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Hate Crime! Nebraska Bulletin Board
Hatefully Assaulted! Haters Suspected!
Report for January 24,
2004
The University of Nebraska has put up a bulletin
board to promote sexual perversion. Someone keeps taking it down again.
The sodomites have worked up quite a lather over that "crime."
In the story below, we have underlined and put in bold some of the words
and phrases the writer uses to describe those who do not obediently follow
Sodom's script. Please do note that the writer is not yet
comfortable holding everyone guilty of hate speech who bases their
beliefs on the Bible. He does, however, go on to identify such individuals
as the propagators of fear, degradation, intimidation, pure hate and, of
course, the crimes it spawns.
Bruning's Remarks Inexcusable, All Too Common
Daily Nebraskan, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Kyle Michaelis, January 20, 2004
http://www.dailynebraskan.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/01/20/400cb1267d001
When Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning told a reporter from the
Associated Press, "I don't hate gay people," he probably meant
it. That doesn't mean he was telling the truth.
After learning of the Massachusetts Supreme Court's November ruling
against a ban on homosexual marriage, Bruning immediately called the
decision ridiculous, asking, "Does that mean you have to allow a man
to marry his pet or a man to marry his chair?"
"I mean, at some point, it needs to stop."
What needs to stop, however, is the exploitation of gross civil
rights abuses rooted in unabashed bigotry for
political gain rooted in the same. So long as the government provides
benefits to married couples, while defining marriage as solely between a
man and a woman, it remains a tainted and unjust institution.
That loving another human being so much one would choose to spend the rest
of his or her life with that person could ever be so cheapened as to be
compared to buying a piece of furniture is wholly inexcusable,
especially coming from an elected official.
Bruning's response was, as the executive director of the National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force called it, "insulting, demeaning,
dehumanizing and plain stupid."
Sadly, it is not a rare or particularly unfamiliar sentiment. The likening
of homosexuality, even in the context of a relationship between two mature
and responsible adults, to sexual perversions of the absolute lowest
variety is a frighteningly common idea in today's society.
But, is it hate? Bruning contends it is not, apologizing in the most
off-handed way for his comments being "inarticulate." The
problem is, they were far too articulate for comfort - perfectly capturing
the feelings of a significant population.
Who are these people for whom Bruning speaks? Who are these people so
quick to reduce others to their lifestyle or sexual orientation so they
might be singled out for discrimination?
Well, after the recent vandalizing of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual,
Transgender (GLBT) and Women's Studies issues and events board on the
third floor of Andrews Hall, it seems Bruning spoke for someone right here
at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
But, then again, we all knew that. Bruning was speaking for a lot of
people here at UNL.
I'm not comfortable declaring everyone guilty of hate speech
who holds up the Bible as proof homosexual acts are sinful. Such people
are, though - like Bruning - contributing to a climate of fear,
degradation and intimidation that makes this act of pure
hate, the desecration of an avowed safe space with the sole
purpose of encouraging dialogue and creating a more just world, all but
inevitable.
That this is the fourth time this crime has been committed, a crime
against every student at UNL - not only those of a certain political bent
or sexual persuasion, but all here for the purpose of expanding their
horizons and learning about the world around them - is simply despicable
and renders the cowardly offender or offenders beneath
contempt.
The moralization of sex is solely the by-product of religious teaching.
Sex has no inherent moral character, though it may mean to the individual
whatsoever he or she supposes. That the opposite is reflected in
government policy in a country with laws supposedly divorced from
scripture and religious edict makes mockery of this nation's
great promise to humanity.
Preachers will pass around their standard line of "hate the sin, love
the sinner." By this, one can justify almost anything under the
auspice of "tough love" - strip them of medical benefits and lay
them on the rack for their own good - an intolerable idea without
merit that can't possibly serve as a foundation for public policy.
While I'm sure the GLBT community appreciates genuine love of the sort
Jesus might have prescribed, they don't demand it, and they certainly
haven't come to expect it. What they do demand is respect, the dignity
afforded any human being whose greatest wrong is loving another, and
that's exactly what they deserve.
It's been said, "Hate is a four-letter word," but likening it to
all those naughty little words your mother taught you never to say in
public is a disastrous idea. The worst thing we can possibly do is sweep hate
under the rug, leaving it in the shadows, fooling ourselves into thinking
it does not exist.
Hate is real - oh, so very real, as this continued petty assault
on a bulletin board in Andrews Hall proves - and we need to talk about it
openly if it is ever to be understood and ultimately, in some glorious
time beyond imagination, conquered.
On gay marriage, Bruning said, "I can guarantee you this type of
thing would not happen in the Midwest - at least we can only hope."
Some priorities. He hopes the discriminatory barriers preventing two
people from swearing their eternal love to one another remain intact,
rather than hoping for a day removed of the prejudice they
face seeking housing, employment, education and happiness.
A hope so perverted offers nothing of the sort.
The real problem with the Brunings of the world is they hate
the freedoms to live and love as one chooses. They hate the
freedom to deviate from a specific church's backwards teachings.
They hate a world that actually challenges their beliefs.
They hate change and, in doing so, they hate progress.
Why? Not because they hate homosexuals, but because they fear
them. They fear a whole population that has done them no harm and expects
only equality under the law. They fear sons, daughters,
neighbors and co-workers who are different yet refuse to live in fear
themselves.
But, mark my words, women got jobs and blacks voted over the chorus of
such spiteful cries. Homosexual and transgender peoples will be allowed to
marry, and they WILL be equal. It is only a matter of time, waiting for
the last vestiges of fear and ignorance to finally give way
to the human spirit's long but insurmountable march to lasting and
universal freedom.
Homo-Fascism
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