Dear Marian,
I also hope that no one died or was seriously hurt. Incidents like this hurt
everybody, but mostly the poor people who are at the receiving end of the
violence. The fact is that there is nothing you can do aside from what
you've already done: protest, and raise your children not to hate. The
former is great (but also frustrating because so often it's ineffectual);
the latter is imperative (but also perilous, because parents seem to have
less and less influence over their kids these days).
The JMDL is tolerant and even accepting. The world out there isn't.
Gay-bashing will always be part of our society. People like Jesse Helms will
make sure it is, and legislated, too!
And people even less respectable than Jesse Helms - the ones who are willing
to bomb houses and kill the children of supporters of minorities such as
African-Americans Indians and Aboriginal Canadians and Jews and women and
gays and communists and God only knows who else.
The Matthew Shepard case seemed to have made some headway, as the assailants
were actually given serious sentences despite homophobic defences. But the
Teresa Saldana and Rebecca Schaffer cases actually resulted in changes to
the stalking laws (good!) Many states still regard petitions for legislation
against sexual orientation hate crimes as a plea for "special rights" for
gays.
Marian, I hope nobody got killed. Not only because I hate to see anyone die
violently (it is always a waste), but because when a gay person dies
violently, few politicians in the world give a shit.
Roberto, and cynically
>
>I was very distressed to see on the news a terrible gay bashing incident in
>Belgrade. There was a small gay pride march yesterday and a group of
>hooligans split up their march and picked them off one by one, kicking them
>and throwing rocks at them, while people cheered. This has to be one of
>the
>worst things I have ever seen or heard about. I hope that no one died. I
>wish there was something I could do.
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