Words Are Power

[trigger warning: anti gay bigotry, fire, dead horses. please visit this joyfully living otter instead.]

(ETA: trigger warning)

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

I used to hate that little ditty. I still do, but as a child, as a victim of bullying, I knew that was not true. Words hurt. Words hurt as much, if not more, than fists and weapons. Words are powerful. Words have power.

No, words are power.

Which is why I spend so much of my time talking about the use of words. Why is it important to discuss that atheist have morals, too? Because every time someone says that morals come from god, the idea is planted in another person's mind that atheists are immoral, dangerous perhaps. Maybe shouldn't be suffered to live. I mean, who knows what they might do to the children?

Why is it important to confront it, each and every time, when someone says that a man "cried/threw/whatever like a girl"? Because any time you compare undesirable behavior to being female you spread the belief that to be female is to be lesser. And people who believe that women are lesser have no problem raping women, taking away their rights, paying them less and generally oppressing them. And women who believe that they themselves are less have more trouble fighting against that.

It is important to hold people responsible for the words that they say because words are power. We should hold people as accountable for their words as we do for how they use their guns. If a person randomly fires off a gun into a crowd and kills someone, we do not accept the excuse that well, I wasn't really aiming for anyone in particular, I just wanted to see what people would do.

Which is why I'm holding accountable every single Christian who spreads hatred against gays for the deaths of 8 horses. If you stood up online, at a church, among your friends and spewed hatred and lies and vitriol against gays, then you may as well have held the torch. You may as well have slit the throats of these 8 horses because that would have been kinder than what did happen.

Seven adult horses and one foal died as a result of an arson fire at 874 West Richards Road in McConnelsville just after 11:30 p.m. on Sunday. Owner Brent Whitehouse said he woke to discover the barn engulfed in flames and immediately called 911, but it was too late.

"I couldn't get the door open I could still hear the horses kicking and I tried as hard as I could to get them out and I just couldn't get them out in time," he said.

Those who know Brent believe this was a hate crime, explicit words relating to his sexuality were spray painted in large white letters on the side of the barn before the fire was started.

You. You did it. You spread hatred and fear. It's your fault. Oh, I know, you didn't tell anyone to go torch a barn with 8 horses in it, but don't think that makes you innocent. You put the idea in a person's mind that gays are evil and wrong and will harm your children. You're responsible for that idea. It's that idea that led to 8 horses desperately trying to escape a raging fire and failing. Your idea. Your words.

Your fucking fault.

Hate Crime Bill Passes

hate crimes, homophobia, homosexual, wingnut, christian,

One small step for equality, one major freakout for wingnuts.

In Which I Interrupt the Previous Post for Human Rights

hate crimes, homosexual, matthew shepard


From the Human Rights Campaign:

Last Thursday, 49-year-old Jack Price, an openly gay man, was attacked right outside of his home by two individuals yelling anti-gay slurs. Price suffered a broken jaw, fractured ribs, collapsed lungs, a lacerated spleen, and had to be placed in a medically induced coma.

This brutal hate crime, caught on a surveillance video, comes just as the Senate prepares to cast the final vote on the inclusive hate crimes bill. We can't afford to wait a single day more for this law.

Tell your Senators to watch the video before they cast their vote on the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Homosexuals deserve the same protection under the law as the religious- who already enjoy hate crime protections. This incident makes that abundantly clear, as if the Matthew Shepard incident didn't already do so.


[the following video is graphic and disturbing.]





UPDATE:

I just received the following email from the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission:

The Defense Authorization Act of 2010 will be up for a vote this week. But instead of focusing on the much needed support for our troops, sneaky Senators have decided to attach to this bill an amendment that has nothing to do with our national defense.


A pro-homosexual, hate crimes amendment was added during the summer to this bill. It threatens the first amendment rights of all Christians.


Senator Brownback, of Kansas, added an amendment to this hate crimes bill that would help protect freedom of speech for pastors. But even that amendment, although passed, was tampered with this week.

. . .

We need your help. Hate crimes legislation threatens your very ability to exercise your First Amendment rights. Click here to read more about this bill.

These people are disgusting. Beating a gay man half to death because he is gay is not a right guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Were You Planning on Slapping People?

hate crimes, homophobia, homosexual, gay, mormon, christian, legislation, beetlebabee, fred, phelps,
One of the oddest arguments against the new hate crime bill goes like this:

If a gay man slaps me, it’s a misdemeanor, maybe a fine. Under this law as proposed, if I slap him back, it’s a felony hate crime.

Understanding the law fail.

First of all, no, defending yourself from a physical attack is not a crime. One is allowed to engage in activities normally defined as crimes (i.e., slapping, punching, kicking, shooting) in the furtherance of self defense. In other words, if someone physically attacks me, I am allowed to physically attack them in order to make them stop. This has nothing to do with hate crimes.

Secondly, the author of this little rant is a Mormon, which means she is already protected under existing hate crime legislation. That's right, kids, hate crime legislation is nothing new. Currently, hate crime legislation protects people based on religion, race and country of origin. What we're debating now is adding sexual orientation and sex to the protections. So, people like our Mormon friend are essentially arguing that they want to have protection under the law that they don't want to share with homosexuals. (I don't see Beetlebabee arguing for dismantling existing hate crime legislation.)

Thirdly, was she planning on slapping people? Slapping people is against the law. If you slap people, you may be arrested. To whinge that you may get more punishment than you bargained for is a little . . . odd. "Not that I would shoot people, but if I do shoot people, I don't want to spend more than 15 years in jail. Adding an extra 9 years to my sentence would be completely unjust." Umm . . . what?

Fourthly, this is a complete misunderstanding of the point of hate crimes legislation. Beetlebabee is a Mormon. She is currently protected under hate crimes legislation. If the hypothetical gay man slapped* her because he finds her personally objectionable (who doesn't?), she's right, no hate crime. If, on the other hand, our hypothetical gay man slapped her for the purposes of terrorizing all Mormons, then yes, that is a hate crime. As the law stands, however, if Beetlebabee slaps the hypothetical gay man in order to terrorize all gay men, there is no hate crime. She would not receive the same punishment as he would in the same circumstance.

Lastly- Fred Phelps.

*yes, i know, slapping is not a hate crime whatever the reason, but i'd prefer not to discuss even hypothetical murders.

Hate Crime Laws- Protecting Christians since 1969

homophobia, homosexual, hate crimes, religion, sexual orientation, christian, christianity, traditional, values,
I was waiting for the next hysterical "Oh, noes, if the new hate crime legislation passes, your pastor will arrested for saying 'Jesus'! We have to do something!" post I saw to bring this up.

Thankfully, Yours, Sincerely did me a solid.

An impending "hate crimes" bill is coming up for vote which directly opposes both freedom of speech, and freedom of religion:

Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, says the bill is a serious threat to religious freedom. "Your pastor could be prosecuted for conspiracy to commit a hate crime if it passes and become law," she warns. "This so-called 'hate crimes' bill will be used to lay the legal foundation and framework to investigate, prosecute, and persecute pastors, business owners, Bible teachers, Sunday School teachers, youth pastors -- you name it -- or anyone else whose actions are based upon and reflect the truth found in the Bible."

TVC says H.R. 1913 broadly defines "intimidation" -- and offers up this example: "A pastor's sermon could be considered 'hate speech' under this legislation if heard by an individual who then acts aggressively against persons based on 'sexual orientation.'" Under those circumstances, says the group, the pastor could be prosecuted for "conspiracy to commit a hate crime."

Wow! That's terrible, isn't it?

No, what's really terrible is Christians have been protected by federal hate crimes legislation since 1969. What's really terrible is, after enjoying this protection for 40 years, Christians want to make absolutely certain the LGBT community does not enjoy the same protection by protesting against adding sexual orientation to the existing federal hate crimes legislation.

Nice. Really nice.

Keep in mind, hate crimes legislation is limited to violent actions:

H.R. 1913 – "To provide Federal assistance to States, local jurisdictions, and Indian tribes to prosecute hate crimes, and for other purposes".

Furthermore, it contains the following:

"Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses of, the First Amendment to the Constitution."