Good Writer, Thoughtful Message
One of the live journal communities to which I belong, although I don't drop by often enough and it seems to be only intermittently active, is
engayge_america . One of its regular contributors, 
joedecker , is a passionate and articulate proponent of common sense in the fight for equal rights and against hate. He wrote this piece, a sensitive and forceful contemplation of the latest battle in the war against Proposition 8 - and how the failure to take action against the proposition directly translates into lives lost - at his own lj. It impressed me. Some of the discussion it generated is also interesting.
One of the live journal communities to which I belong, although I don't drop by often enough and it seems to be only intermittently active, is
engayge_america . One of its regular contributors, joedecker , is a passionate and articulate proponent of common sense in the fight for equal rights and against hate. He wrote this piece, a sensitive and forceful contemplation of the latest battle in the war against Proposition 8 - and how the failure to take action against the proposition directly translates into lives lost - at his own lj. It impressed me. Some of the discussion it generated is also interesting.- Current Location:living room
- Current Mood:
contemplative - Current Music:score to Chuck Jones' "The Dot and the Line"
Comments
Bingo. Except that it doesn't go far enough. The notion that failure to certify marriage in any specific state of the Union is somehow responsible for deaths of GLBTs is... how shall I put this? Ummm, how about "insane"?
--MMB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard
For me, the commentary radiated a frustration, fear, and anger that worried about violence, rather than threatening it. I'm not surprised, nor do I think the frustration, the "what the hell do we do now? What's going to happen now?" attitude insane, or even surprising.
Neither you nor I are in this young man's demographic; we haven't seen one of our civil rights given to us, then taken away - nor had such an action be only the latest in a long line of everything from unthinking insensitivity, to legislated injustice, to physical danger. None of that is the product of a liberal's fevered mind, that's the reality of the life of homosexual men and women in our society, and in our world. And it's wrong. If you or I were forced to deal with that, we might well react even more unhappily.
As for the reasoning of "while we wait, people die," I took from that the message that the kind of studious non-interference exhibited by media, the California AG, etc. against a deliberate attempt to keep a civil right, marriage, from one segment of the population, is reflective of a societal bias so strong that it drives a particular group of young people - homosexual teens - to a higher level of suicides than should ever be the case with kids.
I know someone who suicided because (well, this is what was in the note that was left) "she" was still not a genetic girl after reassignment surgery. Tell me how marital status affects that. Tell me how marital status related to Alan Turing's suicide after court-ordered hormone "therapy".
This marriage issue is down in the noise compared to those sorts of things, and anyone who uses it as a pretextuak explanation of suicides is kidding somebody--possibly everybody. Anyone who uses it as a pretext for homicide? Well, I suspect you know my personal stance on that.
--MMB