Cause and Effect

Michigan made national news twice recently and this time it wasn’t about unemployment or auto industry bailouts. Both stories were gay-related.

One was regarding the young man severely beaten in Portage, Michigan. Two older teens beat him as they hurled anti-gay slurs at him. Unfortunately, here in Michigan, that is not a hate crime. Turns out the legislation in our state only protects you if the hateful speech is covered by an ethnic-intimidation law, which requires attacks to be motivated by race, color, religion, gender or national origin but not sexual orientation. Prosecutors claimed to have charged the attackers with the most serious charge they could, but stated they could only deal with the crime, not the motive of the crime. A fifteen year old boy has a fractured skull, from being beaten on the head while being degraded for his sexual orientation and the best we can do is charge the attackers, as juveniles, with aggravated assault. What is the lesson here? Gay bashing doesn’t really matter? You can get away with degrading someone for their orientation, as long as you don’t leave any marks? Cause and effect.

The second story was regarding a fringe group of LGBT activists called Bash Back! Apparently there are chapters in a few cities, but the one in an article in Details magazine was right here in Lansing, Michigan. They are described as, “an elusive band of transgender anarchists, radical sex workers, and queer troublemakers,” who believe that violence is the answer to oppression. They are really typical anarchists, believing that no order is the best order. They are anti-marriage for anyone and denounce what they call the ‘gender binary system’, classifying people as either male or female. According to Details magazine, the group in Lansing went into Mount Hope Church, a 4,000-member meeting house, where about 20 activists formed a picket line out front while a dozen others snuck inside to disrupt the service. One faction rose to chant, “Jesus was a homo,” while flinging pamphlets, glitter, and condoms into the air. Another dropped an 18-foot BASH BACK! banner from the balcony. As ushers scrambled to collect the condoms, two women moved toward the pulpit, where they launched into a lusty kiss. A little beyond, “We’re here. We’re queer,” no?

I’m in no way condoning these actions. It was tempting fodder for the right wing and Bill O’Reilly ran with it. That really doesn’t lead any movement forward but every movement has its radical wing. The militant feminists of the women’s movement took over the offices of the Ladies Home Journal and held the male editor hostage at one time, lest we forget. This group is filled with misfits and the most marginalized members of the gay rights movement. Many of these members were raised in families, schools and churches that vilified and abused homosexuals and created the angry, violence-as-a-first-option mentality. In no way am I suggesting that I believe that violence is ever an answer, but I can understand that wearing fatigues and pink bandanas as uniforms and inflicting back the fear they’d been made to feel could have driven them to violence. Perhaps they watched close friends being beaten in parking lots until their skulls gave way. Cause and effect.

Let me tell you a little story. At a family gathering my sister and I had been talking about how kids are more openly gay in high school now. We were talking about it as a good thing – that maybe things are progressing with this next generation, which could lead to greater tolerance. She then said to her sister-in-law, “Kids are much more open about being gay, aren’t they?” Her sister-in-law then said, “Yeah, they kiss each other and no one can do anything about it. If my son beat one of them up, HE’D be the one in trouble.” We stood there stunned. I said, “That’s terrible,” and I think she thought I meant the kissing. Cause and effect.