[iamkeri1]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

Keri:

Of course they have the right to speak. Although I wouldn't shed any tears if they didn't have any venues from which to speak (free speech only protects you from government prosecuting or persecuting you for speech, it doesn't grant you a right to a venue). For the most I agree with you although I don't agree that it would be great if they had to hide their faces behind hoods like the Klan does. The reason for this is because of what I have seen that do for race relations in America.

For the most part what large numbers of white Americans consider racism can be thought of as a synonym for "What the Klan does". As long as you aren't wearing a white sheet, burning a cross or dragging black people behind your truck you're not a racist using that definition. It lets too many people off of the hook far too easily. It is part (but not the whole) of why I think race relations have been going around in circles since the 70's. The other reason I think that having these folks hide their faces is it allows those on the sidelines to imagine that the people under the hoods are monsters--grotesque and hideous beings. The reason why I want folks like Sprigg on TV, spouting his crap, is so that people can see that the folks who hate us are the guy down the street, the pastor of the megachurch, the nice guy at the gas station, your boss, your kid's soccer coach, etc. I also want them to see that they really mean us actual harm.

It pains me to say this but in the *media* battle, the other side has done a much better job than our side has. They learned that outright hate doesn't play well so they try to make it sound like they are just interesting in 'protecting the family' which makes US seem like the threatening party. Except we aren't the threatening party, they are. One of the things that I enjoyed about the exchange between the former Army officer and Sprigg was that the pro-gay person kept returning to the point that there was no basis in fact for any of the latter's assertions. When we do that and stay calm, we throw the radicalism of the other side into sharp relief.

Cheers
Aj

Dread,
What I meant was that I was looking forward to a day when the unchristianity of these christian (and other anti gay haters) would be so obvious to folks that the haters would not want to have their opinions known to people in general. Many out-queers do not realize how many queer folk are still in the very back of the closet, and from that spot, the opinions of these very vocal haters and the power they wield, seem unstoppable. Besides the incredibley low self-esteem these closeted queers have from absorbing all the hate-speech they are subjected to, they are afraid of the losses they will suffer and the actual physical attacks that they may be subjected to. While I do not advocate that anti-gay people be attacked... I don't approve of that it any way ... I do look forward to the day when total acceptance of queer folk is the norm, and that people who act in an unjust manner toward us will fear villification, rather than us fearing it.

Thanks for starting this thread, though I find these opinions personally horrifying, we still must know about it and deal with it.

An yah, them not having a venue to spue their hate talk would be great!
Smooches,
Keri