Friday, February 13, 2009

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

In the aftermath of so many deaths of our lgbt children and teenagers why is it, when after reading the latest in Larry King’s hate crime and others that did not get such attention, that the national lgbt organizations are not calling for action? Every website I went to is promoting events or the scare tactics of the so called Christian right wing propaganda and not one call to action.

They had news updates on the crimes that got the major media attention and although such is crucial, what is being done to once and for all take action to stop this emotional and physical massacre of lgbt children? These children, especially those who live in poverty and or of minority races/religions, are the most vulnerable of everyone in this civil rights pursuit.

The time is past due for everyone who is lgbt and or the parents, families or friends of lgbt human beings of all ages, to organize a march, to “act up,” to call their congressional and or state representatives. We should all make such an outcry that it will be heard and seen worldwide!

Stop the fussing among each other over this and that and take to the streets! Flood the switchboards of congress! You can talk a topic to death while our children are on the front lines with no relief on the horizon. They need all of us and now, not when another life has been lost and groups call for vigils. Why haven’t any of the national organizations sought to develop and promote a traveling memorial to all who have lost their lives to this ongoing war of terror being waged by fundamentalist, right wing terrorists in our own nation? Call them what they are, don’t dance around it.

This nation and the world must see the cost in human lives this ongoing war consumes. No one is safe, and I mean no one, including those who wage this war. When will they hug a friend of the same gender and the assumption is made they are gay? Go to a costume party and be mistaken for a transgender person or child? If certain people see such, they can and do react with violence.

I beg of each person and organization, look beyond thy self and take action for those who cannot. Now, I ask of every individual and organization, where is your outrage?

Carolyn Wagner
Families United Against Hate

Thursday, February 12, 2009

The Christian Bigot movement attacking our children, AGAIN!

Well, we once again have it in print that purported Christian organizations state they are opposed to our lgbt children having hostile-free, safe public schools. They imply that lgbt children and their heterosexual parents are promoting “sexual perversion” in the public schools.

Here are some solid facts, my husband and I have been “married” for 36 years, we are Christians, we have raised two children, one is gay and one is not. Our son told us when he was 13 and endured years of harassment, maltreatment and an eventual violent anti-gay assault at his school. Through it all, there was not one of these so-called Christian groups, members or leaders speaking about how un-Christian it is to not only tolerate but to participate in the bullying, harassment that leads to the violence our lgbt children endure.

Peter LaBarbera of the “Americans for Truth about homosexuality” and the “Illinois Family Alliance” are leading an attack to ensure that lgbt children of Chicago and nationwide continue to endure the daily maltreatment and violence their hate filled, scare tactic, messages create.

I grew up in the south during the previous civil rights struggle and remember very well how certain Christian churches and organizations utilized their bully pulpit to create more bias, discrimination and violence toward people of color. They used bible verses back then to justify segregation and marriage of the same race. Sound familiar? I have no doubt if they could somehow identify lgbt children they would once again push for segregated schools. This time based upon real or perceived sexual orientation and or gender identity.

Every human being is at risk for this form of discrimination and violence. All it takes is for an individual or a group to assume another adult or child is lgbt and the bias begins. Sometimes it even leads to violence toward heterosexuals assumed to be lgbt and death.

Certain religious groups never took ownership for the role they played in the discrimination and violence toward people of color and women. Now they lead the same type of scare tactic campaigns against children and adults based on real or perceived sexual orientation and or gender identity.

Some of these bigots still deny the holocaust happened and don’t want the public at large to know why the lgbt community utilizes the pink triangle. This is how the Nazi’s identified lgbt people, just as they required Jewish people to wear the yellow Star of David.

I am talking to the Christians and now is the time to finally, once and for all to actually behave as a Christian and to follow the teachings of Christ who never taught bias or hate toward any individual or group. Think for yourselves and read history. Christians are not the victims in this civil rights struggle, no more than the Nazi’s were the victims of the Jews and the lgbt people.

Get back in your closet and pray as Jesus taught! If you cannot control your impulses that cause you to fixate on the sex lives, gender identity and or sexual attraction of other human beings, get into therapy; keep your impulses within your church and home and out of other people’s homes and public schools where lives are being destroyed. To be blunt, it is none of you darn business and unconstitutional to boot!

Carolyn Wagner