Sunday, August 23, 2009

From the Archives: Jesse Dirkhising and Mary Stachowicz : Pawns in the game

From July 18, 2007 :

In 1999, a 13-year-old boy by the name of Jesse Dirkhising was raped and murdered by two men

In 2002, mother of four, Mary Stachowicz, was viciously raped and murdered.

These two crimes are terrible in and by themselves but the repercussions continue to be felt by people who had nothing to do with the cases.

You see, the men who killed Dirkhising were gay. And the man who killed Stachowicz was allegedly gay. Supposedly he killed her after she continued to question his orientation.

There is no excuse for the murders of Dirkhising and Stachowicz. Having lost my father to violence, I know the grief and pain of having a murdered love one. I know that no matter how many years passes, these emotions never go away.

But like I said in a past column, I would be angry if my father's death was used to distort world views. And unfortunately, since my father's murderers were African-American (like he and myself), I am sure that there are some racists out there who have used his murder to denigrate black people on the whole.

When Dirkhising was murdered, he became a cause celebre to the anti-gay industry.

Rather than focus on the fact that a child was murdered, they focused on the orientation of the murderers.

They claimed that because the murderers were gay, the media were hesitant to pursue the story. This was a lie of course, but when have you ever known the anti-gay industry to be truthful about our community.

Our friend Peter LaBarbera had field day with the case, even devoting a special web page to the sordid affair, complete with a picture of Dirkhising.

Please bear in mind that since Dirkhising's death, there have been several high profile cases of murdered children, including that of Samantha Runnion and Dantrell Davis; the latter one happening when Davis was caught in gunfire while walking to school.

Strangely enough, the anti-gay industry did not talk about these stories.

Probably because the perpetrators weren't gay.

Nor is it known whether or not they have pushed for laws that would protect children from predators, whether these predators are gay or heterosexual.

And I definitely know that none of them have vocal on gang violence, except for that recent ridiculous moral panic on "lesbian gangs."

But just as he hysterically pushed the Jesse Dirkhising case as an example of the "gay menace" towards children, LaBarbera is claiming that Mary Stachowicz murder proves that lgbts should not be added to hate crimes legislation.

Never mind that the case had nothing to do with hate crimes, but of a young mentally ill young man who took his aggression out on an innocent women.

But who cares about the facts when you have something you can exploit.

And what else can you expect from a man who has a page on his web site devoted to the "Victims of Homosexuals Murderers."

Don't forget to ask for donations, Peter.

It's sad when someone's life is taken away due to violence.

It's even worse when someone uses those crimes to attack people not even involved.

And it's equally sad that lgbts are not judged by our contributions to society but by the criminal behavior of a few who share our orientation.




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7 comments:

  1. Bill S6:18 AM

    To this day it boggles my mind that anti-gay wingnuts use the Dirhising murder to villify the entire lgbt communti. The ONLY context in which his murder is ever discussed is in relation to hate crimes laws. To, in fact, suggust that if we DON'T allow gay people to be murdered, they'll murder children. That's what they're aiming for. To plant THAT idea in peoples' heads.
    It's truly sickening.

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  2. It's funny how you state that "you'd be mad if your fathers case was used to distort world views" But made no mention of the Matthew Sheppard case which was and now is! funny how when the agenda works for you, you just ignore it and when it does not work for you,you make a blog and criticize anyone with differing views even if they are correct!

    In your best friend Obama's new law will there be justice for Christians when we are persicuted by Gay's?

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  3. Neo,

    forgive me if I am rude, but your ramblings make no sense. I can't make heads or tails of what you are saying except for that claim about Christians being harmed by hate crimes legislation.

    That is inaccurate because hate crimes legislation punishes action not speech. Also, there is already hate crimes legislation in the case of religion. If this is okay, then why isn't it okay to have hate crimes legislation in the case of sexual orientation and gender identity?

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  4. Well I should point out that the homosexual community is just as guilty of lying to promote their own agenda. Take for example the 1998 murder of Mathew Shepard.
    The gay community has turned him into an absolute martyr, claiming his murder was hate motivated because he was gay. Where as the murderers admitted that it was only a robbery that went bad. The fact he was gay had nothing to go with it. A statement that has been ignored by the gay community because of their need for martyrs to promote the gay agenda. Harvey Milk as well has been promoted to saint hood. But he simply didn’t get out of the way of an armed man (who’d already committed 1 murder) fast enough.

    Weather you like it or not, neither side is neutral. The gay community is just as guilty of twisting facts to promote their cause.

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  5. ACTUALLY, only one claimed so AFTER conviction. Before, both them and their girlfriends said that Shepard's sexual orientation was the motivating factor in his murder.

    So you believe convicted murderers and accessories to murder?

    And Milk's orientation led to the disagreement between him and his murderer. Look it up.

    With all due respect, Greg. You really need tot look up actual information rather than religious right talking points, particularly in the case of Shepard

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  6. Well there you go…see I thought I had researched it. But this is the point I was trying to make. Nobody is neutral anymore. Before I get into this, I wanted to thank you for posting my response. It does have an anti-homosexual tone to it, but you posted it anyway. Many bloggers won’t post things that they perceive as negative to their beliefs or lifestyle.

    60+ years ago you could count on the news to be reported in an unbiased manner. But today, reporting the news is anything but unbiased. They learned around the time of the Vietnam War that by filtering the news somewhat, they could shape public opinion. Don’t report this, over report that, and take liberties with the facts. Today’s reporter’s ethics are completely out the window. Now they report what ever is in the best interests of the agenda held by the syndicate they work for.

    As a result, look at the society around us. The news media makes one people group out to be saints, and another to be tyrants. Then a different news media makes the saints to be tyrants and the tyrants to be saints. Pitting them against one another. We are what we read, and what we read can’t be trusted.

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  7. Greg, nothing is ever neutral. Look up the phrase "yellow journalism." If I'm not incorrect, it dates back to the 1920s. Everything has a degree of bias, but we must always cut through it and find the facts.

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