Speak Compassion

Anti-gays point to FBI hate crime statistics to say that hate-crime laws are unnecessary but the leave out vital facts. For an example, I will use hate-crime statistics from Phoenix, Arizona compiled by the local police department.

2004 2005 2006 BIAS CASES

131 56 84

CLEARANCE RATES (the person committing the crime was identified)

33% 33% 37%

TOP 3 CRIMES

Criminal Damage Criminal Damage Criminal Damage

Assaults Intimidation Assaults

Threats Agravated Assaults Agravated Assaults

5 MOST COMMON VICTIMS

Anti-Black 37 Anti-Black 24 Anti-Gay 20
Gay/Lesbian 19 Anti-Gay 11 Anti-Black 17
Anti-Jewish 16 Anti-Hispanic 7 Anti-Hispanic 14
Anti-Hispanic 15 Anti-Multi (racial) 5 Anti-Jewish 11
Anti-White 12 Anti-Jewish 4 Anti-Islamic 3

Remember this is just the Phoenix area, and notice how the average for the perps being identified is 37%. However for gay and lesbian victims the average reporting and identifying the perp is only 20% so if you go by that statistic the amount of anti-gay incidents for 2006 would be at least 100. Perps commit anti-gay crimes because they know that their victims are less likely to report them to the police than a black person or Jewish person would.

The way that homophobic bullies go about demonizing gays as forcefully as they do, they then balk at being linked to hate crimes. I, for one could care less if these fundamentalist evangelicals opposed homosexuality on biblical grounds but they cross the line when they begin using words such as militant, god-haters, anti-family, and when they use junk science (Paul Cameron) to oppose homosexuality. Until these people put on sackloth and ash and repent of the evil they have visited on our community they will carry the blood of every gay victim of suicide and hate crimes and they will not be found spotless at the last day, as God will not distinguish between someone who is guilty of murder as someone who is guilty of accessory to murder. Inciting people with hateful words and demonizing rhetoric is being an accessory.

I was just reading that the Catholic Church is paying 320 million dollars to victims of sexual abuse cases.  What struck me as astonishing is that the church has 320 million in the first place while children are dying and starving in the world.

I hold to my belief that if we sell all of the gold in all of the churches we could feed all of those who need food.   If we took all of the land where churches sit and turn it into housing for the poor, we would have less homeless.   I am tired of passing these magnificent monuments to God while real people are suffering.   We could sell the marble, the gold, the stain glass art and all the wasted energy and think what we could do to end suffering in the world.

In a recent article by Coach Dave Daubenmire, he not only refers to gays and lesbians as “the devil’s kids” he also claims that gays are the enemy, but he has made a direct call to violence against us in Jesus Christ’s name. the Coach writes:

But God is gracious. He told us it was a war. He told us they would hate us. He told us He would never leave us or forsake us. Every attack of the enemy [homo’s] is a chance to stand-up for Jesus. Stop sucking on your thumb when the attack comes. The Devil doesn’t play nice. He’s counting on us to do that. ….

This is exactly the tactic used by the Nazi propaganda writers to turn German citizens against their Jewish friends and neighbors. This type of language is a form of passive violence. It divides us as people and it threatens the lives of GLBT folks. It is also sad that we are walking down this road.

The article uses all sort of “War” language battle terms. Such terms most certainly relate to and invoke a sense of violence against “the enemy.” He uses the terms “take off the gloves” as a direct reference to boxing. A sport known for fighting and violence. Here we are in the year 2007, and such tactics to divide and conquer those you disagree with are still being used. The Coach even makes reference to boxing, a fighting sport where people beat each other. Coach writes:

“Nice also has no place in the cultural war. “All’s fair in love and war” the old saying goes. Well, for those of you who want to “love” your enemies and those who want to “war” against them; it is time to take off the gloves.”

Read the coach’s article here. Note that it was posted at Americans for Truth. Another organization promoting enemy images of gays and lesbians that directly lead to violence both active and passive against anyone even thought to be gay. The only thing that can truly stop these enemy images by groups like AFT is creative nonviolence. We have no other choice that will work. Creative Nonviolence includes:

The Method of Creative Nonviolence includes:

• Exposing and critiquing the reality of violence and injustice;
• Seeking to break the cycle of escalating and retaliatory violence;
• Withdrawing consent from it;
• Reaching out to opponents and potential allies;
• Unleashing people-power by alerting, winning and mobilizing the majority; and
• Supporting the long-term emergence of the larger truth:

As a society we must start speaking out about this call to arms against gays and lesbians. It just needs to STOP!

I have sent the coach this email, I hope it wakes him from his slumber to the violence the real world holds.

Dear Coach,
I just finish reading your article entitled, “Stop Apologizing to the Devil”. I must say I am horrified and angry at what I have read. Your article clearly paints some scary “enemy images” of gays and lesbians. You call them the “Devil’s Kids” and “The enemy.” Perhaps in your zeal to spread your religion, you have lost site of the lessons history has taught us about these tactics.

Through the course of history, enemy images have been used as a tactic used by propaganda writers in the military forces of many nations, including Nazi Germany. The propaganda writer, Joseph Goebbels used this tactic to paint enemy images of the Jews prior to and during the second world war. Such enemy images caused many a friend and neighbor to turn their backs on Jews. We both know how that ended and how sad it was.

These, all to well used comparisons to war when speaking about gays and lesbians, especially when combined with the tactics of enemy images, (i.e. aligning GLBT folks with Satan, calling us the enemy,) are void of compassion. Your article even goes as far as to say “Take off the gloves” a term related to fighting and violence. DO you not see how such language is a call to arms against gays and lesbians? DO you not see how such a call to arms leads to violence against gays and lesbians?

When you say “take off the gloves” do you realize some homophobic people will take you seriously? Some will take your challenge and hurt, beat, discriminate and bully GLBT folks. Is this your intention? I would hope not.

Gays and lesbians have the same need as everyone, to walk through this world feeling safe. Knowing people like you are out there painting enemy images of gays doesn’t leave many of us feeling all that safe.

I would also ask, what is it you want to accomplish? What is the goal you are working towards with these articles? What does the world look like when you have reached that goal? What does the world look like for gays and lesbians when you have reached this goal? I have asked these same questions to many anti-gay activists, I never get a real answer.

I hope you take a step back and look at your actions from a different point of view. Perhaps, seeing them from the place those you write about might see them.

Sincerely,
Joe Brummer

I find it very interesting that yesterday DL Foster was complaining about two lesbians who were denied using a church pavilion for their civil union ceremony in New Jersey.  I don’t trust “Talk Wisdom” nor do I trust Foster to give the facts on this case.  But regardless of this, Foster says that they (the lesbians):

have persuaded New Jersey officials to punish the group through revocation of its tax-exempt status.

He gives three points:

1. Churches need to immediately rethink voluntary enslavement to the government via “tax exempt status”. We predicted several years ago that this would be used as weapon against churches who refused the advances of homosexuals.

2. Laws being proposed will eventually be the noose from the tree for churches who do not bend to the homosexualization of the church.

3. As we stated here, churches and pastors should immediately review their policies, procedures and ethics and ensure they will withstand further intrusion of social activism by homosexuals.

Notice the ’slave’ language throughout his post–’voluntary enslavement,’ and ‘noose.’ 

So what do I find so interesting about this?  Foster thinks that churches should ‘rethink’ their ‘voluntary enslavement’ regarding their tax-free status.  He claims that he predicted this years ago that this would be used against churches.  Hmm.  Let’s see what his tax status is for his own church, the Praise Power Ministries with the website of www.witnessfortheworld.org :  According to Guidestar.org, it has an NTEE Code of F60–Counseling Support Groups, X99–Religion Related, Spiritual Development N.E.C. and O55–Religious Leadership, Youth Development.

His church is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and it does not have to file an annual return because it is a church!

So, he has ‘voluntarily enslaved’ himself to the government with his own church by having a tax-free status, even though he claims that years ago he predicted this would hurt churches.  I guess he figures that money is more important than any danger the homosexual community might do to his own church. So he can warn people against having a tax-free status (which he calls ‘voluntary enslavement), but he himself won’t give up his own tax-free status. 

I wonder if DL Foster will put his money where his mouth is and get rid of his non-profit status?  I would bet he won’t, since money rules in these ‘churches.’ 

As many of you have figured out, I am no fan of religion, especially religious extremes. I see these world wide battles over whose god is bigger and better leading to millions of deaths without any real evidence any god exists, let alone the particular god these people will die to defend. This video is shocking!

The announcer says: “Wouldn’t that mean your activities can lead people to dying?”

Voice of the Martyrs: “Our activities can lead people to dying, we are aware of that, but to spend an eternity in heaven and not in hell sounds like a good deal.”

I am saddened everyday when I hear of this stuff. I think the Muslims are wrong to kill people for turning christian, but I also think the Christians should not be in a country taking actions that lead people to their death. It is unlikely I will ever understand why in the year 2007, we are not being more rational about god than we are.

If there is anything recent history has taught us, it is that you can be as anti-gay as you would like to be in religion and politics, but sooner or later they are going to arrest you with your pants down. That has been the case with a long line of anti-gay preachers and politicians. Let’s review just a few:

• New Jersey Governor, Jim McGreevy who was exposed for having an affair with his male employee. He later resigned and stated the now famous words, “I am a gay American.”
• Ted Haggard, anti-gay preacher and one time spiritual advisor to President Bush was exposed for having an affair and buying methamphetamines from male prostitute Mike Jones. He later went on to claim he was “cured” of his homosexuality in just a few short weeks in therapy.
• We had Republican Senator Mark Foley of Florida arrested for sending sexual text messages to underage pages during senate sessions.
• Representative Bob Bauman, a conservative from Maryland who championed moral issues was arrested for soliciting sex from a teenage, male prostitute.
• Then we have anti-gay State Senator Bob Allen from Florida arrested for offering an undercover cop $20 for oral sex in a public restroom. He later blamed the event on the fact the other men in the restroom were all black and it made him nervous. He claimed he feared he “was about to be a statistic” would have said anything just to get away.
• Now we have the latest scandal of Republican Senator Larry Craig from Idaho arrested in an airport restroom sting.

This latest story of Senator Craig being arrested in a public restroom has made for some interesting news stories. Each day the story has gotten crazier. What started as a hand waving afternoon pick me up in the airport has become a new case for free speech as the ACLU has taken on the case. It is now believed that the good Senator’s arrest may have been unconstitutional. A spokesman for the ACLU, Anthony Romero is quoted by ABC news as saying, “We believe the sting operation used to apprehend Mr. Craig was unconstitutional. The statute the government is relying upon makes it a crime to use certain offensive words.” What their argument essentially says is that asking someone to sleep with you is no more illegal in a public bathroom than it is in the supermarket, as long as you aren’t having sex in the supermarket. Romero was also quoted saying, “It is a crime to have sex in public. It is not a crime to propose or solicit sex in public, whether it’s in a bar or in a bathroom.”

Even stranger is that the toilet stall in the Minneapolis airport where Craig was arrested has become a tourist attraction according to the Associated Press. Airport workers report people taking pictures of the bathroom stall and the outside door. Amazing the simple things by which we humans will be fascinated.

Regardless of Craig’s guilt or innocence, we can no longer ignore the big pink elephant in the room. The same problems these anti-gay preachers and politicians speak out against, are the same problems they create. The longer antigay preachers use hate speech to create a world where people are driven into the shadows by fear of rejection, the longer people will be arrested in the shadows doing things they shouldn’t. The closet is a dark and scary place. The majority of these men are married, closeted and afraid to come out. They then go and preach to make others afraid to come out. It is a spiritually violent and emotionally cruel cycle that needs to end.

Do not conquer the world with force,
for force only causes resistance.
Thorns spring up when an army passes.
Years of misery follow a great victory.
Do only what needs to be done.
Without using violence.

- Tao Te Ching

Nova Scotia News is reporting on some senior year high school students who organized the enitre school to wear pink shirts after a new grade 9 student was bullied as a homo for wearing a pink shirt.

On of the students said: ““It’s my last year. I’ve stood around too long and I wanted to do something”

Nonviolence is all about protest, action, standing up to injustice. These boys did a fab job!

Nonviolence in Action! IT WORKS!

Read the story

Towleroad has some pics of the students

There is this article on the web about hollywood producing a film about the hate crime in it it states:

Penn set to play Harvey Milk
Sean Penn will play gay 1970s politician Harvey Milk in director Gus Van Sant’s long-gestating biopic of the first openly gay prominent elected official. Matt Damon is tentatively attached to play Milk’s assassin, Dan White, who shot the San Francisco city supervisor along with Mayor George Moscone in 1978. After serving five years of a seven-year sentence, White committed suicide in 1985. Michael London and his Groundswell Prods. are financing the movie. Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks are producing from a script by Dustin Lance Black (Big Love). The filmmakers are now in talks with a ”leading specialty division,” according to Hollywood Reporter, to finalize a deal on the as-yet untitled project. Shooting could start by the end of this year. The Penn-directed Into the Wild debuted this month at the Telluride Film Festival and will play at Toronto. He next will be seen in the immigration drama

This film is important to show how much hate crime laws are needed. Dan White the man who committed the murders got off with serving only 7 years for both murders because the jury believed his “twinkie” defense. Much how Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson lawyers tried to argue that the accused had a “gay panic” attack when they killed Matthew Shepard. Peter, Stacy, Mark and D.L. say they oppose violence, but that is a lie when they use words like, militant homosexual, the gloves are off, were a threat to your survival, we hate god, and I could go on and on but you get the idea. I will never believe that they oppose violence against us glbt people until they stop using such language against us and quit using junk science. There are choice words that I could use against fundamentalist christians like them but I will not sink to their level.

As I go from anti-gay Christian site to site, I see the so-called evils of homosexuality, most of which are based in religious arguments or science that has been twisted by religious organizations or anti-gay activists. I see anti-gay activists like Peter La Barbera, Lou Sheldon, Matt Barber and others working hard to fight the “gay agenda”, but for as many times as I have asked, I have never received a legitimate answer to the question, “What does the end game look like? What does this world you are working towards look like for gay people?”

The most common answer to that seems to involve everyone believing in Christianity. The belief is that we all need more Jesus in our lives. I would agree that we do if we are talking about Jesus being peace and love, but this idea lacks all the logic in the world.

A belief is not something you can choose to have. Either you believe or you don’t based on the evidence before you. If I asked you today to believe in a flying teapot that orbits the earth, would you believe me? If I tried to convince you the world has invisible silent dogs that make us sneeze when they are near, would you think twice each time you sneezed? I would bet not. We know why people sneeze. Science has explained it. Therefore going against what you know to be facts, to believe something mystical or divine is impossible.

I have been reading the book by Richard Dawkins called, “The God Delusion.” In the book, Dawkins comes up to one of my favorite challenges from those who believe in god. I swear this has been emailed to me a dozen times by Christians who want to “witness” to me. The idea that if there is no god, no big deal, but if there is a god and I “denied” him, I will go to hell. They usually phrase this something like this:

Christian: “If I am wrong and there is no god, then nothing happens, but if you are wrong and there is a god you are doomed”

Christians, along with their belief in god, also believe they can “make” you believe in god too. They use fear tactics like the one above or about hell and then emotional pleas to try and sway you into thinking they are really concerned for you when this is really about them. The fact of the matter is, I do not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ. I also doubt that I could be “made” to believe either as I have issues with the validity of the bible.

It is this belief in god that is the bottom line of anti-gay attitudes. Oddly, there is more scientific evidence people are born gay than there is evidence of the god Christians use to tell me I shouldn’t be gay. Anti-gay Christians then follow this entire thing with the notion that by following Jesus, who I do not believe in, that I can change from gay to straight. Now if I had a hard time believing in the judeo-christian god in the first place, telling me I am someday, after years of trial and effort, going to be “changed” is even harder to believe.

I think for most people, believing in Jesus does good things for their life. but that hasn’t change the fact believing in Jesus is not a choice. Even if I wanted to believe, that fact of the matter is, I don’t. I don’t believe in the tooth fairy, or unicorns either. Even if I wanted to believe in unicorns, I couldn’t make myself believe. It isn’t because I don’t want to believe, I just don’t. Keeping that I don’t believe also means I don’t believe their is any reason I or anyone should need to change their sexuality, especially when the scientific community agrees it causes more harm than good.

In the end, I am not sure this cultural dispute will ever be solved. I do hope that I stop, someday, getting all these emails telling me that I need to repent to something I do not now, nor will I ever believe exists.

I had the pleasure of meeting with Peterson Toscano this summer when he stopped in RI for a week. I also went to see his play The Re-Education of George W. Bush. It was a wonderful show and extremely thought provoking.

Good As You has provided video of this mornings program with Peterson, Alan Chambers of Exodus International and others discussing ex-gay therapy. While I could care less if someone wants to persue change in their sexual orientation, I cannot support such things being an industry, making money at the expense of others lives. It should also be noted that no medical, mental health or or scientific organization currently supports such therapies.
watch the clip

I just found this article about new evidence found that homosexuality is biologically determined (notice, I said biological not genetic, big difference). Anyhow I thought I would post some snippets:

Johnson and colleagues at New York University and Texas A&M measured the hips, waists and shoulders of eight male and eight female volunteers, half of whom were gay and half straight. The volunteers then walked on a treadmill for two minutes as a three-dimensional motion-capture system similar to those used by the movie industry to create animated figures from living models made measurements of the their motions, allowing researchers to track the precise amount of shoulder swagger and hip sway in their gaits.

Based on these measurements, the researchers determined that the gay subjects tended to have more gender-incongruent body types than their straight counterparts (hourglass figures for men, tubular bodies for women) and body motions (hip-swaying for men, shoulder-swaggering for women) than their straight counterparts.

“Studies like ours are raising questions about the value of the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy,” Johnson said. “If casual observers can determine sexual orientation with minimal information, then the value in concealing this information certainly appears questionable. Given that we all appear to be able to deduce this information to some degree with just a glance, more comprehensive policies may be required to protect gays against discrimination based on their sexual orientation.”

The findings also are part of mounting evidence suggesting that sexual orientation may actually be what social scientists call a “master status category,” or a defining characteristic that observers cannot help but notice and which has been scientifically shown to color all subsequent social dealings with others.

Can the conservative right wing keep denying the scientific evidence of the biological origins of homosexuality? More importantly will they say that now it has been scientifically determined will they then demand a “cure” for this? If yes are you saying that God creates garbage, or did God create glbt people for the same reason we have heterosexuals, Asians, Africans, Hispanics, Arabs, Jews, Indians, and Native Americans? Does God love variety or does he want cookie cutter Christians?

This just about sums up my thoughts on everything my fellow monkeys!

From: Felicia
Date: Sep 10, 2007 11:29 AM

When I saw this bulletin (thanks Juicy J) and watched this video I thought, “Damn, I know all about Paris Hilton’s life, how she drinks and drives and likes to go commando, I know that Britney feeds her kids junk food, why have I never hear about this?” I watch the news, read the paper and I am overwhelmed at the amount of pop culture BS that my mind is flooded with!

After further research I discovered that there was a CNN interview with one of the Jena 6’s parents, but it aired the same day that Paris was released from jail, and never aired again. Figures…..

Because of the noise people have been making, CNN will be airing an hour long documentary the weekend before the sentencing of one of the Jena 6. (Mychal Bell’s scheduled sentencing is September 20, 2007)

Please watch this, educate yourself, educate other’s by reposting!!

MAKE SOME NOISE!!!

I noticed a few comments in the past few weeks that attacked or called our adversaries names. I feel saddened by these comments, and do not condone them. I have the need to keep this blog congruent with my beliefs in nonviolence. I realize it can be fun for some people to call our adversaries names, but such tactics get us no where.

If you want a world where people do not call each other names, then you have to be that change you wish to see in the world! The change must start with someone, someplace, why not you?

I also want to take a minute to write about an important piece of nonviolence. A huge piece of living nonviolently is forgiveness. For the sake of outlining my belief in this, I will give this a new name and call it “radical forgiveness”, I am sure the name has been used before, but for me, I like the name. It better describes what I mean when I say it.

For a definition, I will say that “Radical Forgiveness” means forgiving those you thought you never could for the sake of healing, growing, and making the world a better place. There are some beautiful examples out there of radical forgiveness in action. A father who forgive the young man who killed his wife and daughter, the Amish who forgave the man who shot there children in a school house. Forgiving people can be the path to god for some, healing for others and peace for all.

To find some examples, I decided to Google the term “radical forgiveness” and low and behold, there is a site but it is some silly gimmick that claims forgiveness will make you loose weight. While that may be true, I don’t believe people should profit off that idea and doesn’t fit what I was thinking. What I did find was a site about the power of forgiveness. Forgiving others can change you life and these stories will prove it. I would suggest that you try it today. Find someone in your life who has wrong you and forgive them, from the heart tell them it is okay. The power is so transforming.

Try it!