Barie Shortell before and after the February 22nd attack in the Williamsburg section of BrooklynNew York seems to be having a small wave of homophobic violence this month, and it is really serious violence.
The first murder happened March 1st, and involved a victim who may not have been gay. Sixty Eight year old Robert Jenkins, a retired mechanic and grandfather, was strangled to death by a visiting friend who claimed that Jenkins made a sexual pass at him.
A particularly brutal murder took place on Saturday March 12th when a group of young men crashed a party in the Woodhaven neighborhood of Queens and beat and kicked 18 year old Anthony Collao after subjecting him and the other party guests to homophobic rants and taunts. Collao died on the following Monday from his injuries.
On February 22nd in Brooklyn, a group of thugs nearly beat to death 29 year old Barie Shortell after yelling homophobic taunts at him. He survived the attack, but spent 10 hours in surgery as doctors installed 2 metal plates to rebuild his face. Shortell has no medical insurance, and so is facing catastrophic costs on top of disfiguring, and possibly crippling injuries. He is still recovering. His attackers remain at large.
After so many years of this, I have lost all patience with the holy haters and their cynical enablers in politics and religion. To all the "moderates" who want to make "peace" on this issue between the two sides, I say no justice no peace. Few things send me round the bend with outrage more surely than claims of "persecution" by the phobes when violent people demonstrate for all the world to see that demonizing rhetoric and dehumanizing ideology have consequences, sometimes life and death consequences, and someone calls them on it. They rightfully find themselves in the dock of public opinion, and then do a fan dance with palms of martyrdom claiming persecution for their faith. Others scurry backwards like panicked crabs away from the scene of a crime emphatically denying any connection between what they advocate and any particular crime. I say own it folks because it's yours.
And so, to all the preachers and advocates of hate for my kind out there, all of you who would like to see me and all others like me eliminated from the earth by "cure" or by other measures, all of you from Tony Perkins to Newt Gingrich to Scott Lively to Martin Ssempa to NOM to The Family to The Family Research Council to Your Graces Bishops Orombi and Akinola to all the ex-gay groups to Your Holiness the Pope to Your Emminences the whole College of Cardinals to President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad to Grand Ayatollah Khamenei to all the Religious Guardians of Islam to Fred Phelps and to all the very reverend rest of you, I say in all Christian charity, fuck off and die.
After so many years of this, I have lost all patience with the holy haters and their cynical enablers in politics and religion. To all the "moderates" who want to make "peace" on this issue between the two sides, I say no justice no peace. Few things send me round the bend with outrage more surely than claims of "persecution" by the phobes when violent people demonstrate for all the world to see that demonizing rhetoric and dehumanizing ideology have consequences, sometimes life and death consequences, and someone calls them on it. They rightfully find themselves in the dock of public opinion, and then do a fan dance with palms of martyrdom claiming persecution for their faith. Others scurry backwards like panicked crabs away from the scene of a crime emphatically denying any connection between what they advocate and any particular crime. I say own it folks because it's yours.
And so, to all the preachers and advocates of hate for my kind out there, all of you who would like to see me and all others like me eliminated from the earth by "cure" or by other measures, all of you from Tony Perkins to Newt Gingrich to Scott Lively to Martin Ssempa to NOM to The Family to The Family Research Council to Your Graces Bishops Orombi and Akinola to all the ex-gay groups to Your Holiness the Pope to Your Emminences the whole College of Cardinals to President Mahmoud Ahmedinajad to Grand Ayatollah Khamenei to all the Religious Guardians of Islam to Fred Phelps and to all the very reverend rest of you, I say in all Christian charity, fuck off and die.
ADDENDUM:
And here is a young man in the Philadelphia area who took the Bible at its word and acted on it.
Preach it, Doug!
ReplyDeleteIt´s in the undoing--these folks don´t have a clue they are responsible--of course Akinola and Orombi/etc. actually generate hate of the worst kind--they perpetuate ignorance in the name of a God who has also been battered, by them, beyond recognition. I´ve linked to this...thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you for continuously calling these people out.
ReplyDeleteoh uuugghhhhh. This hurts.
ReplyDeleteI clicked on to the linked article --this popped out at me: he stoned a 70-year-old man to death when the man made homosexual advances toward him...
...sexual advances...
...and it's about power and control...
Keep working and preaching for the liberation and justice for your kind dearest Doug --because as you work and preach for that, you work and preach on behalf of women and children and all those who remain merely objects in the hands/eyes of those who believe they own the power.
And for that, I thank you.
We are dealing with violent psychopaths, as such, we can't reason with them.
ReplyDeleteOur choices are the following, submit and hope for mercy or fight.
These savage attacks involve multiple attackers, as such, we need to even our odds.
My view is simple, I advocate for members of the LBGT community to take up arms to defend ourselves.
I realize my views are controversial, but when faced with violent attack, you will have less than 5 seconds to save your life.
The hard truth is the police will never stop attacks, all they can do is do an investigation.
I would rather have Hate Crime Survivors rather than hate crime victims.
I have no problem with DEAD BASHERS and I am willing to be worse than them to save my life and the lives of others.
I don't like violence, but sometimes violence is the only answer.
Prayers for us all!
ReplyDeleteDoug, I just posted a comment w/ a link (about Yet Another Fecking gay bash), so it'll probably end up in the Spam file {Le Sigh}
ReplyDeleteJCF
ReplyDeleteI published it, and posted that same link on my Facebook page.
JCF,
ReplyDeleteMy sentiments exactly.