 | Stand together or Fall apartBy Grace Rooney |
I started this post before I checked GTS today, but I wasn’t surprised to see that Grace Chu had already posted her thoughts on It Gets Better. I know @TheLinster and @DorothySnarker have written about the recent suicides that have shaken our community. I have chosen to contribute my voice, because quite frankly, we all need to speak up and stand together and say NO MORE.
@DorothySnarker writes about creating a culture or tolerance; I say we demand a culture of acceptance. I say we argue that hate speech is not free speech when the price is a human life. A HUMAN life, a human who loves, a human who is loved. I say when religious leaders use their “faith” to espouse views that result in hate crimes, those religions should lose their tax exempt status. The Mormon church was the driving force to defeat Prop 8. Imagine if the Mormon church lost its tax exempt status, would they still be able to afford their magic underwear? Imagine if Preacher Phelps had to pay tax for his pulpit of hatred, would his followers be able to afford markers and posters to perpetuate their hate?
I wish there were an easy way to dispel the fear based religious movement against allowing homosexuals civil rights our constitution promises us, until our government gets out of bed with religion, we need to exercise our free speech and we have to speak louder and wiser than those who continue to inculcate hatred wrapped up in the guise of religion. The cost of being patient is just too damn high.
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October 6th, 2010 at 10:28 pm
Amen to that.
October 6th, 2010 at 10:47 pm
I second Lauren’s Amen. We hear about lobbyists influence in politics in the media every day. I think that religion’s influence can be more dangerous if it leads to closed minds, closed ears and closed hearts.
October 7th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
I just can’t agree with censorship to achieve these ends. Hate speech, no matter how heinous it actually is, should still be free.
Personally, I have issues with religious organizations getting tax exempt status, anyway, but I fear repealing it because we don’t like a particular one’s opinion could lead to other groups with more valid messages and missions having theirs revoked as well when someone doesn’t like what they do.
The best way to combat this shit I feel is being visible – something that I myself am working on in my own life. Let the general population see us, see who we are and what we’re really like, and make them know us so that these things aren’t just anonymous crimes against nobody anymore. Let those kids know that if they can just make it through the next few years into adulthood, that there is a life full of possibilities once they get here.
Things will get better and things ARE getting better, no matter what the setbacks are we see day after day. Maybe in the big cities things don’t seem too different, but I can say out here in good ol’ Middle America, life for queers has changed quite a bit in just the last 5 years, let alone the past 10 and 15. We still have a long way to go, and sometimes it seems like we gain an inch only to loose a mile, but believe me – we’re getting there, however slow the going is.
October 7th, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Melissa,
Is speech really free right now? If you threaten to kill someone there are consequences for that speech.
There is Free speech and then there is hiding behind the first amendment to perpetuate hate, that has to change.
October 7th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Melissa,
Rick Sanchez also lost his job, and rightly so for exercising his right to free speech. Free Speech doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences for speaking up.
October 12th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Of course there should be consequences. That’s not the same thing as outright censorship. We’re all free, technically, to express what we think and feel, but no, that doesn’t mean we don’t face repercussions, and I wouldn’t support that not be the case. Quite the opposite – I think the best way to counteract this shit is through offering consequences other than restrictions, as well as offering examples counter to what these tools say about us.
I also just realized I fucking mispelled “lose” as “loose,” and I fucking hate when people do that. I’m going to go stand in the corner now and think about my stupid typo.
October 15th, 2010 at 10:59 pm
The thing that really weirds me out about the press coverage is how they act as if queer teen suicide is some new thing. It has been a terrible reality for at least decades, if not centuries.
October 22nd, 2010 at 2:44 am
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/21/churches-contribute-to-gay-suicides-most-americans-believe/?hpt=C1