Today GLAAD (http://twitter.com/glaad) released a statement through Twitter, asking its followers to help get a YouTube member removed from the website for his hateful comments. I didn't realize exactly how hateful his comments were until I did a little more research into it. (For the sake of brevity, I've decided to leave out the religious discussion about homosexuality. That is going to be the topic of my next post.) A man going by the username "GeorgeBushSupporter8" dumped a load of homophobia and threats on the video to Katy Perry's song "UR So Gay". Keep in mind that the comments I'm about to share are not only horrific, but exactly what he wrote. There has been no editing whatsoever to these comments.
"homosexuality is perversion therefore all homosexuals should be put in death camps! it would be great if we saw every homo tortured to death!"
"homosexuals should be put in death camps. some should be put in gas chambers, some should be put in ovens, and some should be lined and shot! the reason being is because homosexuality is unnatural and perverse! homosexuals want to corrupt the minds of humanity."
"there was a college boy names Matthew Shepard who was brutally murdered for being homosexual. he got what he deserved because instead of looking for women, he would go to gay bars and look to have sex with men. they tied him up to a fence in the freezing weather and beat him with a pistol and left him for dead. the fag was killed! HAHAHA!!!! that's one less faggot in the world! they should have given the two young righteous men medals for their act of heroism!"
"I'm so happy the Arabs hang homosexuals! homosexuality is perversion being no better than incest or bestiality! I saw pictures of homosexuals being tortured to death and it was so pleasant to watch. I'm so happy the Arabs at least know this and follow up with it! continue to hang them please! "
That was only a taste of what he wrote. Honestly, I don't think I've been this angry at something in a few days (the other causes will be left for future posts). I think the thing that made me most angry about these comments was the fact that he pays no attention to the fact that these people are human, and that this has already been done to them and many other racial minorities throughout history. Though we don't like to think about it, gays were persecuted and killed in the manner he speaks of during the holocaust. About 15,000 homosexuals were brought to concentration camps where they were forced to participate in medical experiments, forcibly castrated, humiliated, shot, hung, burned alive, and gassed.
We have to look at the things that this man is spouting seriously. The internet does not give you the right to threaten harm against any group of people. I would consider these to be threats against homosexuals, which can be covered under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which increases punishments for crimes that are committed on the basis of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person. Depending on the state that he lives in, he could be in some major trouble if YouTube decides to perceive the comments as threatening, which I hope they do.
The fight over rights for homosexuals has been getting a lot of media attention recently, which is both good and bad. The good part is that the issue is getting attention, and thus informing people that do not know much about the issue. The bad news is that media is extremely biased, especially some networks. People on both sides of the issue have been getting riled up, but I'm seeing more insults and low blows from the opposition. Gay rights are bad for humanity? How? Could it be that they're afraid that the "gay mafia" will take over the world and turn all the children gay? That's what Sally Kern of Oklahoma is scared of. Are they afraid that gay marriage will then turn into Goat marriage, polygamy or child marriage (which already happens in this country, legal or not)? Bill O'Reilly and Pat Robertson do. Maybe it just boils down to the fact that white men are afraid of giving up the privilege that they have maintained throughout the years by introducing legislation and making comments and laws that are oppressive to women, gays, blacks (you don't actually think that any of the public criticism of Obama is because he is a horrible leader, do you? It's because he is black, and thus put under a microscope and will never be as good as a white president), asians, Native Americans, and immigrants. They seem to be doing fairly well at oppressing every other party, but the gays keep fighting. The religious right, as well as the old white guys club are trying everything they can to convince us that being gay isn't ok, and according to several Gallup Polls, its working (http://www.gallup.com/poll/1651/Homosexual-Relations.aspx). They keep fighting anyway, though. They keep fighting not only because they have integrity, but because it is about their lives. While we sit under this guise that "all men are created equal", we see day after day that it isn't true. Besides, only white men had privileges during that time, and it seems like it will stay that way for now. For now, all they can do is keep fighting, and pray that justice is served against people like the man that I featured above. I'd feel pretty ashamed to call myself an American if we didn't start realizing that everybody is created equal, and should be treated that way.
If you want to help get this guy off of YouTube, you can go to http://www.youtube.com/safety_help. His username is GeorgeBushSupporter8. I would also strongly urge you to write YouTube an e-mail if you find his comments offensive so we can figure out the next step to get his threatening behavior noticed by the proper authorities.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
This Sickens Me
Welcome to my blog. You'll be reading a lot of my rants. Mostly, they are political. Sometimes, they are personal. Tonight, it will be personal.
I spent a lot of my life dealing with Domestic Violence first hand. Emotional and Physical abuse were present in my household, so working with DV victims was a very logical step in my life. Despite the internal failings and politics of the organization I worked for, I loved what I did. I did not, however, love it when women would come in beaten beyond recognition or with a story that their children were still with their abuser for some reason or another. It always made me nervous when a woman would come in and tell me that her abuser had custody of her child/children. I figured that if a man was abusive to the woman in his life, what reason would he have not to be abusive towards the children? Today was one of those days that affirmed my concerns. The abuser of one of the women I knew from shelter killed her son (that he had custody of) and then tried to kill himself. His sister found him with self inflicted stab wounds, and he was taken to the hospital. He is expected to make a full recovery.
I felt physically ill. How could a man do this to his child? Then I realized that he had already been violent towards the child's mother, which meant that he was also likely to be violent towards his child. We need to protect these children! We need to protect these women! We need to hold these men accountable for their actions! The systems that we have in place in this state are simply not enough. There isn't enough shelter space open, there aren't enough cops to arrest these men and there aren't enough judges to compassionately hear these cases and give victims and their children the justice that they both need and deserve.
The programs that we do have in place, as menial as they might be, are facing major changes in the next few years. Due to budget shortfalls and a general lack of caring from the state legislature, women will be forced into the streets if they cannot find shelter and abusers will remain free to continue to terrorize women and children. This isn't right, and something needs to be done.
We need to help those who cannot help themselves. We need to come up with viable solutions for these women and children. We need to do something, anything.
I spent a lot of my life dealing with Domestic Violence first hand. Emotional and Physical abuse were present in my household, so working with DV victims was a very logical step in my life. Despite the internal failings and politics of the organization I worked for, I loved what I did. I did not, however, love it when women would come in beaten beyond recognition or with a story that their children were still with their abuser for some reason or another. It always made me nervous when a woman would come in and tell me that her abuser had custody of her child/children. I figured that if a man was abusive to the woman in his life, what reason would he have not to be abusive towards the children? Today was one of those days that affirmed my concerns. The abuser of one of the women I knew from shelter killed her son (that he had custody of) and then tried to kill himself. His sister found him with self inflicted stab wounds, and he was taken to the hospital. He is expected to make a full recovery.
I felt physically ill. How could a man do this to his child? Then I realized that he had already been violent towards the child's mother, which meant that he was also likely to be violent towards his child. We need to protect these children! We need to protect these women! We need to hold these men accountable for their actions! The systems that we have in place in this state are simply not enough. There isn't enough shelter space open, there aren't enough cops to arrest these men and there aren't enough judges to compassionately hear these cases and give victims and their children the justice that they both need and deserve.
The programs that we do have in place, as menial as they might be, are facing major changes in the next few years. Due to budget shortfalls and a general lack of caring from the state legislature, women will be forced into the streets if they cannot find shelter and abusers will remain free to continue to terrorize women and children. This isn't right, and something needs to be done.
We need to help those who cannot help themselves. We need to come up with viable solutions for these women and children. We need to do something, anything.
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