Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site hpda.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ukma!psuvm.bitnet!psuvax1!burdvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!hpda!on From: on@hpda.UUCP (Owen Rowley) Newsgroups: net.motss Subject: Re: Turning the other cheek Message-ID: <1254@hpda.UUCP> Date: Tue, 17-Dec-85 16:47:33 EST Article-I.D.: hpda.1254 Posted: Tue Dec 17 16:47:33 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 23-Dec-85 00:22:22 EST References: <116@ubc-cs.UUCP> <286@Navajo.ARPA> <125@ubc-cs.UUCP> Reply-To: on@hpda.UUCP (Owen Rowley) Distribution: net Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Cupertino, CA Lines: 137 >No, I was attempting to state the exact opposite. I'm not minimising the >seriousness of their crime, or suggesting that they don't deserve a long >prison sentence. The point I was making was that they are as much their >own victims as Mr Zeller, the man they murdered. In a society in which >gay people are constantly devalued, young people with no apparent ^^ ^^^^^^^^ >homophobic attitudes are nonetheless constantly inundated with anti-gay ^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ >slurs and innuendos. In some sense it isn't surprising that under the >influence of alcohol some of the surface tolerance scrapes off, exposing >the bigotry beneath. What's surprising is that it doesn't happen more >often. IT does happen ...OFTEN... this is the point that Gay people have been trying to get across to the heterosexually biased population. Homophobia is so deeply institutionalised in our culture that people like you can honestly state that it is "not apparent", we are so used to the background level of this homophobic "noise that we don't hear it any more. Sure spend a little time with Jr High School or High school age kids and you will become very aware of how pervasive Verbal and physical Fag bashing is with todays youth. If surface tolerance is so thin that a few beers can give individuals a Green light to kick the shit out of Gay People it is because we live in a society that is infected with irrational tabus fostered by centurys of intolerance and behavior modifying fear tactics. IT is every bodys work to combat this before it spreads to other personality types again. Many Feminists have been telling us that Women have been enduring this kind of behavior for a Long time now. In more than one historical context Mass genocide has begun with Gays and Women. We ARE in a "NEW INQUISITION" these patterns HAVE occured before, there WILL be more casualties, and we MUST confront the root cause of the intolerance that threatens us .... or DIE. Those who are not robbed of their lives, will be robbed of their dignity. When you keep silent in a social situation that turns mildly homophobic you destroy a small part of your own foundation of self respect. You may make an excuse to yourself that keeps you from stopping homophobia on the spot, but somewhere inside you know that there is a part o diminished by your silence. The hustlers and the creeps that "Jason" has been writing about are severly damaged individuals who have totally internalised the image of the Gay as a cloying devious bitch who has no respect for anyone much less themselves, but they are NOT what being Gay is all about , they are the result of homophobia in the extreme. And to those of you who read this and are not Gay, I say, YOU MUST help eradicate homophobia or YOU may be next. You who are afraid to confront anti-Gay remarks from friends and family because you fear being accused yourself! You show a subliminal acceptance of the bigotry. And you set yourself up to be a willing victim when it finally comes your treatment of Blacks in South Africa, but this does not cause others to suspect black ancestry in my genetic past! Why should confronting homophobia betoken closeted homosexual leanings? The prevelance of these fears shows us just how deeply this cultural cancer has spread. How many of you Gay and non-Gay alike know that the long History of Human experience shows that Homosexuality has been with us for all time. That the rest of the Natural world shows ample evidence of same sex genital playwith *no* evidence of hostility attatched to it. Tha had an almost universal reverance and respect for their Gay Shamanic leaders, and that familys were honored and proud to have us as their Sons. That is until the white Man and his Western culture paved their lands and extirpated their traditions in the name of their Guilt Gilded God. These "pioneers" had practised for the rape of this continent on many indigenous peoples in Europe and had gotten away with it. The Romans made special note of the pervasive homosexuality of the ancient Celts. The Spartan state had a "Law" that forced men to marry a women before their 35th birthday because the widespread cultural preference for same sex partnership threatened to drasticly reduce the breeding population. I could go on and on but will refer you to two excelent books that you will find enlightening and empowering.. "Witchcraft and the Gay counterculture" by A Evans "Another Mother tongue" by Judy Grahn >So we have to look for causes. Are these five youths responsible? You bet. >They brutally beat a man to death. But what possessed them to think, >even in a drunken stupor, that beating up a faggot was ok? You have to look >at their social context, at the attitudes of their peer group, and at the >homophobic content of much of the mass media, to realise that they simply ^^^^^^ >acted out what others only talked about. ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ I think I have already addressed the fact that we are all not "simply talking about it" that we are actively engaged in the process of queer-bashing and that the "social context" must be changed or it will cost us everything. >That doesn't mean they shouldn't be punished, but only that we aren't going >to stop queerbashing by arresting queerbashers (EVEN THOUGH WE MUST CONTINUE >TO ARREST, TRY, AND IMPRISON PEOPLE GUILTY OF QUEERBASHING). The only >genuine way to stop queerbashing is to make everyone aware of what it does >to *him*, in that he is going to go to prison for a long time. [I use the >masculine pronoun because very few women are queerbashers.] Replacing an atmosphere of tolerance for queerbashing with a harsh set of edicts that instill fear of retribution for the same thing does not address the problem of why people are homophobic. If the culture promotes the idea that heterosexual behavior is the only reasonable behavior, then you are setting a delay fuse on a time bomb that is guaranteed to blow up in your own face at some future point in time. I say that genuine relief from queer bashing will come when Family, school, and clergy lay down their own prejudice about homosexuality and allow it to be developed as a natural and accepted variation in the wide spectrum of human experience. When Parents are so accepting of homosexuality as a potential for their own children, that Gay people can introduce their Lovers to their families without shame or fear. When Same Sex couples and triads etc. can walk freely on our streets holding hands or touching and no-one thinks its anything special or different. (Read just about any Sci-Fi story by Elisabeth Lynn for a refreshing glimpse of what such a world would be like.. esp.. "The Dancers of Arun". "You May say I'm a dreamer, But I'm not the only one. I hope some day you will join us And the world will live as one." John Lennon ( PS .. The Beatles Manager Brian Epstein was Gay and reportedly Loved John very much. It has also been reported that John slept with Brian on some occasions to honor that love) Again the prison is our skull, and they key that frees us all is UNDERSTANDING liberally applied with common sense, and a desire to live your own life free from the prejudices and limitations of bigotry. I realise that the posting I have used as a basis for this reply is basicly in sympathy with the statements I have made and I do not want to give the impression that I am *flaming * it . I have merely used it as a springboard to voice my own opinions on the matter. I will end with one last reference to the above letter. "very few women are queerbashers" The teenagers who killed a man on Polk street in san Fransico last year, were allegedly driven to a fever pitch of homophobia by the Mother of one of the Boys who apparently was a highly vocal homophobe with a strong Evangelical bias against Gays. this was brought out by the defense as a mitigating circumstance that purported to explain the Boys premeditated rampage that ended in death for a Gay Man. (They have just recently been handed heavy sentences for their crime) LUX .. on hplabs!hpda!on Owen Rowley "If your not part of the solution , your part of the precipitate"