In Repair

We’ve been watching cable news this evening and the whole Don Imus story seems a little overblown to me. An old man made a stupid comment and it’s like the whole country has been consumed by it, crying out for blood and demanding his crucifixion. He loses his job, we talk about it for a few days and the world goes back to the way it was before. Whether society has gained anything in the process will remain to be seen.

With all the grandstanding by Al Sharpton and the media over the story, I couldn’t help but wonder what the reaction might have been if Don Imus had said something derogatory about gays and lesbians instead of his racist remark? I don’t think there would have been anywhere near the public outcry, and he certainly wouldn’t have lost his job because of it.

While remarks about someones race or ethnicity may generate a media circus, disparaging remarks about one’s sexual orientation seem to receive a much more muted reaction. Our own government feels free to discriminate against homosexuals on a regular basis, yet there are no outspoken defenders holding press conferences on our behalf. Where is the outrage when people in positions of authority and power make disparaging statements against an entire group of citizens?

Here are a few examples:

“I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts. I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way.” - Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, March 12, 2007.

“[Homosexuals] want to come into churches and disrupt church services and throw blood all around and try to give people AIDS and spit in the face of ministers.” - Pat Robertson, 700 Club, 1/18/95

“If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. Whether it’s polygamy, whether it’s adultery, whether it’s sodomy, all of those things are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family.” - Sen. Rick Santorum, discussing the Supreme Court’s sodomy ruling in April, 2003. President Bush later praised him as being “inclusive”.

“The poor homosexuals — they have declared war upon nature, and now nature is extracting an awful retribution (AIDS). With 80,000 dead of AIDS, our promiscuous homosexuals appear literally hell-bent on Satanism and suicide. AIDS is nature’s retribution for violating the laws of nature. - Former presidential candidate, Pat Buchanan, 1983, 1990, 1992.

“You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don’t like gay people and I don’t like to be around gay people. I’m homophobic. I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be in the world or in the United States.” - retired Miami Heat guard, Tim Hardaway, February, 2007.

“Someone must not be afraid to say, ‘moral perversion is wrong.’ If we do not act now, homosexuals will ‘own’ America!…If you and I do not speak up now, this homosexual steamroller will literally crush all decent men, women, and children who get in its way…and our nation will pay a terrible price!” - Jerry Falwell, 1997.

“Homosexuals are not monogamous. They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It will destroy marriage. It will destroy the earth.” - James Dobson, founder of Focus On The Family, Oct. 22, 2004

Very few of these individuals experienced any kind of occupational or social backlash for their words. Some of them are actually celebrated amongst certain political and religious factions.

Some would say that it is unfair to compare the plight of the black man with discrimination against homosexuals, but I beg to differ. We did not choose to be homosexual any more than they chose the color of their skin. We have been demonized by religions and governments. Our predecessors have been killed in Hitler’s concentration camps, burned to death in Salem, beaten and left to die in rural Wyoming, and stoned in the Middle East. We know the stare of bigotry, the look of disgust, and the ever abiding fear of physical attack. Many of us have lost our jobs, our homes, and our families because of who we are and whom we choose to love.

Martin Luther King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, even compared the two, stating, “Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood. This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group.” She also condemned bans on same-sex marriage, saying it was a civil-rights issue.

Discrimination takes many forms, but we must stop allowing the words of the ignorant to affect us on such a personal level. Words are just words and they only have as much power as we are willing to relinquish to them.