Tag: hate

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UPDATE: Turns Out She Is A Fraud - Miss Beverly Hills Claims God Wants Gays Put To Death!

In a statement Wednesday, the city said it was shocked by Ashley’s description of herself as ‘Miss Beverly Hills, especially when she lives in Pasadena. ''The city ‘does not sponsor a beauty pageant and has no association with Miss California USA,’ the statement said. ‘As such, there should be no individual claiming the title of Miss Beverly Hills.’ The city’s statement said Ashley lives in Pasadena and ‘does not represent Beverly Hills in any capacity.’ … ’We are dismayed by any potential association with the city of Beverly Hills, which has a long history of tolerance and respect,’ Mayor Nancy Krasne said….Beverly Hills said it had contacted pageant officials to determine how to prevent any future beauty contestants from claiming the title of Miss Beverly Hills.”

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Miss Beverly Hills has thrown her tiara into the ring on the gay marriage debate.  As the state of California battles over Prop 8 and the issue of marriage equality in what will surely be a landmark case, Lauren Ashley felt it necessary to declare her stance on the issue.  Claiming that the Bible is "pretty black and white," Ashley told Fox News "The Bible says that marriage is between a man and a woman.  In Leviticus it says 'If man lies with mankind as he would lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination.  They shall surely be put to death and their blood shall be upon them.'" She went on to state "I feel like God himself created mankind and he loves everyone, and he has the best for everyone.  If he says that having sex with someone of your same gender is going to bring death upon you, that's a pretty stern warning, and he knows more than we do about life." Interestingly, while proclaiming her faith and asserting her knowledge of biblical texts, Ashley failed to address the fact that the book of Leviticus also states: It is acceptable to own slaves (25:44) Eating shellfish is an abomination (11:10) A man cutting his hair is punishable by death (19:27) One may not approach an altar if he is hunchbacked, has poor eyesight or damaged testicles (21:20) Having a tomato and cucumber garden or wearing a cotton polyester blend is grounds to be stoned to death (19:19) One must ask why some biblical laws are held onto while others are blatantly ignored.  In the entire Bible (which includes 66 books, 1189 chapters, and 31101 verses in the Protestant version, the Catholic and Orthodox Bibles are larger) there are only five texts that have been claimed to forbid homosexuality.  Unfortunately, each of these has been picked apart, taken out of context, and the larger message has been entirely lost.  Miss Beverly Hills may have asserted her stance based on her faith; however she is highly misinformed on what the Bible states, particularly on the issue of do not judge. [MEDIA not found]

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Facebook Group Offers Free Guns to Kill Gays

What happens when society fails to take cognizance of the ultimate ramifications of inequality? What happens when individual communities ignore discrimination? What happens when people are denied basic civil rights? It cannot be good, because you know what happens – it inevitably leads to the next step – and then the next step and the next and then a final solution – ‘a license to Kill.’

Marginalized communities are easy targets for scape-goating, becoming targets for those who recriminate by virtue of this perceived license. So has the final solution begun and is the Uganda ground zero? If we remain silent we are participants. We have learnt that lesson. Learning a lesson, however, is not enough – especially when the license has been activated and society has crossed into a danger zone leading to the level-of-non-return.

Until the LGBTQ citizens of this Universe receive generic acceptance as civil and human rights entitled, this license remains an active permission slip to head further down the slippery slope of this dangerous disregard to the pit below.

So to prove the point, there is a group on Facebook offering free guns to those who join and want to exterminate gays. A counter group has emerged to take the exterminators down. Here is their post. I suggest joining to help remove the hate and harm – however once you have done so, please understand that is not enough – it is time to vote pro-equality and to urge your representatives to take leadership roles, to move equality legislation forward. How can we stand before the world and reprimand Uganda when we are all headed down the same slope.

Ban the “GAY EXTERMINATORS” from Facebook Description: On Saturday. Dec. 5, I was made aware of a group on Facebook called GAY EXTERMINATORS. When I went to their page to check it out, I was incensed. I quote: “we are a newly formed group that is specialized to kill and torture gays… we save mankind by killing gays and erase them from existence.. join us and get a free gun to kill gays today!” I was one of many who posted and cross-posted their link, asking all of my friends to become involved by going to their link and reporting them to Facebook. Their page went far beyond the rhetoric of most of the anti-LGBT sites on the internet. The GAY EXTERMINATORS were operating on a level of hatred unparalleled this side of Uganda. This direct call for the murder of gays was, in and of itself, a criminal act, and early Sunday morning we were successful in getting Facebook to take down their group page. Unfortunately, their event page entitled GAY JUDGEMENT DAY, which featured a cartoon of a man mutilating another man’s genitals with a chainsaw, was left up. After numerous protests, Facebook removed the event page on Monday, Dec. 7. While I appreciate Facebook’s rapid response to our protests, I do not feel that their response is adequate. The individual pages of the creator, the administrators and the officers of this group are still up and running. I am of the belief that they should be taken down as well. I quote from Facebook’s own policy on groups operating on their site: “Groups that attack a specific person or group of people (e.g. racist, sexist, or other hate groups) will not be tolerated. Creating such a group will result in the immediate termination of your Facebook account.” I read this to mean that not only will any group that operates in this manner have their page removed, but that any person who creates or operates such a group will have their Facebook account terminated. Make no mistake about one thing: This group was NOT simply exercising free speech! By calling on their supporters to murder gays, they were using Facebook to commit a crime and, as such, exposed Facebook to legal liability. Facebook has an obligation, not only to us, its users, but to itself, to terminate the accounts of these individuals and to bar their IP addresses from ever using Facebook in this manner again. If you agree with this position, please join this group, so that together we may prevent this sort of hate group from ever being created again. In a few weeks, hopefully we will have enough members to be able to convince Facebook to terminate the administrators’ accounts.(read more) STORY BY: Melaine Nathan LegalTreal

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FBI Data Sees Rise In Hate Crimes

The number of US hate crime victims rose slightly last year to nearly 9,700 from 9,500 in 2007, with most people targeted because of their skin color, the FBI said Monday. More than half of hate crimes committed in the United States were racially motivated and three-quarters of the victims of those attacks were black, the FBI's annual report on hate crimes said. Of the 6,927 known perpetrators of all hate crimes -- which include attacks driven by not only racial bias but also by the victims' religious affiliation, sexual orientation, ethnic origins or disability -- 61 percent were white. Blacks perpetrated attacks in around 20 percent of cases. The report comes weeks after President Barack Obama, the first black US president, signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which beefed up existing legislation by adding attacks fueled by biases against sexual orientation, gender identity and disability to the list of offenses that constitute hate crimes. The new law was named after two men killed in separate US hate crimes. Shepard, 21, died in October 1988 after being beaten by two men because he was gay, while Byrd, 49, was killed in June 1998 by three men in Texas who dragged him behind their truck. He was African-American. In 2008, around 17 percent of hate crime victims were attacked because of their sexual orientation. The overwhelming majority, 96 percent, were gay or lesbian, the FBI report said. Nearly 20 percent were attacked for their religious affiliation, with Jews making up around two-thirds of the victims of those crimes. Muslims were the targets of less than eight percent of religious hate crimes, putting them in third place behind Jews and followers of unspecified "other religions" attacked in 13 percent of religion-fueled hate crimes. In 2007, Muslims represented about eight percent of victims attacked because of their religion, and in 2006 they made up 12 percent of victims of religion-motivated hate crimes. Members of the large US Hispanic community were victims of 64 percent, or nearly two-thirds, of the 1,148 hate crimes driven by a bias against a person's ethnicity or national origin. Most hate crimes targeting individuals were intimidation or simple assault, but seven murders and 11 rapes were counted among the hate crime statistics. The FBI compiled the report using data submitted by 13,690 law enforcement agencies in most of the 50 states. More than 80 percent of the participating agencies reported no hate crimes in their jurisdictions in 2008. The report, which has been compiled since 1992, is not intended to track a trend in hate crimes as the number of law enforcement agencies around the country that submit data for it varies from year to year, the FBI said. But civil and human rights organizations have said hate crimes have risen more steeply than the two percent year-on-year increase indicated in the FBI report. In a report issued in June, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said the number of hate groups operating in the United States increased more than four percent in 2008 and has grown by 54 percent since 2000. The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights has said the election of Obama combined with the financial crisis and immigration have made for a lethal cocktail leading to a spike in hate crimes. And US Attorney General Eric Holder -- who is African-American -- has said that some 80,000 hate crimes incidents have been reported to the FBI since he first testified before Congress in favor of hate crimes legislation 11 years ago. The number of US hate crime victims rose slightly last year to nearly 9,700 from 9,500 in 2007, with most people targeted because of their skin color, the FBI said Monday. More than half of hate crimes committed in the United States were racially motivated and three-quarters of the victims of those attacks were black, the FBI's annual report on hate crimes said. Of the 6,927 known perpetrators of all hate crimes -- which include attacks driven by not only racial bias but also by the victims' religious affiliation, sexual orientation, ethnic origins or disability -- 61 percent were white. Blacks perpetrated attacks in around 20 percent of cases. The report comes weeks after President Barack Obama, the first black US president, signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which beefed up existing legislation by adding attacks fueled by biases against sexual orientation, gender identity and disability to the list of offenses that constitute hate crimes. The new law was named after two men killed in separate US hate crimes. Shepard, 21, died in October 1988 after being beaten by two men because he was gay, while Byrd, 49, was killed in June 1998 by three men in Texas who dragged him behind their truck. He was African-American. In 2008, around 17 percent of hate crime victims were attacked because of their sexual orientation. The overwhelming majority, 96 percent, were gay or lesbian, the FBI report said. Nearly 20 percent were attacked for their religious affiliation, with Jews making up around two-thirds of the victims of those crimes. Muslims were the targets of less than eight percent of religious hate crimes, putting them in third place behind Jews and followers of unspecified "other religions" attacked in 13 percent of religion-fueled hate crimes. In 2007, Muslims represented about eight percent of victims attacked because of their religion, and in 2006 they made up 12 percent of victims of religion-motivated hate crimes. Members of the large US Hispanic community were victims of 64 percent, or nearly two-thirds, of the 1,148 hate crimes driven by a bias against a person's ethnicity or national origin. Most hate crimes targeting individuals were intimidation or simple assault, but seven murders and 11 rapes were counted among the hate crime statistics. The FBI compiled the report using data submitted by 13,690 law enforcement agencies in most of the 50 states. More than 80 percent of the participating agencies reported no hate crimes in their jurisdictions in 2008. The report, which has been compiled since 1992, is not intended to track a trend in hate crimes as the number of law enforcement agencies around the country that submit data for it varies from year to year, the FBI said. But civil and human rights organizations have said hate crimes have risen more steeply than the two percent year-on-year increase indicated in the FBI report. In a report issued in June, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said the number of hate groups operating in the United States increased more than four percent in 2008 and has grown by 54 percent since 2000. The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights has said the election of Obama combined with the financial crisis and immigration have made for a lethal cocktail leading to a spike in hate crimes. And US Attorney General Eric Holder -- who is African-American -- has said that some 80,000 hate crimes incidents have been reported to the FBI since he first testified before Congress in favor of hate crimes legislation 11 years ago.

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Hate Crimes Bill Passed Congress!

Today, the United States Senate took an historic step toward ensuring justice for the victims of hate crimes targeted for violence due to their sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability.  By voting overwhelmingly to extend to these often-targeted Americans our nation’s decades-old bias crime legislation, senators sent the message that hate crimes will not go unpunished, and local governments and law enforcement agencies will not run out of financial resources to provide justice to these victims and their loved ones. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act was attached earlier this year to the annual Defense Department spending bill, and Thursday’s 68-29 Senate vote to approve the final House-Senate compromise on the defense bill now sends this important law enforcement provision to President Obama, who has vowed to sign it. Under the legislation, federal prosecutors could step in to try violent hate-crime cases if local authorities cannot or will not secure an appropriate conviction. It also opens up federal funding for law enforcement to handle the typically high cost of investigation and judicial proceedings in such cases, and would make grants available for training and prevention programs at the local level. The act is named to honor Matthew Shepard as well as James Byrd, an African-American resident of Texas brutally dragged to death in 1998 in a notorious hate crime. Matthew’s parents Dennis and Judy Shepard have campaigned for the legislation’s passage for more than a decade since their son’s murder in Laramie, Wyoming, in 1998 in an anti-gay hate crime. MORE ON THE STORY AT CNN.COM

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Gay Killer Released

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, condemned the early release of Stephen Andrew Moller, who was convicted in June of 2008 in the death of 20-year-old Sean Kennedy. Sean's mother, Elke Kennedy, was informed of the release by automated message Wednesday night. Witnesses testified at trial that Kennedy's attacker shouted anti-gay slurs while punching Kennedy outside a Greenville, SC bar in May of 2007.

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"This adds insult to injury. To release a man just one-year after his sentencing in this heinous crime and to inform the victim's mother through an automated recording is despicable," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "Sean Kennedy was violently attacked for no other reason than his sexual orientation. This is a text book case of why we need to pass federal legislation that would bring stiffer penalties and provide local authorities with the full resources of the U.S. Justice Department to address vicious hate crimes."

"They say one thing and do something else," said Elke Kennedy, Sean's mother. "He should have served every single day of the already short sentence, instead he was released from prison one week early. Where is the justice?"

U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. highlighted Sean Kennedy's case last week while testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of federal hate crimes legislation. Holder, the first time an Attorney General has testified in favor of this legislation, said Sean's death was an example of an "appalling crime" where "state prosecutions may not always fully vindicate Federal interests." Both Elke Kennedy and Joe Solmonese submitted written testimony at the hearing in support of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (S. 909). To read the testimony, visit www.HRCBackStory.org. The legislation, which was passed in the U.S. House by a vote of 249-175 in April, would provide local police and sheriff's departments with federal resources to combat hate violence. The legislation is currently awaiting a vote in the U.S. Senate.

"Sean is among many American's who are targeted just because of who they are. These crimes not only harm individuals, they terrorize entire communities," said Solmonese. "After more than a decade and nine successful votes in Congress, there is no good reason for any delay on bringing hate crimes legislation to the President's desk. We must finally pass this bill and start the important steps to erasing hate in our country."

U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), the Kennedy family's senator, recently wrote a shocking letter to local priests and pastors advocating against hate crime legislation. DeMint, who has regularly spoken out against the LGBT community, wrote the following in reference to hate crimes legislation: "Many pastors hesitate to explain that government policies have helped cause the decline of America's culture, morality and spirituality. … I am writing you today to remind you that religious principals and biblical teachings produced the values and polices that made America exceptional, prosperous, and good." The Matthew Shepard Act gives the Justice Department the power to investigate and prosecute bias motivated violence where the perpetrator has selected the victim because of the person's actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. It provides the Justice Department with the ability to aid state and local jurisdictions either by lending assistance or, where local authorities are unwilling or unable, by taking the lead in investigations and prosecutions of violent crime resulting in death or serious bodily injury that were motivated by bias. It also makes grants available to state and local communities to combat violent crimes committed by juveniles, train law enforcement officers, or to assist in state and local investigations and prosecutions of bias motivated crimes. To learn more about Sean Kennedy's story and HRC's working coalition to pass hate crimes legislation, visit www.FightHateNow.org. The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.

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2 People Attacked in Utah

Two people say they were the victims of a brutal hate crime in Ogden, Utah. They think they were targeted because they are gay. According to the Standard Examiner, Whitney Goich, 20, and Wil Phillips, 24, were assaulted early Tuesday morning in separate attacks at 3455 Harrison Blvd. Goich and Phillips didn’t know each other, but both say the suspect shouted anti-gay slurs during the attacks. Goich was walking into the apartment complex around 2:30 a.m. to visit a friend when a man approached her and hit her in the face, breaking her nose. A short time later, Phillips was attacked inside a friend’s apartment in the complex. Phillips said his friend knows the suspect, who also lives in the complex. Phillips said the suspect kicked and stomped on him. His injuries did not require medical attention. Read the full story from KSL.com.

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OBAMA PROCLAIMS GAY PRIDE

In a historic first for a sitting US President, Barack Obama has released the following proclamation on June 1st.

THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ___________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release                                     June 1, 2009 LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009 - - - - - - - BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION

Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans. LGBT Americans have made, and continue to make, great and lasting contributions that continue to strengthen the fabric of American society. There are many well-respected LGBT leaders in all professional fields, including the arts and business communities. LGBT Americans also mobilized the Nation to respond to the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic and have played a vital role in broadening this country's response to the HIV pandemic. Due in no small part to the determination and dedication of the LGBT rights movement, more LGBT Americans are living their lives openly today than ever before. I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration. These individuals embody the best qualities we seek in public servants, and across my Administration -- in both the White House and the Federal agencies -- openly LGBT employees are doing their jobs with distinction and professionalism. The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done. LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect. My Administration has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security. We must also commit ourselves to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic by both reducing the number of HIV infections and providing care and support services to people living with HIV/AIDS across the United States. These issues affect not only the LGBT community, but also our entire Nation. As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected. If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded, every American will benefit. During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third. BARACK OBAMA

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Gay Cruising - Murder?

Police blaming victim in Midtown murder? The murder in Piedmont Park Thursday—15 minutes before a second stabbing a few blocks away in Midtown—was first pitched as a robbery attempt by the Atlanta Police Department. Now, the embattled agency hints in an email to an anti-gay nightlife activist that the homicide might have been the result of gay cruising. Huh? Like another high-profile crime in Midtown—the beating of a gay man leaving Blake’s in March—the police department’s take on the case is shifting and quickly. But this time, they don’t have the changing accounts of the victim to explain their changing dynamics.  (NOTE: YOU MAY RECALL I ASSISTED HIM TO BACK TO THE BAR WHILE WE WAITED FOREVER FOR THE POLICE TO ARRIVE) The publicly-known facts of the case seem to undercut their spin—if the victim was out cruising for sex, how does that mesh with a second stabbing 15 minutes later near 6th and Juniper Streets? Some crazed lunatic stabbing guys looking for play late at night? Let’s hope not, but that’s where the police seem to be pointing us. The police explanation, first reported by Southern Voice and picked up today by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, almost smells of blaming the victim. Put another way, it hints at the notion of, well, this dude was in the park after hours and shit happens. Heard that one before? How about this: She was wearing a short skirt and tight blouse, so she was looking to get raped. Maybe that’s a little harsh. But I’ve got a beef with a police commander sending emails about the case to Peggy Denby, a cranky Not In My Backyard activist. She was behind the fight to close Backstreet and wants to run all gay nightlife establishments out of Midtown and away from her high-priced condo that was, incidentally, built after the gay clubs she despises were already in place.

An email sent by Maj. Khirus Williams, head of the police department’s Zone 5, at 1:10 p.m. offered more details. “This morning’s homicide, at Piedmont Park, is ‘likely’ to be ‘male-hustling’ related,” Williams wrote in an email to Midtown activist Peggy Denby. “A person found with blood stains and injuries this morning, in Midtown, is being interviewed by our Homicide Unit. “This person has claimed to have been inside of the park but has not made any confessions,” Williams continued in the email, which was obtained by Southern Voice. “The investigation continues. Our personnel are tasked with park checks throughout the night, to address ‘anyone’ being inside the park, after dark. We will continue the efforts and initiate arrests when there are violations.”

When it comes to Piedmont Park, the police department has little credibility with the city’s gay population. It is, after all, the same department that harassed and arrested six gay men who walked through the park after hours on their way home from a bar. No suspects have been named in the attacks and police haven’t yet linked the incidents from Thursday morning. As the investigation continues, let’s hope they focus more on finding justice for the murder victim and less on blaming him and dismissing the homicide as simply “male-hustling related.” In a sidebar to the case, the normally reserved Georgia Log Cabin Republicans seemed to step off a cliff late Thursday. The group issued a statement calling on Mayor Shirley Franklin, whose term ends this year, to resign.

The group called on Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Republican, and the Georgia National Guard to take control of the city’s “crime mayhem” and reminded LGBT residents of their right to bear arms and use deadly force to protect themselves.

The full statement, according to Southern Voice:

“It has become obvious that Mayor Shirley Franklin is incompetent to fulfill her duty and obligation to protect the citizens of Atlanta from violence. The latest rash of murders, robberies, hate crimes, and lawlessness are a direct result of her failure to provide proper protection by an effective police force.  Mayor Franklin has recklessly cut the hours of our police force, which has left our citizens in grave danger, and now it’s time for her to cut her own hours permanently, we just can’t afford to wait until a new election and mayor, she must go now.” “We are also urging Governor Sonny Perdue to take control of the situation, and requesting that he order in the Georgia National Guard or Georgia State Patrol into Atlanta to help stabilize the current crime mayhem in the city.” “The Georgia Log Cabin Republicans are avid supporters of the 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution, and want to remind our fellow citizens that our state currently lacks any effective Hate Crimes law to detour crimes against LGBT Georgians.  However, the Georgia Legislature passed SB396 several years ago that allows all citizens to legally defend themselves with deadly force when necessary, without an obligation to retreat when attacked.  Until our city is safe again, we recommend that Atlanta’s LGBT citizens find a way in which they are comfortable, to defend themselves, loved ones, and families from the latest crime wave out of control.” STORY BY: Blogger Matt Hennie is the founder and managing editor of Project Q Atlanta. He’s a longtime Atlanta resident who’s worked in journalism since his days as a Purple Paladin at Furman University in the early ‘90s

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The Gay Confederacy

Some folks believe that if a man is gay, he is less than a man. In fact the Southern Baptists and other Southern Holy Rollers in and around the buckle of the Bible Belt think of a gay man as a person as some sort of a demon called up from the pits of hell. Homophobia runs deep in the south. Living in the closet or living out a double-life is all so common in the southern states. I have always found Southern American history interesting and I really love to read gay Southern history. Unfortunately there is not a great deal of it documented. For so long many believed that the gay experience was urban and that sexual freedom was only found in bigger cities. The assumption was that rural areas regulated untraditional sexual practices. However, gay culture and gay sex existed and is quite flourishing in small towns and communities throughout the south. Gay history is always in the making and I believe we are living in a day and age that is very fascinating, as fascinating as the Stonewall Riots 40 years ago. The Advocate has a great account of the pioneers who never knew a time before Stonewall in their June/July Double Issue in honor of the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Be sure to check it out, as it lists 40 people under 40 years old and their dedication to the promise of the pioneers who came before them. I wanted to give you my take on my gay history that I grew up around and with by sharing with you some things about a film I think you would really enjoy and a film which contains the only known video footage of Matthew Shepard before his death while he was a college student in North Carolina. More than a decade has passed since Tim Kirkman filmed his Emmy-nominated documentary Dear Jesse, yet the piece retains its significance as one of the first accounts of the divisive rhetoric that has come to characterize American politics. This short film is a first-person compare-and-contrast between the gay filmmaker and the notoriously conservative Jesse Helms, who served five terms as a Republican senator from North Carolina. Kirkman, who grew up in a Monroe, North Carolina, seeks to understand what motivates decent, “God-fearing” people to practice the politics of hate.

 

In 1972, Helms became the first Republican to represent North Carolina in the U.S. Senate since the 19th century. His conservative politics quickly earned him the moniker “Senator No” -- that is, no affirmative action, no abortion, no gay rights. Despite his tendency toward intolerance, Helms would become the longest-serving popularly elected U.S. senator in his state's history. Yet it would be a mistake to characterize North Carolina as a state other than one built on “churches and banks,” says local theater director Steve Umberger. His production of Angels in America, a play sympathetic to gays and people with AIDS, met with firm disapproval from conservative Carolinians. And the state was and still is very much composed of middle-class Americans who respect Helms for his consistent -- albeit bigoted -- rhetoric. Although times have changed -- the 1998 film was produced before same-sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts -- Kirkman shows us that we are still a nation deeply divided over issues of moral “right” and “wrong.” And he points to the toll that this division can take on the American public.

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The movie concludes with a short clip of Matthew Shepard, interviewed with his boyfriend at Catawba College in North Carolina two years before his tragic death. Not included in the original documentary, the 1998 tape included the footage as a reminder that a lack of tolerance can breed violence. “This is the only footage I have of Matthew,” Kirkman comments on the film. “It's not fair. It isn't enough.” And it isn't enough to encompass the vitality of the young man. But it does serve to emphasize the necessity for understanding -- on both sides of the divide. CLICK HERE TO REVIEW AND ORDER DEAR JESSE This telling documentary is an "open letter" to Jesse Helms, the infamously conservative "Senator No." Director Kirkman, a 25-year-old gay man and North Carolina native, who left for the more liberal world of New York returns in this personal quest for understanding and perspective.