DEAR STRAIGHT PEOPLE,

[almaty 19]

Why do straights hate gays?

An 72-year-old gay activist isn't hopeful about the future.

By Larry Kramer, LARRY KRAMER is the founder of the protest group ACT UP and the author of "The Tragedy of Today's Gays."

March 20, 2007

Gays are hated. Prove me wrong. Your top general just called us immoral. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is in charge of an estimated 65,000 gay and lesbian troops, some fighting for our country in Iraq. A right-wing political commentator, Ann Coulter, gets away with calling a straight presidential candidate a faggot. Even Garrison Keillor, of all people, is making really tacky jokes about gay parents in his column. This, I guess, does not qualify as hate except that it is so distasteful and dumb, often a first step on the way to hate. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama tried to duck the questions that Pace's bigotry raised, confirming what gay people know: that there is not one candidate running for public office anywhere who dares to come right out, unequivocally, and say decent, supportive things about us.

Gays should not vote for any of them. There is not a candidate or major public figure who would not sell gays down the river. We have seen this time after time, even from supposedly progressive politicians such as President Clinton with his "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military and his support of the hideous Defense of Marriage Act. Of course, it's possible that being shunned by gays will make politicians more popular, but at least we will have our self-respect. To vote for them is to collude with them in their utter disdain for us.

Don't any of you wonder why heterosexuals treat gays so brutally year after year after year, as your people take away our manhood, our womanhood, our personhood? Why, even as we die you don't leave us alone. What we can leave our surviving lovers is taxed far more punitively than what you leave your (legal) surviving spouses. Why do you do this? My lover will be unable to afford to live in the house we have made for each other over our lifetime together. This does not happen to you. Taxation without representation is what led to the Revolutionary War. Gay people have paid all the taxes you have. But you have equality, and we don't.

And there's no sign that this situation will change anytime soon. President Bush will leave a legacy of hate for us that will take many decades to cleanse. He has packed virtually every court and every civil service position in the land with people who don't like us. So, even with the most tolerant of new presidents, gays will be unable to break free from this yoke of hate. Courts rule against gays with hateful regularity. And of course the Supreme Court is not going to give us our equality, and in the end, it is from the Supreme Court that such equality must come. If all of this is not hate, I do not know what hate is.

Our feeble gay movement confines most of its demands to marriage. But political candidates are not talking about — and we are not demanding that they talk about — equality. My lover and I don't want to get married just yet, but we sure want to be equal.

You must know that gays get beaten up all the time, all over the world. If someone beats you up because of who you are — your race or ethnic origin — that is considered a hate crime. But in most states, gays are not included in hate crime measures, and Congress has refused to include us in a federal act.

Homosexuality is a punishable crime in a zillion countries, as is any activism on behalf of it. Punishable means prison. Punishable means death. The U.S. government refused our requests that it protest after gay teenagers were hanged in Iran, but it protests many other foreign cruelties. Who cares if a faggot dies? Parts of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. are joining with the Nigerian archbishop, who believes gays should be put in prison. Episcopalians! Whoever thought we'd have to worry about Episcopalians?

Well, whoever thought we'd have to worry about Florida? A young gay man was just killed in Florida because of his sexual orientation. I get reports of gays slain in our country every week. Few of them make news. Fewer are prosecuted. Do you consider it acceptable that 20,000 Christian youths make an annual pilgrimage to San Francisco to pray for gay souls? This is not free speech. This is another version of hate. It is all one world of gay-hate. It always was.

Gays do not realize that the more we become visible, the more we come out of the closet, the more we are hated. Don't those of you straights who claim not to hate us have a responsibility to denounce the hate? Why is it socially acceptable to joke about "girlie men" or to discriminate against us legally with "constitutional" amendments banning gay marriage? Because we cannot marry, we can pass on only a fraction of our estates, we do not have equal parenting rights and we cannot live with a foreigner we love who does not have government permission to stay in this country. These are the equal protections that the Bill of Rights proclaims for all?

Why do you hate us so much that you will not permit us to legally love? I am almost 72, and I have been hated all my life, and I don't see much change coming.

I think your hate is evil.

What do we do to you that is so awful? Why do you feel compelled to come after us with such frightful energy? Does this somehow make you feel safer and legitimate? What possible harm comes to you if we marry, or are taxed just like you, or are protected from assault by laws that say it is morally wrong to assault people out of hatred? The reasons always offered are religious ones, but certainly they are not based on the love all religions proclaim.

And even if your objections to gays are religious, why do you have to legislate them so hatefully? Make no mistake: Forbidding gay people to love or marry is based on hate, pure and simple.

You may say you don't hate us, but the people you vote for do, so what's the difference? Our own country's democratic process declares us to be unequal. Which means, in a democracy, that our enemy is you. You treat us like crumbs. You hate us. And sadly, we let you.

interesting

[Fuzzness 2]

I find it offensive that I am being lumped in together with the homophobes. The writer of this article does not get any respect from me.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I was going to ask where this appeared - but its in the Opinion section of the LA Times.

I think he is right that there is more homophobia out there than people are prepared to admit, but his approach isn't going to win him any friends - seeing as his article takes the view that "everyone hates me and my kind".

I don't hate gays, nor do I have any particular problem with the gay lifestyle - I simply don't consider it any of my business to tell someone how to run their personal life. Its not criminal, neither is it particularly immoral. (Though of course the door is open for someone else to play the old "slippery slope" card and say "what about beastiality, incest, pedophilia and all that jazz". I could really care less.

[Otto 83]

......... Opinion

Construction

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[peejay 327]

I could care less if homosexuals have homosexual relationships...but it is not necessary for government or society at large to sanctify homosexuality. They don't need the State seal of approval or my blessing to be homosexual.

As the old Rolling Stones song sez...Ya can't always get what ya want.....

[KarenCee 3]

Oh good lord....isn't there MORE important things to worry about than this? Like...the stock market?

[beameup 0]

"ACT UP" says it all.

There are many, many "alternative lifestyles" other than gay that just don't get in your face, but instead keep a somewhat "low profile". Actually there are many homosexuals in the Republican Party ("Log Cabin Republicans") who really don't like this type of "act up" activity. They simply lead their lives as normal human beings - their "private lives" remain so.

A Libertarian

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

This guy smells like KY and Vicks.

[JohnK 0]

I don't hate gays.

I don't see why they feel the need to throw their sexual preferences in everyone's face. I don't care who you are or what you do in the privacy of your home, but gay or not, I don't need to have it constantly paraded around in front of me.

[MrsBruce5 0]

Personally, I don't care what anyone does in their bedroom. Makes no difference to me at all-just as it's no one's business what I do within my own. My "lifesytle" doesn't affect how I do my job, raise my child or treat other humans. And for me, anything that promotes more love in this world is just fine with me. W're all on this Earth, we all bleed the same blood, and we all are human beings. End of story.

[Flames9_RN 358]

I just hate how the world has to label everything. People are people, it is simple as that, and everyone should respect others Straight people are jerks, just as gay ( I hate that word) are jerks!!

[Christine n Carl 0]

I agree completely with the prior post from beameup. The original poster is disrespectful and just proves why there happens to be such a microscope on an issue that has always existed just below the radar so to speak. He labels himself an "activist". May I ask, an activist for what? You practice an alternative sexual lifestyle, you are not legislated against!! Only when members of your particular alternative sexual lifestyle decide they deserve more rights and exposure than members who do not either believe or practice your lifestyle, you become "activist" to basically decide you deserve more rights than others. Thats not consistant with democratic ideals or even basic common sense.

Personally I dont believe in your lifestyle, but what you do in your own home with another consenting adult is your business, not mine or the government. When you start forcing people to ACCEPT your alternative lifestyle, your OPINION of what you think everyone should be like, than you sir are the one who is closed minded and hateful. As far as your position on marriage, marriage always was a religious sacrament to join a man and a woman who can hopefully reproduce and create a family as outlined in all major religious beliefs. Than the state (Governments) picked up on this and made it a legal entity. Your attempts to force all people to accept your desire/opinion to change this to allow people who practice a different sexual lifestyle to now somehow be "married" just shows how narrow minded your ideals are. Stop being so hateful, we are all humans and that means we all have opinions, you efforts to force yours on people who do not believe it in, will only foster more resentment for your ideals, whether deserved or not.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

He does have a point at the start of the article about the treatment of gays by public figures.

Ann Coulter causes a flutter of controversy by publicly referring to John Edwards as a faggot but more or less gets away with it.

Compare with:

Michael Richards - recorded on film, referring to a couple of hecklers as "niggers". He is publicly shamed and forced to make a public apology.

Mel Gibson - anti-semitic tirade after being pulled over for drink driving. He is publicly shamed and forced to make a public apology.

There is something of a double standard in the treatment of gays vs. other marginalised groups.

[mybackpages 0]

He labels himself an "activist". May I ask, an activist for what? You practice an alternative sexual lifestyle, you are not legislated against!!

How about an activist for equality under the law. Same-sex couple are prohibited from over 1000 laws that provide benefits to married couples including the right to apply for lawful immigration status.

[nad05zb 0]

you know its not that some people are homophobes some just dont accept it. like i myself refuse to accept it and i hate to hear about all this gay #######. i am sick and tired of hearing about gay couple being accepted thats nice to me i dont understand maybe bc i cant or wont love anyone else of my own gender. i cant and wont ever think of them like that bc thats the way god made it. but also the way i see is that hollywood is accepting it bc they are other people are you know 10 years ago when people would have said they were gay they would have been laughed at or even the the most harsh as being killed. i myself will never kill a gay person but i dont think they should have the same rights as we should. why you ask? bc like always said a marriage is between men and women yeah they may look cute together but to tell you the truth what is god thinking about you? so you dont believe in god ok then do you love him or her? ok fine love them but dont ask for gay parades and marriage things and make big deals over being gay its nothing special or cool or anything of the sort its to me unacceptable coming from me where oe of my friend who is gay. i love her with all of my heart but when she tries to tell me about her friends i almost puke about this. i dont want to hear about it or celebrate it or support it its not tha way god intended and if you think you can rewrite what god said then do so. you may think its cute now but when you are where you dont want to be forever dont complain thats all i have t say about that.