I agree with a lot of the other posters: Our silence equals complacency, which in our community also equals death. We’re not unlike the Jews of Hitler’s Germany: silent sheep hoping it will all just go away.

Neil Said: “Tiger . . . you can declare war until you’re blue in the face. It is meaningless. You do not speak for the gay community.”

First, let me say that reading comprehension is abysmal in this country. Second, I never claimed to speak for anyone but myself, nor have I said anything that can be construed as a generalized statement from the gay community. Third, obviously you have been living under a rock, or recovering from a lobotomy, if you think it is I who has declared the war. You have never seen me stand before a crowd every sunday (sometimes twice) condemning gay people as an abomination and sentenced to eternal damnation. It is not me that tells our teens that their lives are worthless, causing them to consider suicide as a viable option nor do I kick them to the streets when they come out. I am not the one who relishes in my tax-exempt (state-sponsored) status while millions of dollars are donated to strip a class of people of their rights, merely out of prejudice. I am not the one who blames the gay community for natural disaters or acts of terrorism. I am not the one that picketed the funeral of a young man tortured and beaten to death merely for being gay. I am not the idiot that is making claims that the use of condoms is ineffective in fighting HIV. I am not the one who stoops to propaganda and outright lies to scare lemmings into voting away human rights. I am not the one that jeopardizes the quality of hundreds of young lives by preventing them from being adopted by qualified loving couples simply because they do not fit into my rigidly defined conception of a family. I could go on and on, but if you havn’t gotten the picture yet, you never will.

“But if you decide to go begin killing the straight community, I’m pretty sure you won’t have the gay community singing your praises.”

Again, no where did I say I was going to kill anyone, and if I considered possible motives for doing such a thing, you can bet “praise” from anyone would be pretty low on the list of reasons. Not that I would expect much from many in the gay community anyways as that might require they sober up and come out of the baths.

“Rather they will be, for the most part, declaring your ignorance and hatred.”

Thats fine. It’s a hate-hate thing. They hate that violence will be necessary in any struggle for freedom, as is shown throughtout history. I hate that so many are willing to cower and plead peace when we are killed, beaten, tortured, harrassed and discriminated against every day all over the world. I have not advocared violence, I only understand it will be necessary. Speaking of ignorance, do you have any comments that don’t involve you putting words into my mouth?

“You’ll have your shadow backing you. And you will find that hatred, regardless of its source, is counterproductive at best and (usually) destructive to its own desires.”

I don’t hate them anymore than I hate a dog that has to be put down for rabies. It is simply something that will have to be done. As Bud pointed out, there has never been a truly peaceful movement in civil rights, but rather blood has always been the price of freedom and equality. One day it may be your loved one found dead somewhere. Let’s see how peaceful you are then.

With this logic, if a man propositions a woman, she then has the RIGHT to kill the man. If this is taken to this logical conclusion, heterosexual men have much to fear.

For all who are absolutely opposed to aggressive protests, I must remind you that the decade in which civil rights legislation was finally passed that guaranteed the Black community its full and equal citizenship under the law was filled with violence. I lived though it, I was a teenager then. It was the 1960s.

So, what event happened that ultimately brought equality to Blacks? It wasn’t Martin Luther King’s laudable march to Selma and his peaceful protests — which usually ended in him being set upon by police dogs and put in jail. No, it was the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King, and the weeks of rioting nationwide that ensued, which scared the holy sh*t out of the White supremacists in all branches of government and in all walks of life. They finally realized that this dog bites back and that you kick it at your own peril.

The billions of dollars in property damage nationwide, coupled with a tsunami of sudden fear and insecurity felt by White people, forced the White majority to respect the rights of the 13% of Americans who were Black and who were also fed up at being treated like dirt; forced to conform to second class citizenship, and even murdered — kind of like the GLBT community today. So, in that instance, peaceful protests did not work, but fear of retaliation from the oppressed did work.

I hear time and time again from the nervous Nancys and appeasers in our community about how we should all be on the “down low” or else we will face the fearsome “backlash” –such as the sweeping anti-marriage inequality amendments of the last fifteen years throughout the United States.

But ask yourself this: If there would have been violent riots, by the GLBT community, in the first state to have passed such a vile amendment, how eager would the rest of the states have been to pass them? If there would have been massive civil unrest on an enormous scale, thousands of times larger than the Stonewall Riots across the nation, how could they ignore us then?

Just look how everybody, worldwide, knows about our little uprising at the Stonewall tavern in New York in the late 60s. They even have a civil rights group called “Stonewall” in England — and it wasn’t even their riot. So why is Stonewall remembered and not one damn “peaceful” protest celebrated or even recalled in our movement?

Why? Because Stonewall was transitional and transformational. And not because it was peaceful, but because it was a violent rejection of the presumed privilege of a heterocentric society and its defenders. We finally stood up to the bullies. And bullies usually only pick on people which they are confident will not fight back. What a shock Stonewall must have been to them!

Bullies, like bigots, are cowards and will often back down if you push back. Be pro-active. Organize sit-ins and join national boycotts (it worked against Coors beer — remember?). Target the states who have added anti-gay amendments to the their so-called “Bill of Rights” i.e. State Constitutions. Encourage others to not vacation in those states or to purchase products made in those states. Make it clear what you are doing and also make it very clear that you will work actively against any politician (including the current president) who is not working on what we also elected them for — our civil rights.

To be certain, sure remember and celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Stonewall this year, but let’s make our own Stonewalls today as well.

Also, really ask yourself this: What the f*ck have we done since then? Isn’t it far past time that we do something historical again?

© “Bud” E. Lewis Evans, 2009

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