Oh, trust me.....it's backwards.
Even in the gay areas, bashings happen. Like this story of out club performer Kevin Aviance.
(Taken from Wikipedia) On June 10, 2006 while exiting the Phoenix, a popular gay bar located in the East Village, Manhattan, he was robbed and beaten by a group of men who yelled anti-gay slurs at him. Four suspects were arrested under New York's hate-crime law, but reports say up to seven men were involved in the attack. Despite suffering a broken jaw, he insisted on appearing in the city's gay pride parade later that month.
On March 21, 2007 all four assailants pled guilty, receiving prison sentences ranging from 6 to 15 years in plea agreements that included hate crimes embellishments. The four young men, who range in age from 17 to 21 years old, had faced up to 25 years each for the attack, had they been found guilty in a trial. All had been charged with gang assault as a hate crime.
Now I am truly shocked,I did at least think in a city as cosmopolitan as New York, this sort of incident would never occur.I find that very scary.The city has experienced first hand what hatred and bigoted prejudice can do,aka 9/11 I would have thought that may have translated into a better understanding and tolerance of all.Obviously not.Sometimes I just despair of the human race.
What bigger catastrophe fuelled by hate has to happen, before people just wake up and thing, hang on a minute,we can stop a lot of this.It is withinn our power to control some aspects.
I am not talking of some idealistic Nirvana,simply a willingness within our own societies, to accept even when we may not understand or agree.We have learned nothing from WW2 and Adolf. He thought only blond haired blue eyed ,heterosexual pure Aryans should be allowed to survive.So much hope and optimism for the world when the war ended.Yet now, have things really changed so very much.No is the simple but very depressing answer.
Had I been alive in any of the countries that Hitler invaded I would have been killed.I am brunette, 1/4 Jewish and with a treated "mental" problem.
I want to just give up the fight sometimes, but I can't,because 6/12 ago my oldest son was chanting his anti gay garbage.Something he learned from the kids at his school.
Now, admittedly properly medicated, his closest friend is gay.He has done a 180 degs turn and is one of the biggest supporters of gays. To the extent of chasing off a bunch of thugs who were chanting the same rubbish and filth, that 6/12 earlier he had been.So while there is just one person who can change,no one can give up.
I more than most, have reason to dislike gays.I was married to one for 7 years, before he came out and we divorced.My reaction was the complete opposite to that expected by friends.I truly felt no ill will towards him.I saw the immense battle he had, to get the place he has happily inhabited for 20 years.Even to the extent of his own mother disowning him.
He is one of the kindest ,most gentle of any man I know.To this day we still exchange Xmas cards and even my parents do.I needed him to help heal the wounds of my rape.He was perfect for me at the time. He needed another wounded being to help him.
Sorry, I have as per usual waffled on.It is simply I do not think the message can ever be repeated too many times.
P.S if any of you have BBC America, then watch the Graham Norton show. He is an openly gay man, who hosts a sort of chat show.To give one example, hidden cameras and microphones had been put in a mens restroom, Dustin Hoffman was the guest and he was on microphone telling the men to shake off properly and wash afterwards.He then told a couple of filthy but highly entertaining jokes.
