now.”
People are people; they deserve to be who they choose to be, free from judgment and harassment from others. They have the right to live a life that feels genuine and authentic and to love whom and how they choose.
If someone dislikes or disapproves of that, they’re free to their feelings, but that’s where it ends, how another person chooses to live and love impacts no one else.
Perhaps if people like the Patriot Front devoted similar energy to getting their own s**t together, they might realize the only people they’re hurting are themselves.
They might also realize that a person’s sexuality is a small part of who they are. Just as being heterosexual doesn’t define who someone is, neither does being LGBTQ. It’s part of a person’s identity, more prominent for some than others, but there’s far more to a person than how they identify and whom or how they love.
People should stop promoting hatred, homophobia, and division in the name of political advancement. It might launch one into political office, but it could also unleash forces beyond control.
We’re Americans, damnit; this country was brought into existence by people looking (and willing to fight) to be free. Unfortunately, some of my fellow citizens seem to have forgotten their history.
We should be better than this.
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