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10/23/2009
'Put a stop to it'
"If we had spoken out on these issues of gender-identity years ago and put a stop to it, we wouldn't be having this discussion today"
The above quip, attributed to a writer named Dave Racer, is featured in a new One News Now report on aging LGBT people and the Obama administration's decision to focus resources on the same. An important quip, if you ask us, because it demonstrates (a) just what our opposition truly wants at the end of the day, and (b) how much more hostile their words are getting as our rights, benefits, and protections increase.
Let's think about it for a second. First off: What does he mean if they had spoken out on our issue. While we certainly consider Anita Bryant, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, and all of these "pro-marriage" groups' work to be a nightmare, we're pretty sure that they tangibly exist. And we're pretty sure that they've been targeting us for decades.
Moving on: What, exactly, does he mean by "put a stop to it"? How, exactly, would this "stop" have gone down? I mean, when talking about actual human beings and their existences, the options for stoppage are pretty limited. There's jail. There's murder. There's deportation. There's forced conversion. That's really about it. If people are LGBT and they are quite content with being LGBT, then there is simply no way that the other side's desire to "stop" the fact is going to be a frighteningly hostile act!
And finally, let's look at the element of "having this discussion today." The only reason -- THE ONLY REASON -- why LGBT lives have to be any sort of discussion is BECAUSE the anti-LGBT forces have insisted on speaking out against us! Again -- we like ourselves. It is they, the self-appointed moral authoritarians, who want to discuss whether or not we should like ourselves! It is their years and years of "discussion" that forces us to justify and talk about our lives and loves, rather than simply live and enjoy the same!
It's in these throwaway quips where you can often glean the most insight. It's in organizations like the American Family Association's decision to print them where you start to realize that the other side is all connected, and that behind the nice, sweet mask lies some very scary truths.
Gov't springs for older LGBT population [ONN (an AFA production)]
Your thoughts
In that little comment lies so much dehumanizing hatred. It's dense with hatred, like a lead ball. That "put a stop to it" made my blood freeze up for all the reasons you mention.
My wife and I are friends with a lesbian couple in their 70s. They have assured us that people were "speaking out" quite vocally when they first came out in their late 30s.
I'm glad the Obama administration recognizes that there is a real need to be addressed here, anyway.
Posted by: GreenEyedLilo | Oct 23, 2009 3:52:30 PM
Oh, they want us dead, no question about that. The problem for them is that even if they manage to somehow kill us all, we'd be right back again in the next generation. And they know this, despite their protestations to the contrary.
So the best they can hope for is to suppress us as much as the rest of society will let them. It's our job not to let them.
Posted by: marsmannetje | Oct 23, 2009 6:22:58 PM
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