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A-LISTS fruit fly
by angelica osborne
“Empower Yourself!
You Have Earned It!”
While reading one of my fave news sources, The Huffington Post last month, punishable by death. 72 countries and three entities (Turkish Cyprus, Gaza and
I came upon this gem of a quote by one of their contributing writers, Cook Islands) punish consenting adults with either fines, prison sentences and
David Kaufman . even public whippings. Five countries (Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan,
Yemen and parts of Nigeria and Somalia) punish them with the death penalty.
“Same-sex marriage advocates must finally understand they cannot So if, you measure the battle for rights by where we are today, then the gays have
equate their struggle with the African-American battle for Civil Rights or “earned” their place in the human rights war over and over and continue to do
South African movement to end Apartheid. Not because Marriage Equality so. The thing is it’s pointless to try and compare pain. How do you measure your
is not a noble goal, but because they are simply not the same thing. And — pain against someone else’s? Injustice is wrong no matter what the prejudice, so
yes, I’ll dare say it — because they simply have not earned it!” why would someone who knows that pain want to deny anyone else’s suffering as
well. As is if to boast, “Nuh-uh, people hate us more!”
So.... How do you earn the right to crusade for your rights and use other success While studying hate crimes history, I came across a website for The Pink Pistols.
stories as an example…with numbers? If so, then what is the number of dead Their motto is “Armed Gays don’t get bashed.” They want to make gay-bashing
people to qualify? Do we count the gays burned alive under the emperors Con- dangerous. The gay movement often portrays homosexuals as helpless victims.
stantius, Valentinian II, Theodosius I, Arcadius and Justinian I? Do we count the The Pink Pistols feel an alternative to that role is to arm them. On their site
tens of thousands under the Nazis? Do we count the recent deaths of Lawrence (pinkpistols.org) Jonathan Rauch encourages gays to become comfortable
King (age 15), Walter Tróchez (Honduran gay activist), and British consul, John with guns, learn to use them safely and carry them; set up Pink Pistols task forces,
Terry? The prisoners/hate crimes in England from 1533 until 1861 under the Bug- sponsor shooting courses and help homosexuals get licensed to carry AND do
gery Act? Just give me a ballpark figure, David...Or do we go by history and how it in a way that gets as much publicity as possible. One of the members tells his
long your group has been persecuted? All you have to do is look up “VIOLENCE story of being in a parked car with his boyfriend one night when a group of men
AGAINST LGBT” on Wikipedia to see that the onslaught of homophobic crimes started approaching the car yelling out homophobic slurs. The boyfriend pulled
has been going on since before forever and they are still going on, all over the a gun out of his glove compartment and fired off a shot above their heads and
world. the would be attackers ran away. You can bet they were not expecting that at all!
I can’t think of a single country where it is illegal to have a certain skin color. I’m certainly not suggesting a homo shoot-’em-up rampage by any means, but
Harassment, violence, hatred…because of your skin color? Absolutely, racism I think it’s kind of like when Mr. Miyagi told Daniel-son, “ You learn karate so you
still exists. However, you can’t be arrested on the fact of your skin color alone. don’t have to fight.”
You can, however, be arrested just based on who you love! Burundi criminalized Know your history, Share it, speak of it. Most importantly, learn from it. Lastly, I
homosexuality for the first time in its history just last year in 2oo9. say this; Empower yourself! You have earned it.
There are now 80 countries that consider homosexuality illegal, five of them
feedback? fruitfly@ragemonthly.com or blog@ragemonthly.com
24 RAGE monthly | MARCH 2010
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