The soul has greater need of the ideal than the real for it is by the real that we exist, it is by the ideal that we live

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Bashing Bashing

Acquittals over gay bashing in Spain, Murder on the street in London, demonstrations in California and New York. And the rest of us sit here doing nothing.

Yes, I always think the motives of coastal gays are suspect. Yes, I always think we're sitting on our hands. Yes, I think that revolution I've talked about is being foreshadowed. And yet...we do little to nothing to change the course.

That's not to say that the course of revolution needs to be changed. I think it's a good and necessary thing. It clears the cobwebs, as it were. And we've certainly been blinded by some cobwebs these past few years.

Blabbeando: "27 year old Isaac Ali Dani Peréz Triviño was born in Spain. 32 year old Julio Anderson Luciano was born in Brazil. They lived together in the Spanish province of Vigo and were planning to get married. Both were stabbed to death by Jacobo Piñeiro Rial in their apartment in the early morning of January 13th, 2006.

Demonstrations are planned in Vigo, Spain this weekend, and now one has been set up by New Yorkers in solidarity
.

Vigils were held across California on Wednesday night in anticipation of the Supreme Court arguments on the constitutionality of the voter-passed Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state and revoked the marriage rights of millions of people.

Yesterday I posted about the anti-gay attack at Robert's Lafitte, a gay-friendly bar in Galveston, Texas. Three men (photo, below) were arrested after one held open a door and the other two hurled rocks at the customers inside. The men are now being held on $120,000 bond and hate crime enhancements have been added to their charges.

A man and his partner were attacked in the Bromley area of southeast London last night. One of the men died of stab wounds on his doorstep. His partner managed to "stagger" to a neighbor's house to call for assistance. He is in critical condition.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the state capitol in Raleigh, North Carolina to attend a rally sponsored by Return America and NC4Marriage yesterday.


And perhaps the most sure sign of revolution or the apocalypse I'm still not sure which:

Vanilla Ice apologizes — for everything!

Levity aside, these developments need to be heeded. Something is very wrong in a country that cannot stop debating the phrase "Pursuit of Happiness"

I cannot imagine the founding fathers had only hate, heterosexuals and Christians in mind when they drafted the Declaration of Independence. I realize this country was founded by just such zealots, but maybe it's time for even THAT to change.

I do honestly consider all the time how possible it is that I could be targeted by someone who's crazed by my sexuality. I don't curtail my life nor activities for it, that would be giving in to their terrorism, but it's always there in the back of my mind. I have, many times thought, "How many times in my life have I gotten into strange cars with guys I did not know and gone off someplace secluded to smoke dope?"
That's likely what Matthew Shepard did, and look what it got him? Poor thing got crucified for his troubles. And because he was young he got martyred. Us old people seem to "get what we deserve."

Puzzling that we get worth less as we get older.

It's also puzzling to me that the mayor of San Diego looks at his daughter like she accomplished something he never thought she would. It seems to me that because of who we love we are handicapped. That we are automatically limited in most people's minds, no matter how talented, how creative, how intelligent we are, we are thought of as incapable of overcoming the odds and accomplishing anything. What does who we love have to do with our abilities?

Perhaps that's why we always wind up dead or crazy in films. Except in The Talented Mr. Ripley, in which we got both.

I have to wonder if anyone will take a stand today. If anyone who feels oppressed will empower themselves even for a moment and stand up and be counted as a member of the human race. Not a disabled homo who can't get there cause they love someone who's not acceptable to most of society. I have to wonder if the revolution will extend to us all.

I'd like to see that. Unfortunately, I have to talk about Death of A Salesman, all day. Love the play, but it's NOT what I want to talk about today.

(-all references in italics courtesy of towleroad.com)

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