it comes in pints?

Want some "jeez" with that whine?

I don't have the energy to do a proper fisking (and I'm a few Nectars of the Gods in, so it may be rambling), but this whiny-assed snot deserves at least a minimal attempt (registration probably required).

Why do straights hate gays?

Most of us don't. Even out of the 60% or so who don't support gay marriage, most don't have a particular hatred toward gays, only a quaint, somewhat old-fashioned notion of marriage.

An aging 72-year-old gay man isn't hopeful about the future.

Then said 72-year-old is willfully blind. Blinded by hatred, no doubt.

By Larry Kramer, LARRY KRAMER is the founder of the protest group ACT UP and the author of "The Tragedy of Today's Gays."

Founder of ACT UP. That's why I hate you, asshole. One of the most useless, ineffective, and self-marginalizing organizations I've ever seen. And, quite possibly, one of the more dangerous to gays.

DEAR STRAIGHT PEOPLE,

Why do you hate gay people so much?

Didn't you hear me before? Most of us don't, and we don't like being lumped in with those who do anymore than you like being sterotyped.

Gays are hated. Prove me wrong.

You and every other conceivable group in the world. Get over yourself. Every group is hated by somebody, but you seem to think that we "breeders" hate you in particular. We don't. At least, not simply for being gay, only for being a jerk. Accept it.

Your top general just called us immoral.

So? It was a personal opinion of behavior that I don't happen to share. But religiousoids can still "love the sinner, hate the sin". Even an asshole like Jerry Falwell says stuff like that.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is in charge of an estimated 65,000 gay and lesbian troops, some fighting for our country in Iraq.

Where the hell did you come up with that number? Even assuming Kinsey's dubious estimate of 10% of the population, that would require a current U.S. miltary strength of 6.5 million. Ain't no way.

A right-wing political commentator, Ann Coulter, gets away with calling a straight presidential candidate a faggot.

It was a poorly conceived reference to some basketball player who got hauled off to rehab. Oh, and she was called to the carpet on it by many "right-wing" commentators. Just for the record.

Even Garrison Keillor, of all people, is making really tacky jokes about gay parents in his column.

Okay, since I don't find him particularly funny (well, occasionally), and since he is a lefty nutbag, I'll give you this one.

GARRISON KEILLOR IS A GAYBASHING NUTJOB!

Happy now?

This, I guess, does not qualify as hate except that it is so distasteful and dumb, often a first step on the way to hate.

Uh, no. "Distasteful and dumb" is just distasteful and dumb. Hate requires a wee bit more.

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama tried to duck the questions that Pace's bigotry raised, confirming what gay people know: that there is not one candidate running for public office anywhere who dares to come right out, unequivocally, and say decent, supportive things about us.

Gays should not vote for any of them. There is not a candidate or major public figure who would not sell gays down the river.

Well, most politicians seem to be basically whores.

No offense to whores. I actually respect them.

But wasn't it a hated Rethuglican who publicly disagreed with Pace?

We have seen this time after time, even from supposedly progressive politicians such as President Clinton[Clinton? Progressive? - Ed] with his "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military and his support of the hideous Defense of Marriage Act.

Uh, dude, DADT was progressive. And one of the most vociferous opponents of the ban on gays in the military was a "hopeless reactionary".

Of course, it's possible that being shunned by gays will make politicians more popular, but at least we will have our self-respect. To vote for them is to collude with them in their utter disdain for us.

So you can't vote for anyone who has total disdain for you? I guess you don't get to vote at all.

Don't any of you wonder why heterosexuals treat gays so brutally year after year after year, as your people take away our manhood, our womanhood, our personhood?

Brutally? I want examples of how, exactly, I've done that.

Why, even as we die you don't leave us alone. What we can leave our surviving lovers is taxed far more punitively than what you leave your (legal) surviving spouses.

Say what?

Oh, you must be talking about the Death Tax. You know, that nasty little tax your lefty friends like to defend even though it doesn't affect rich liberals like the Kennedys.

And actually, married couples don't really "escape" it. It just gets deferred until the death of the second spouse with no significant tax savings overall.

Why do you do this? My lover will be unable to afford to live in the house we have made for each other over our lifetime together.

Um, yeah he will. All you have to do is put him in your will or (better) your trust. That's two million (death) tax free if you die this year. 3.5 million if you die in 2009 and totally free if you die in 2010. Of course, if you live beyond that, your rich liberal politician friends will make sure that you get reamed.

This does not happen to you.

Yeah, actually it does. Over and over.

Taxation without representation is what led to the Revolutionary War.

Christ, I want to throw up. You have representation. You may not like that your representatives don't necessarily follow your views (God knows my reps doesn't reflect much, or any, of mine) but, you know, tough shit.

Gay people have paid all the taxes you have. But you have equality, and we don't.

Well, that depends on what you mean by equality. More on this below.

And there's no sign that this situation will change anytime soon. President Bush will leave a legacy of hate for us that will take many decades to cleanse. He has packed virtually every court and every civil service position in the land with people who don't like us.

"Legacy of hate"? WTF? This whole section is so deranged it's hard to know where to start.

So, even with the most tolerant of new presidents, gays will be unable to break free from this yoke of hate. Courts rule against gays with hateful regularity.

"Hateful regularity"? Because some don't simply overturn laws you don't like?

And of course the Supreme Court is not going to give us our equality, and in the end, it is from the Supreme Court that such equality must come. If all of this is not hate, I do not know what hate is.

Apparently, then, you haven't the slightest idea what "hate" is.

Our feeble [Feeble? - Ed.] gay movement confines most of its demands to marriage. But political candidates are not talking about — and we are not demanding that they talk about — equality. My lover and I don't want to get married just yet, but we sure want to be equal.

So please explain exactly what this means. You want "equality" in marriage laws, but don't want to get married? But still want equality? What the hell does that mean?

Actually, I suspect I know what it means. I'm reminded of a particularly stupid comment from a socialist politician in Santa Cruz some years ago. It went, as memory serves, "These people came of age believing that all the law should be colorblind. But they haven't moved beyond that."

You must know that gays get beaten up all the time, all over the world.

Yeah? So? It's not like we don't punish the offenders. Matthew Shepard's murderers got life sentences. Personally, I'd have executed the bastards. Does that make me a "hater"?

If someone beats you up because of who you are — your race or ethnic origin — that is considered a hate crime. But in most states, gays are not included in hate crime measures, and Congress has refused to include us in a federal act.

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I oppose "hate crimes" of all sorts. See, I don't find much difference between beating up someone because he's gay, and beating him up just because. Does that make me a "hater"?

Homosexuality is a punishable crime in a zillion countries, as is any activism on behalf of it. Punishable means prison. Punishable means death.

Funny thing here. The most anti-gay (as in executing them) groups in the world just happen to be Islamofascists. The same ones opposed by our government. That the supposedly "pro-gay" left hates. The same "fascist" government hated by ACT UP.

Funny that.

The U.S. government refused our requests that it protest after gay teenagers were hanged in Iran, but it protests many other foreign cruelties.

Funny, I seem to recall the U.S. givernment expressing a measure of outrage that Iran was executing gays. And I'm trying to remember the last time the U.S., or any state government therein, executed a homosexual for being gay.

Who cares if a faggot dies?

Well normally I do, but I'm willing to make an exception for San Franciscan leftards.

Parts of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. are joining with the Nigerian archbishop, who believes gays should be put in prison. Episcopalians! Whoever thought we'd have to worry about Episcopalians?

Who, indeed? Terrible shame that Episcopalians are currently exercising their dictatorial powers and putting gays in prison.

Oh, wait...

Well, whoever thought we'd have to worry about Florida? A young gay man was just killed in Florida because of his sexual orientation.

Yeah, and? It happens all over, and not just for sexual orientation. Maybe you should consider buying a gun. After all, armed gays don't get bashed. Or does that offend your little liberal sensitivities?

I get reports of gays slain in our country every week. Few of them make news. Fewer are prosecuted.

Unlike every other category of crime in the whole country.

Do you consider it acceptable that 20,000 Christian youths make an annual pilgrimage to San Francisco to pray for gay souls?

Um, yeah. I also consider it foolish, misguided, and borderline retarded. But I don't consider it particularly hateful.

This is not free speech.

Yeah, it is. Unless you're a moron living in San Francisco.

But I repeat myself.

This is another version of hate. It is all one world of gay-hate. It always was.

Lordy. What a fucking pity party.

Gays do not realize that the more we become visible, the more we come out of the closet, the more we are hated.

Well, maybe you could do better than to let yourselves be represented in the media by these folks. 'Cause I gotta tell you, man, they don't put your best foot forward when you you want to convince the fence sitters. In fact, I still maintain that the cause of gay marriage would be advance by nuking San Freaky.

Now, if you want some better representatives for gays, try this guy. And this gal. And this guy. And this gal. And this guy. And these guys.

Don't those of you straights who claim not to hate us have a responsibility to denounce the hate?

I do denounce the hate. I just accept that some things I disagree with are not best described as "hate".

Why is it socially acceptable to joke about "girlie men" or to discriminate against us legally with "constitutional" amendments banning gay marriage?

Don't juxtapose unrelated items. Jokes about "girlie men" are fine and have nothing to do with being gay. And I don't support those constitutional amendments. Rather I support Mark Leno's efforts. Does that make me a "hater"?

Because we cannot marry, ...

You said you didn't want to marry.

... we can pass on only a fraction of our estates,

... Get your facts straight, man.

...we do not have equal parenting rights...

Jeez. Even a leftist should be able to pull this one apart.

and we cannot live with a foreigner we love who does not have government permission to stay in this country.

Um, you can't live with any foreigner who doesn't have government permission to stay in this country.

These are the equal protections that the Bill of Rights proclaims for all?

Uh, no, that wouldn't be the Bill of Rights. It would be the 14th Amendment. And like it or not, it doesn't always apply to what you want.

Why do you hate us so much that you will not permit us to legally love?

Who's stopping you from "legally loving"? The only thing that you're stopped from is marrying. And you don't want that, remember?

I am almost 72, and I have been hated all my life, and I don't see much change coming.

Then, you're a dumbass. Homosexuality went from being illegal in (probably) every jurisdiction in this country, to having those laws overturned and having some form of civil unions recognized in several states, in barely more than three decades. Younger people are more inclined to support gay marriage than older people, and they will be moving into positions of power in the near future.

And yet you "don't see much change coming". That's pretty sad.

I think your hate is evil.

I seem to remember hearing this sentiment, expressed in pretty much the same words, in third grade.

What do we do to you that is so awful?

Let me count the ways:

You whine like a baby instead of recognizing true progress and working for more.

You wring your hands over gay-bashing but you won't defend yourself, and your political organizations approve of efforts to disarm all of us.

You align yourselves with a political party that seems to have a strange, schizoid obsession with homosexuality. And I don't mean in a good way.

You and your leftist friends seem to like to align yourselves with the Islamofascists that hate this country as much as you seem to. And who, BTW, hate gays.

In fact, the entire political agenda of too many of your organizations seem to be little more than a regurgitation of the lunatic left, and have done gays a grave disservice. If you want groups that would serve you better, you might take a look at these guys. Not to mention these guys.

Why do you feel compelled to come after us with such frightful energy?

"Frightful energy"? I'm way too tired and overworked to give a rat's patoot.

Does this somehow make you feel safer and legitimate?

No. I feel safer knowing that I can protect myself and my family from criminals. I feel less safe knowing that you and your leftist friends are trying to take away my right to do that.

What possible harm comes to you if we marry, or are taxed just like you, or are protected from assault by laws that say it is morally wrong to assault people out of hatred?

Once again speaking truth to dolts...

1) Somewhere around 40% of straights favor gay marriage

2) You are taxed exactly the same, except for the deferral of estate taxes (and the marriage penalty, which I think you should have to pay too)

3) You are already legally protected from assault as much as anyone else. But I find it weird to consider it "morally wrong" to be assaulted out of hatred, rather than to be assaulted out of...er...anything else.

The reasons always offered are religious ones, but certainly they are not based on the love all religions proclaim.

Well, some religions. Some others make no pretense at all, but you and your lefty friends keep making excuses for them.

And even if your objections to gays are religious, why do you have to legislate them so hatefully?

WTF?

Make no mistake: Forbidding gay people to love or marry is based on hate, pure and simple.

Uh, no. Ignorance, maybe. Excessive adherence to traditionalism, maybe. But "hate"? No, you need to produce a little more evidence for that, man.

You may say you don't hate us, but the people you vote for do, so what's the difference?

I didn't vote for anyone who hates gays.

Our own country's democratic process declares us to be unequal.

Than perhaps you should work a little harder at effecting change, instead of the foolish, counterproductive, and potentially dangerous antics ACT UP is famous for.

Which means, in a democracy, that our enemy is you.

So people like me who support gay marriage are your enemy because we are outvoted?

You treat us like crumbs. You hate us. And sadly, we let you.

Oh, so you admit that it's your fault.

Snark aside, if you don't like it here because gays can't get married you can always try another country, like France. Or maybe you could recognize the rather telling fact that in this country we debate whether gays should be allowed to marry; in some others, they debate the proper method of execution.

And seriously, dude, check out these guys. Because armed gays don't get bashed.

Posted by Ken S at March 20, 2007 07:18 PM | TrackBack (0) |