Friday, July 29, 2005

but what difference does it make?

as if i wasn't already depressed enough today for many and varied reasons, one of my favorite blogs, www.towleroad.com, had this story about a gay couple's home being burned down in florida, with the words "Die Fags" spray-painted on their front steps.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/orl-locgayburning29072905jul29,0,4207003.story?coll=orl-news-headlines

then at the end of the story, it happens to mention that on sunday, a prominent gay club in Brownsville, Texas (outside houston) was burned down on sunday, and then mentions Fayetteville, Arkansas, my high school stomping ground. the article is here:
http://www.kfsm.com/Global/story.asp?S=3618094

(sorry, i haven't yet learned that whole HTML trick of linking to sites just by highlighting the words.)

the fayetteville club-burning has not yet been attributed to a hate crime, but let's just call a spade a spade, okay? fayetteville has suffered its share of anti-gay crime in recent years, the most notable probably being a young transvestite that was murdered in his apartment after picking up a couple of guys at a club a few years ago.

it's funny how you can just coast along, honestly believing in your heart that things are getting so much better, that people are actually beginning to show more respect and compassion toward one another, when in all actuality, hate crimes against gay people have increased by almost 50% in the past year. but with a hate-mongering president eating out of the hand of the religious right, doing their hateful best to shape our cultural landscape into one of fear, violence, hopelessness, and vengeance, what can you really expect? people are so easily swayed and malleable and weak. i sincerely weep for our future.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Check out my commentarty on this:

http://www.joetresh.com/tresh/2005/07/die-fag.htm

"I've been telling people there's a civil war brewing in this country, but nobody has been listening..."

Anonymous said...

Sorry, here it is linked: JoeTresh.com