Speak Compassion

Auntie Mame: Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!

Peter LaBarbera is having a celebration/fundraiser to bring attention to his anti-gay causes. He says it will be a “compelling evening celebrating the truth and freedom to be moral”. (implying that gays and lesbians are not moral people, we are) As testimony to this “truth” he has invited Charlene Cothran, the ex-gay publisher of the ex-lesbian magazine called “Venus”. Peter would like us to celebrate how the “truth of Jesus” has set Ms. Charlene free. But while they are all raising their glasses, smiling, toasting and throwing their money at this mislead movement, thousands of gays and lesbians will be home:

• struggling to live their lives congruent with their beliefs in god, shaming themselves each time they fail or fall short of what people like Peter have told them is possible;
• suffering to make their parents proud in the shadow of the closet;
• fighting for their rights as their deceased partner’s families take their stuff;
• praying the boss didn’t suspect anything when their boyfriend met them for lunch. If he knew, I am sure they would be fired from their job;
• praying for the 20th year that “god” will make them straight while they kiss their wife goodnight;
• taking a straight blade to their wrists when they realized that homosexuality isn’t going away even after the counseling, exorcisms and pillow beatings;

I am not so sure what there is to celebrate in the face of such suffering, but Peter seems to think that “winning” over the gay crowd is a victory that will be worthy of people giving him money to continue this farce. I am not sure why, but always open to hear an explanation. Profiting off the suffering of others is just…wrong!

Oddly enough, the Holiday Inn Hotel chain also doesn’t see cause for celebration. Upon hearing that this banquet was not the “Christian” dinner it was booked to be and that gays may protest it, the chain canceled Peter’s reservation for hundreds of people to come gloat about Christians winning their point of view at the expense of gays and lesbians (Which could be their friends, family and co-workers). While Peter and the American Family Association, Concerned Women For America and other groups are screaming that this was anti-christian, I think the move was clearly pro-employees and guest of the hotel. Safety for other should always be a concern.

The One News Now report states:

“Americans for Truth (AFTAH) had reached a verbal agreement with the Holiday Inn Select in Naperville, Illinois, to hold its October 6 banquet at the hotel. AFT had the reservation for several weeks, and both parties had even discussed the menu for the event.
But when AFT executive director Peter LaBarbera told the banquet coordinator the event might draw a protest from homosexual activists, general manager Dennis Igoe dropped the reservation due to what he called “potential negative publicity to the hotel.” Florida-based Liberty Counsel then sent a letter to Igoe, informing him that his “cancellation of Americans for Truth’s reservation raises serious concerns of unlawful discrimination under the Illinois Human Rights Act which prohibits discrimination in places of public accommodation on the basis of religion.”

What is misleading here is that the event is NOT a Christian event, but an Anti-Gay Event. If a Christian organization wanted to hold a KKK convention and it was canceled, would that be religious discrimination? Or a response to racism?

Chances are,in line with my belief in the goodness in people, this doesn’t add up for people. “You want to celebrate what?” was a likely response from the hotel chain. American’s for Truth is always claiming the “miliatant gays” want to silence them. I have repeatedly said the opposite. I love it when they speak out like this. I think it is up there with Fred Phelps and his hate brigade. The best part about it is that the message they send about gay folks being so scary doesn’t match what people’s experiences have been. This is the year 2007. The enemy images Peter LaBarbera keeps painting for the world don’t match their friends, brothers, neighbors, coworkers, and the Will and Grace they saw last night. Times are going against Peter and his message. It sounds more hateful as time goes by!

Sadly, those who buy his “enemy images” will strike out at GLBT folks in their fear of the enemy. That will lead to some being hurt and others being killed. Peter won’t think about that as he celebrates his truth as the expense of others’ truths.

He claims gays will protest his event. I can assure you I won’t. If I had the money to fly out there, I would like to attend. I would like you to declare your compassion-less victory over the gay people right in my presence. I would like you to look me in the eyes and the eyes of my partner while you tell the crowd how we gays are threats to children, destroying the fabric of society, diseased, etc….Look me in the eyes and say it and then tell me you are not responsible in anyway for people responding to those enemy images you painted. My response will be to hold my partner tight and breath! Just breath! Let me tell you why:

Gays and lesbians have been tortured for years with shock treatments, hormone therapies, frontal lobotomies, exorcisms, prisons, death camps and other horrific stuff and guess what Peter? We are still here and falling in love with others of the same sex. I can tell you, I love my partner with all my soul. No dinner you hold can change that!

Love will always triumph over hate because time has proven to us that the Universe Leans to the Side of Justice.