Making Sense out of being Hated

Realities of Hate

Personal Opinion by Gaystoryman

Copyright © 2007 ◊ All Rights Reserved

For years, the GLBT community has attempted to get one’s sexual orientation included in being protected under Federal Statue. Under the Republican Congress it never made it out of committee most times, certainly never made it beyond the floors of the Senate or House, until now.

Here we are in 2007 with a new Congress in the United States and the addition of ‘gender’ and ‘sexual orientation’ may finally become protected, under Federal Hate Crime legislation, dubbed the Mathew Shepard Bill.

And yet even as it approaches passage, the looming threat of a Presidential Veto rears its ugly head, and makes me wonder, what the hell is it with Conservatives? Do they truly buy into the garbage that escapes their leadership’s mouths? That by passing such a law, that Priests, Preachers, and other so called Men of God will be subject to prosecution under the new Hate Crime Laws?

You have to ask yourself that if that is even a remote possibility, what is it about that religion that makes their sermons appear as Hate? I mean when did GOD suddenly become an entity that preached Hate? It is unbelievable to me, that any religious order, that is truly about God, would even think that its basic freedoms are at stake, if a law is passed that gives protection to someone from hate, simply because of their sexuality.

Such a law doesn’t make approve or disapprove of the facts of nature, it simply acknowledges that one cannot use blind hate to attack someone, irrespective of certain qualifiers, such as color of skin, religious beliefs, and now, sexual orientation.

The Religious Right seems intent on confusing the realities of life, with their views on Religion. I mean to begin with, in a Democracy, people are free to choose what they believe in, and be free from persecution for those beliefs. That is the founding concept behind the United States even, and yet here are these people, attempting to subvert that very principle, by attacking those who are defending that right, by insisting Hate Laws limit their Religious Freedoms.

How?

To stand up in a pulpit and say that God does not approve of homosexuality is one thing. It might deny the reality but that is totally different. You can stand there and say Homosexuals are sinners, you can say that they are immoral, and that is fine. But just as you cannot stand up in Church and say that Blacks need to be kept in their place, you can’t say that Gays need to be shown the errors of their ways through beatings.

Now I don’t know of too many churches where the preacher is spewing that, so to assume that their vehemence is still protected, their opposition to including sexual orientation under Hate Crime legislation is irrational, and misplaced.

After all, what religion promotes Hate?

And while homosexuality opposition is being based on a religious viewpoint, one has to wonder, whatever happened to separation of Church and State?

The purpose of this legislation isn’t to approve or disapprove of anyone’s natural or chosen traits. I mean a person has no control over their gender, their color of skin, nor their sexual orientation. They do have control over their choice of religion however, but that is protected.

Even if being Homosexual was a choice, the argument used by the Religious Right is moot. To claim ‘matters of choice’ can’t be protected, means that attacks on someone because they are Jewish, Muslim, or Christian would also have to be removed from existing statutes. After all, while one is born Jewish or Muslim, they still can choose to change to any other form of belief. So if one’s religious orientation is protected, without making a judgment on it, why then can they not accept one’s sexual orientation in the same way? (assuming it was a choice, which medical studies say it isn’t)

Then there is the argument that if sexual orientation is included so too should other sectors of society, such as seniors.

The problem with this argument is that there aren’t crimes that are fueled solely by hate, which many crimes against Gays are. It is to try and stop the spread of racism, which is why skin color, religion are all protected now.

Yes, people will target seniors, but is it because they are elderly or that they make for easy targets? Criminals are not attacking elderly people simply for the sport of it. They are attacking them because, in their warped mind, these people are easier targets. It is also generally about financial gain, not simply to hurt them because of their advanced years.

Attacks on Blacks, simply because they are black is different. It isn’t about them being an easier target, or about taking their money, it is because of the color of their skin. It is to hurt them, not because they defended themselves, but because of the color of their skin.

Attacks on Jews is the same. It is an attack on someone not for gain, not for profit, but simply out of hate. While I personally would like to thank the Christian Doctrine for that one, fact is people hate Jews, for no other reason than they are Jews. An attack on a Jew to steal his watch is not a Hate Crime, but an attack on him, spewing anti Semitic remarks is. To beat a Jew simply for sport is Hate, not a crime for profit, not a crime of passion.

When the Good Old Boys would get drunk, jump in their pickups and go look for blacks to beat up, to chase and scare, it was out of Hate. It wasn’t for profit or any other reason other than hate. It was a sport learned from the long history of Christian society doing the very same to the Jews around the world.

In Poland back in the old days, the local elite would ride into the Jewish settlements, to rape, burn, and kill Jews, simply because they were bored. They didn’t do it to non Jewish settlements, because they didn’t Hate them. They weren’t taught by the Priests to hate the poor non Jews, just the Jews, because the Jews killed Christ. (In truth it was the Romans who crucified Christ, but that fact is conveniently ignored, just as the fact that Christ was Jewish is ignored)

When two seniors are in a restaurant, leave and are beaten up, its horrible. Yet they are beaten up to be robbed, and that isn’t a crime of Hate, but one for profit.

When two gays are in a restaurant, and leave to be confronted by several bat wielding thugs, and are beaten and degraded with foul language and taunts, it isn’t about taking their wallets, it is about Hate. It is because they are Gay that they are attacked, not because they are easy to pick on, or because they have a different skin color, but rather it is because they are different than the vast majority. Just as a black person is different, just as a Latino is different or an Asian, so too are Gays. It if for those differences that they are attacked, and it is for those reasons that added protection is needed.

Hate creates Fear, and is the weapon of cowards. Is the religious right trying to say that it is okay to hate people, to terrorize them? I mean there are people dying in Iraq to defend the very freedoms that the Religious Right at home are attempting to subvert. How does that work into their so called value system?

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