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From: manis@ubc-vision.CDN (Vincent Manis)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: some questions
Message-ID: <531@ubc-vision.CDN>
Date: Thu, 23-Aug-84 23:57:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: ubc-visi.531
Posted: Thu Aug 23 23:57:29 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 29-Aug-84 00:45:20 EDT
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Organization: UBC Vision, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
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[Why does queer-bashing exist?]
 
I've certainly never been privy to the inner thoughts of
a queer-basher, but the only motive I've ever been able
to understand in such attacks is fear. To the queer-basher,
a gay person is some sort of threat, and must therefore
be put in his/her place. The motivation is therefore
not unlike that of the anti-Semite, racist, or rapist.
 
That's a pretty common analysis. But what's missing is
the fact that the queer-basher has to stop thinking of
his prey as a human being. Just as Nazi ideology called
the Jews "germs", a queer-basher must have lost sight
of the fact that both he and his victim are God's creation. 
(I use the masculine pronoun here, as I've never heard
of any female queer-bashers.)
 
Both the queer-basher and the Nazi need an ideology. The
Nazi ideology was based on the quite extensive strain of
racist writing found in nineteenth-century Germany. The
ideology of the queer-basher is based on the preachings
of the "Christian" Right, whose incessant vilification of all
those who disagree with it are about as Christian as the Spanish
Inquisition.
 
I'm not sure whether this should be continued in net.motss.