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Politics I receive a hate letter

Discussion in 'Tilted Philosophy, Politics, and Economics' started by Street Pattern, Nov 20, 2013.

  1. Street Pattern

    Street Pattern Very Tilted

    A few weeks ago, I was quoted in local media supporting marriage equality.

    Almost all of the comments about this were positive.

    However, today, I received a handwritten letter from someone who wasn't pleased.

    I admit that I am kind of thrilled about this. He or she even misspelled my name.

    Here's most of the text:


    If you are gay - that's OK - but keep it to yourself - in the closet. I am a moral person, and so are many of us who are against this. The Bible tells us to accept & love these people - but you are to (according to the Bible) keep away, refrain from that life style, at least publicly.
    We will some day, if God does not stop it, in some way, have a world of queers. That is not normal. God did not create John & Jim, he created Adam & Eve.
    I am not signing this letter because our freedom of speech has been taken from us.
    I am not politically correct.
    What gives you the right to inflict your values on us and what gives you the right to spend our tax dollars?

    Signed,
    Sickened By Your Kind

    I know and accept that people can be born that way. But many choose the queer life style, just like many accept and think child porn is OK.
     
    Last edited: Nov 20, 2013
  2. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    Simply stupid and insane.
    I swear some people just snap with their anger.

    But doesn't this belong in "Life & Sexuality"?
    I guess there may be a political/philosophical aspect to it.

    But I don't know the gist of where you're going with the topic...perhaps you could broaden it.
     
  3. Street Pattern

    Street Pattern Very Tilted

    Where I'm going with this topic? I guess I'm not sure. I was very excited to receive this, and I wanted to share it.

    I received this as a result of my public advocacy for same-sex marriage, not as a response to anything in my personal or sex life -- of which the writer knows nothing.
     
  4. snowy

    snowy so kawaii Staff Member

    One of the weirdest experiences I have ever had was hearing a hate message meant for my father.

    We'd gotten home from a shopping trip and dinner out, which was a Big Deal since we lived about 45 minutes away from anything remotely resembling shopping. Our answering machine was downstairs in our daylight basement, and since I was the 9-year-old whose friends called constantly, I went down to check the messages for the whole family. The first thing on the machine was a guy talking about how he was going to kill my dad. I remember yelling for my parents, who came down and blanched when they heard the message. My dad was apparently a witness in a court case against the guy; this wasn't uncommon for my dad to do, but this was the first time someone had gone so far as this. Let's just say my dad spent a lot of time on the phone that night with the sheriff.

    And good for you--advocating for those who cannot necessarily advocate for themselves. Where I live, there's a huge push this year to get marriage equality back on the ballot. I can't really participate as actively as I'd like while looking for a job in my chosen field. My activist tendencies are going to have to be put away until I have a secure position. I do as much as I can behind the scenes.
     
  5. DamnitAll

    DamnitAll Wait... what?

    Location:
    Central MD
    It's a shame that the gay is such a magnet for this sort of thing.

    I saw a fair amount of this sort of attention as the sole out(ed) queer in my high school back in the mid 90s, from a slur scrawled in black pen on my backpack while I'd left my history classroom to raw eggs tossed toward my girlfriend and me as we stood on a street corner downtown after school. Perhaps most memorable—and impactful—was a message waiting on my parents' answering machine upon our return from Christmas vacation sophomore year.

    I was standing at the dining room table picking through the mail when my parents called me, sharply, into the kitchen. I didn't hear the message myself—if I had, I probably would've recognized the voice of the person, a boy in my school, that had left it—but the caller said he thought my parents should know that my girlfriend and I had been seen "making out in the middle of town." This wasn't entirely accurate: our makeout spots were far more secluded than the downtown intersection he'd referenced. Semantics aside, however, there wasn't much I could do or say to deny the overall nature of the allegations, since my mom had suspected for some months that this friendship had progressed to a non-platonic state. Not surprisingly, the revelation did not go over well, at all.

    I've always had my suspicions about who left the message. To this day I wish I really knew.
     
  6. Street Pattern

    Street Pattern Very Tilted

    Letter Writer, I am disappointed that I cannot respond to you directly.

    I, too, am a moral person, and a religious person.

    Your freedom of speech has not been taken away, indeed, the First Amendment protects speech even more hateful than yours.

    My synagogue was the target of picketing by the Westboro Baptist Church. It did not occur to us to call the police (the government) to have the demonstrators removed.

    I notice you seem to be vacillate on the issue of inborn versus chosen homosexuality.

    You suggest that those who were "born that way" remain quietly in the closet.

    Is it really fair or just that they be deprived of the ordinary legal benefits of marriage -- benefits you surely take for granted?

    You predict that allowing same-sex marriage would result in a "world of queers", and say, "that is not normal."

    But if the whole world was queer, wouldn't queer be normal?

    And is being "queer" so tempting that, given the opportunity to marry someone of the same gender, the whole world would immediately jump at the chance?

    But I'm not about to abandon my opposite-sex marriage. Are you?

    You ask what gives me the right to "inflict" my values on you.

    But I am not attempting to make you do anything, deprive you of any rights, or change your life in any way.

    Your values are enshrined in the amendment to our state constitution, which forbids the recognition of same-sex marriage "or similar union for any purpose."

    I represent the majority position in this county, which voted about 60% NO on that amendment.

    And I think the voters of this state would reject the amendment if they had the opportunity to revisit this issue.

    So who is "inflicting" values on whom?

    Every state is required to give the equal protection of its laws to every citizen in its jurisdiction.

    I expect that the amendment will soon be struck down as a violation of that basic requirement.

    You ask what gives me the right to spend our tax dollars.

    Well, that happens to be my job.
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2013
    • Like Like x 1
  7. rogue49

    rogue49 Tech Kung Fu Artist Staff Member

    Location:
    Baltimore/DC
    Excellent reply. :cool: