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Stop
Hate 2000 Newsletter
July 19, 2008
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In any case, people could not hear what I was saying over the sound of my body.” Riki Wilchins, trans rights and gender rights activist, in Queer Theory, Gender Theory, available from Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.
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Our quote of the month is worth discussing. Riki Wilchins comments, “. . . people could not hear what I was saying over the sound of my body.” An individual from any one of numerous minority groups could have made the same comment. Women often find being taken seriously is difficult, because of their physical gender. In European-based cultures and countries, the voices of black, and aboriginal and indigenous peoples are not heard because of their bodies. People who have physical characteristics that are stereotypically Jewish, gay, or lesbian could find themselves treated differently, and not being heard because of their bodies.
The challenge for individuals and for society is to look beyond the physical body, the physical appearance, to hear what people are saying. That can be difficult, because there is a human tendency to place a lot of weight on physical appearance and behaviors. Helping create a prejudice, discrimination, and hate free zone is difficult. We must constantly be checking our attitudes, to ensure we are not hearing a person’s body so loudly that we cannot hear anything the person wants to tell us.
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Beverly Tatum, in the book “Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” observes that racism can be more than prejudice. Beverly Tatum quotes David Wellman as defining racism is “a system of advantage based on race.” Tatum’s comments make a good starting place to discuss the broad issues of racism, religious hate, sexism, heterosexism, and homophobia.
Racism, religious discrimination, sexism, and heterosexism are more than isolated acts of injustice. Perhaps, they can all be defined as a system of advantage. The advantaged have political, spiritual, and economic power, while the disadvantaged minority groups are relatively powerless politically, spiritually, and economically. Men have more social, spiritual, political and economic power than women. In most of Europe and North America, white people have more power than people of color. Straight people are in a favored position compared to sexual minorities.
One theory of human motivation holds that people are motivated by power, and behave in ways that maximize their power. Keeping racist, sexist, heterosexist, and religious elitist systems in place pays off for those who are in power positions. Gay marriages do not threaten straight marriages or religion. For every gay couple that gets married, we will not see an additional straight marriage ending in divorce. Gay marriages pose no threat to society’s social services. In fact, same-sex couples save social services and medicare systems money. The real problem is same-sex marriages are a threat to the power of heterosexuals. Many heterosexuals do not want to give up the power of “being married” to gays and bisexuals. Moves to keep the word marriage reserved for straight marriages, while same-sex marriages are called unions, is an attempt to permanently protect the power advantage straight people enjoy. Gay marriages are not a threat to religion. For centuries, members of sexual minorities have faithfully supported organized religions. Gays and bisexuals, and same-sex marriage, are a threat to the power structures of many organized religions. Heterosexual, male dominated religions do not want to let gays, bisexuals, or women have access to power. Sacred writings, the fathers of the faith, and church tradition are interpreted by those in religious power. For that reason, gays, bisexuals, and women tend to be excluded from leadership, and the power that comes with exercising leadership roles.
A few of many news stories related to same-sex marriages in California appear below:
• Advocate article - Gay rights activists are boycotting the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, after the owner donated $125,000 to a campaign to end California same-sex marriages.
• USA Today article - “Hundreds of gay couples enjoy ‘dream come true’ in Calif.” The USA Today article says the Williams Institute at UCLA estimates over half of California’s 102 thousand same-sex couples will get married in the next three years.
• You Tube video - Ellen DeGeneres announces plans to get married, because the same-sex marriage ban in California was removed.
•A Human Rights Campaign article informs us the California Supreme Court declined to remove a marriage initiative designed to take away the right of same-sex couples to get married. The marriage initiative is on the November ballot.
•The Human Rights Campaign is collecting signatures of people supporting same-sex marriage rights in the United States. To date, they have collected over 1 million signatures. You can sign an online petition by clicking here.
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On a related topic, freedom of speech and responsible speech are on the news in Canada. While there are more legal rights in place for gay, lesbian, and bisexual Canadians than there are in many other countries in the world, there are still problems with highly homophobic comments. Recently, there was a ruling regarding a letter a Red Deer, Alberta pastor, Stephen Boissoin, wrote to the newspaper.
This contributor is not speaking for Stop Hate 2000. The following comments are strictly a personal opinion. Had Stephen Boissoin stated some limits on the “war” and indicated directly that this “war” is only political action, and had his letter reminded people that violence against gay, lesbian, and bisexual people is not justified, this contributor’s concerns would have been limited only to the inaccurate comments made about the queer community. In this contributor’s opinion the letter might have unintentionally left a few people with a sense that violence against the queer community might be appropriate. We do not believe that is what Stephen Boissoin meant, but the level of violence against gay, lesbian, and bisexual people is so high special care needs to be taken.
Reports that Boissoin might have been excited about the response to his letter is an item of concern. This report could make one wonder if Stephen Boissoin wrote the article to gain publicity and for excitement, or if the article was written due to concerns of a more religious nature.
The Alberta Human Rights Commission would not have had a problem had the pastor said, “Jesus loves you.” Unfortunately, the pastor did not make love the center-piece of his article.
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Those who perform hate crimes often target the weak and vulnerable members of society. Sex-trade workers, and street people are becoming increasingly common targets of hate crimes. When street people are targets of hate crimes, the motivation appears to be hate based on socio-economic class. Hate is not rational. Hate crimes against street people seem like one of the least rational, and least intelligent forms of hate.
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A few stories we’ve been following appear below:
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