Why We Need to Speak Out and Be Open

I've had more e-mail discourse with the wingnut who e-mailed me last night and between that and reading various statements by Christianists and other contributors to the "Yes on 8" campaign - some of whom seem dumbfounded that gays are upset with them and may actually boycott their businesses - I've been giving additional thought to why it is important to stand up to these forces of intolerance and fight back. We cannot let them win and we must drown out the hateful and untrue things they say about LGBT individuals. Why? So that we ourselves and future generations of gays will have a better life. Pam Spaulding had a quote from Harvey Milk in 1978 on her blog that says it well:

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"Somewhere in Des Moines or San Antonio there is a young gay person who all the sudden realizes that he or she is gay; knows that if their parents find out they will be tossed out of the house, their classmates will taunt the child, and the Anita Bryant's and John Briggs' are doing their part on TV. And that child has several options: staying in the closet, and suicide.

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And then one day that child might open the paper that says "Homosexual elected in San Francisco" and there are two new options: the option is to go to California, or stay in San Antonio and fight. Two days after I was elected I got a phone call and the voice was quite young. It was from Altoona, Pennsylvania. And the person said "Thanks".

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I get accused of displaying anger and "hostility" towards our Christianist and Mormon enemies. Perhaps I do. But in large part it is because I see the damage their religious based bigotry does to members of the LGBT community be it in the form of the suicide of a gay who can no longer take the abuse and denigration, gay teens thrown out of their homes by their "loving Christian" parents, or the hard working LGBT person who calls me after being fired from their job because of who they are. Lives are damaged or destroyed every day by our enemies who truly do not care one iota about the pain and damage they cause.

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As for why our enemies hate and attack us, in my view, ultimately it is because of their own spiritual insecurity (which they would deny is the case) and their fragile religious belief structure that cannot stand if maybe, just maybe the Bible is wrong and God made gays as we are deliberately for some divine purpose. We represent a threat to their shallow and superficial lives that require a crutch which will allow them to mindlessly check off neat little boxes and tell themselves that they are superior and otherwise allow them to feel good about themselves and feel self-satisfied. Their motivation stems from fear and selfishness. We must work incessantly to convince the larger public it is our enemies who are the ones who want "special rights" at the expense of others. Then, and only then will we successfully rise above the lies and untruths disseminated by our enemies.