I protest

I’m sorry, Mr. Hanson. I know you don’t like it when I do that.

You’re right, you know. Things were so much better a few decades ago. Before Stonewall in ’69, gays knew their place. They knew when to shut up and they knew better than to speak up and argue when insensitive bigots misrepresented them.

But, I’m sorry. There I go again with buzz words that I know upset you. “Insensitive.” “Bigot.” How about “hateful”?

You’re right. Mr. Sartain never personally attacked anyone in his article, “Gays, the new Jews?!?” But really, from your arguments in “Have we lost our minds?” I’m surprised you failed to recognize where Sartain’s very real hate speech came into play.

You take on the liberal crowd, beating the traditional “white Christian males are oppressed” drum. In fact, you go so far as to protest (yes, even you), “I am really tired of being labeled by people who don’t know me.” Well there we go, we really do agree on something. I support you — applaud you even — for standing up and saying that such treatment is wrong. I fully agree with you; it’s terrible, and terribly wrong.

Labels and senseless stereotyping are wrong. Hateful, even. And that’s what Sartain used. He brushed aside the issues in favor of attacking a significant percentage of the population with offensive, insulting and demeaning generalizations. If that doesn’t constitute hate speech, then I agree; we need a new definition immediately.

I applaud you, also, for distancing yourself from a stereotype, the Republican community, as it were, that perhaps you find a little too accurate and a little too far from what you believe. Republicans may not, as individuals, be homophobes. Plenty of straight conservatives have proven as much through their compassion in articles and in protests. But, anyone who votes Republican, whether intending to or not, is supporting a culture of blatant, dangerous and hateful homophobia. And that includes the Log Cabins.

Gay fear is written directly into the Republican platform: Defense of marriage, defense of the family. Defense implies the fear of an impending threat. The GOP mission statement and list of goals scream out that gays are attacking society’s very foundations and that legislation must be drawn up to prevent homosexual marriage and adoption. According to party dogma, the consequences of letting ‘them’ be together or near children are simply too grave. Perhaps professor Henson’s idea that the vandal was a homophobic Republican reflects more merit in this light.

The simple truth that you and Mr. Sartain are missing is that homosexuals, bisexuals, transgender people or really anyone who is “different,” still has overwhelming circumstances to rally against. Listen to the real people out there suffering. Listen to the transgender woman who has to pretend to be a man again every day or risk losing her job. Listen to the young, closeted man or woman who has to lie to his or her family and friends everyday or risk losing everything. Or listen to the “faggot” getting beat to death because of whose hand he held. Please, listen to all the GLBT voices being told by an oppressive peer group and government that this is not the city, state or country for them to live openly, and that maybe everyone would be happier if they just moved. Listen to that suffering and tell me again that our cause is worthless.

If the protest on April 12 had been against nothing more than an article, we would have marched outside Mr. Sartain’s door. But, we didn’t. We stood on the quad and suffered through the angry stares, the rolled eyes and even the hateful slurs and insults thrown at us by members of our campus community. We also celebrated the smiles, waves and outstretched arms of those who joined our movement. And that’s what our protest was about.

We wanted to proudly say who we are and maybe get a little more love and a little less hate. I think that’s an admirable cause.

Travis Acreman is a first-year theatre major. He can be reached at [email protected].