IDAHO: Help boost the signal, please
Today is International Day Against Homophobia. (Three cheers for Canada.)
But then again, every day should be, and that why today is important.
In the UK -- at least in high-minded Oxford -- things are surprisingly good, yet horrible hate-crimes still occur across the country.
I have come a long way since I held hands in public with my girlfriends in Northampton, Mass. I have seen and heard tell of harassment, discrimination, threats, insults, attacks -- all aimed at people who dared to challenge the dominant paradigm by knowing and showing that love counts more than gender.
I have had people assume I'd sleep with them just because I'm bi. (Show of hands, folks? How many have been tagged with the "anything that moves" expectation?) I have checked in the dictionaries under bisexuality -- also under poly and kinky -- and have found no verifiable reference that defines them as "completely undiscriminating." Of course, rejecting such sad advances magickally turns me into a slut and a whore... still trying to work that piece of double standards, really. *snicker*
I've also had nasty looks for holding hands with women and been told my sexuality is "disgusting" and "offensive to God". ("Not my Gods," I said. "Maybe you should upgrade to a newer model?")
Of course, it's not just inconvenient or annoying or embarrassing.
After all, I have never been beaten up or physically endangered.
I remember Matthew Shepard, who was 21 years old when he was viciously tortured and murdered, his dying body left tied to a fence like a scarecrow.
The Budapest Dignity March in 2008 was greeted by Molotov cocktails and petrol bombs. Even a police van was set on fire.
It is claimed that a trans person is murdered every three days.
In Uganda, a recent Kill The Gays bill was almost passed (It is off the table for now, but the problem has not gone away.)
Need more examples?
Join the fight against hatred.
Up behind the bus-stop in the toilets off the streets
There are traces of a killing on the floor beneath your feet
Mixed up with the piss and beer are bloodstains on the floor
From the boy who got his head kicked in a night or two before
Homophobia
The worst disease
You can't love who you want to love in times like these.
Homophobia
The worst disease
You can't love who you want to love in times like these.
In the pubs, clubs and burgerbars breeding pens for pigs
Alcohol, testosterone and ignorance and fists
Packs of hunting animals roam across the town
They find an easy victim and they punch him to the ground
Homophobia
The worst disease
You can't love who you want to love in times like these.
Homophobia
The worst disease
You can't love who you want to love in times like these.
The siren of the ambulance, the deadpan of the cops
Chalk to mark the outline where the boy first drops
Beware the holy trinity - church and state and law
For every death the virus gets more deadly then before
Homophobia
The worst disease
You can't love who you want to love in times like these.
[music here]
Thanks, miss_amaranth, for putting this on my radar.