Bashing the Gay-Bashers

It's time to turn from IDiots, pollyticks, religion and lack thereof for a bit and mount a different horse entirely. This one likes to give the homophobic elements in our society a good, sharp kick, and he's been getting a bit restive. There's so many gay-bashers to bash.

I utterly cannot stand the anti-gay bigotry in our country.

I can't state that strongly enough. Of all the elements of fundamentalist religion I despise, the whole "gays are evil" thing sticks a blasting cap in my magazine of rage and blows it sky-high. It's ignorant and ridiculous to argue against evolution on religious grounds. It's repulsive to condemn someone's harmless sexual orientation - I was about to say for religious reasons, but no. It's repulsive to do it for any reason.

Many of my most cherished friends have been gay or lesbian. I don't want to paint a whole group of people with the same brush, but they've been almost without exception the warmest, sweetest, and most fun people I've ever had the honor of knowing.

Some of my most respected supervisors were homosexual. It did not matter one fucking iota that they were attracted to people of the same sex.

It enrages me to think that these people that I've loved and admired have faced prejudice and condemnation simply for not being heterosexual. What the fuck does it matter?

I've run into the attitudes sometimes. I had a customer go into an anti-gay diatribe, and finish by saying, "I do business with your company because there's no lesbians." I nearly swallowed my tongue laughing. The poor retarded bigot had no fucking clue that we had everything he hated: gay-friendly policies and benefits, plenty of gays and lesbians on staff, and a hell of a lot of homosexuals in management. He was dealing with one of the most gay-friendly businesses I'd ever worked for. I think he realized from that choking sound I was making that he'd maybe misjudged just a bit. He hung up before I could tell him, "Actually, my supervisor's a lesbian, and we all love her dearly." Too bad.

Luckily, no fuckwit has ever aired his or her bigotry to my face. I tend to get a little incandescent when I'm off the clock.

Being a homebody, I don't go in much for the parades and other such displays of solidarity. I probably should. But I'm not shy about making it abundantly clear that gay-bashing won't be tolerated, and I've administered some firm correctives to acquaintences who have started to go there, which is probably why it's never turned to open war. Amazing how rapidly prejudiced dickheads shut up when they've thrown out their little test lines and gotten a cold response, innit?

But that's not enough. There's been some spectacular anti-gay fuckwittery lately, and as the National Day of Silence is over, I think it's time for me to unleash here. It's not just creationists and politicians who deserve my wrath.

We start here:

Here's one of the more outrageous stories you'll hear today. A high school principal in Memphis heard that two students were a gay couple and she posted their names where everyone could see it:

In September of 2007, the principal at Hollis F. Price Middle College High told teachers she wanted the names of all student couples, "hetero and homo," because she wanted to monitor them personally to prevent students from engaging in public displays of affection.

The two students now represented by the ACLU, Andrew and Nicholas (who have asked that their last names not be revealed), were two A students who had been seeing each other for a short time and were attempting to keep their relationship quiet and private.

The principal heard about them through another student, then wrote their names on a list she posted next to her desk, in full view of anyone who entered her office.

That's fucked-up in so many different ways I don't even know where to start. What the fuck is a principal doing making lists of couples in the first place? Where the fuck does she get off posting it in open view? As if that weren't sick enough, she then called the mother of one of the gay students and harangued her, asking if she knew her son was gay. She said she wouldn't tolerate homosexuality at her school. These students were singled out for abuse and harrassment due to her actions. One of them was denied a trip to help rebuild homes in New Orleans because he was told he might embarrass the school.

This kind of attitude is absolutely beyond the pale in this country. It's as bad as racism. And people still get killed because some mouth-breathers react with violence:

At 8:15 a.m. on Feb. 12, 15-year-old Lawrence King was shot twice in the head as he sat at a computer in his school's computer lab in southern California. The gunman was classmate Brandon McInerney, and the two knew each other well. According to friends of both young men, King, who was openly gay, was frequently tormented by classmates, including McInerney. To get back at him, King -- who often wore makeup to school -- flirted with McInerney, turning the tables on the homophobic remarks he endured daily.

But as the bullying and flirting escalated, and McInerney became bullied himself, he snapped and shot King. Students and community members say the shooting was motivated by anti-gay bias.

This needs to stop. And the only way it's going to come close to stopping is if each and every one of us combats the "God hates gays" mentality that makes it seem justified to put two bullets in a human being's head because he flirted with you.

There's far too much enabling bullshit in this country. Parents throw fits over children's books that portray gays as decent, ordinary people - bullshit. Homophobic pastors organize protests against the National Day of Silence - bullshit. Anti-gay legislation being pushed in the name of "protecting marriage" - bullshit.

I've had it with bullshit. Expect more bashing of gay-bashers. Much, much more.