Ending the Culture of Hate and Opposing Those Who Sustain It

Sharon Stapel, the executive director of the NYC Anti-Violence Project, who coordinates the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects, has a piece in The Advocate that looks at the ongoing culture of anti-gay hatred fueled in large part by anti-gay churches and denominations and re-enforced by anti-gay laws such as Don't Ask, Don't Tell ("DADT") which serve no real purpose other than to denigrate LGBT Americans and punish gays for nonconformity with Christianist religious beliefs. All of the apologists who argue for affording deference to religious based bigotry and all the politicians who kiss up to anti-gay bigots (like Obama kissing Rick Warren's fat ass) are accessories to the actions of those who either directly inflict physical harm on LGBT individuals or sustain a toxic societal atmosphere where suicide continues to seem the best option for far too many members of the LGBT community. That's right, by their actions and/or inaction, the Pope Benedict XVI, Richard Land, Maggie Gallagher, Peter LaBarbera, the Mormon Church leadership, countless "Godly Christians" and, of course, Barack Obama are all guilty of sustaining the culture of hate. And because of this, they have blood on their hands. Here are highlights from the article:
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Suicides. Gay bashings. Targeting and torturing people just because they are gay. It has been a difficult time for any of us who love our kids, our friends, our families, and our neighbors — to watch people we love beaten and killed because of who they are.
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For every person who speaks to the necessity to achieve equality and respect for LGBT people, there is another who spews anti-LGBT rhetoric. With bus tours preaching against gay folks or signs that promote nooses as the “solution” to same-sex marriage, these are dangerous times. Tens of millions of dollars are spent by so-called community leaders and antigay groups each year to denigrate and denounce LGBT people, creating a culture of hate that results in attacks and suicides.
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Antigay rhetoric promotes the stigma and isolation that drives LGBT youths to take their own lives and encourages violent gay bashings, and we've seen the very real harm this does. Hate speech creates a hostile environment that demeans LGBT people and encourages physical attacks against our communities. Anti-LGBT hate speech is dangerous, it is ignorant, and it is wrong.
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The rhetoric is all that more dangerous because it is supported by national anti-LGBT policy. Every national law in this country, save one, either excludes LGBT people or discriminates against us. The only law that protects us, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, is the one meant to prosecute those who would harm us because of this culture of hate. And in what has become a painful irony, the government’s failure to repeal the laws that actively discriminate against us — "don't ask, don't tell," the Defense of Marriage Act — and refusal to pass those that would acknowledge our equality, such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act or a fully inclusive Civil Rights Act, contributes to this culture of hate.
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So what is the solution? We have to change the culture of hate. We have to demand immediate equality because we have been put on notice: It is, literally, deadly to wait. Our laws must not only protect LGBT people but also proclaim our equality to everyone and denounce those who would target us for discrimination and violence.
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If you were affected by the stories of gay kids killing themselves, if you were horrified to see gay people targeted and tortured, if you think that people should be able to walk down the street without being jumped and beaten simply for being who they are, then this is your issue. And now, more than ever, we need our straight allies to say, “I will not tolerate this anti-LGBT rhetoric.