Orlando’s LGBT community comes together to grieve - We are all grieving with you, my friends and family.
What We Know About The Orlando Shooting Victims - Never forget. I won't.
Defeating ISIS Would Not Prevent Violence Against LGBT People - In THIS country, there is awful rhetoric against my lgbt brothers and sisters. We can't let it pass. No one can.
Anti-LGBT Pastor Steven Anderson Applauds Orlando Massacre: 'There's Fifty Less Pedophiles In The World' - Like this. And this is an overt example. There are so many covert examples, i.e. "morality" groups working steadily to deny lgbts our equality and rights. Relying on fear tactics of "recruitment" and "bathroom predators" to gain their ends. Lies in the name of God are still lies.
Finally, last night at the Tony Awards, Lin Manuel Miranda read a powerful sonnet he wrote for Orlando while accepting his award for Best Score for Hamilton:
Thank you for all you do to call out the hatred and bigotry in our society. Do not allow this tragedy to be hijacked by the politicians and religious right!
ReplyDeleteI live in a small town in New Mexico, but we here stand in solidarity with LGBT folks throughout the country and the world. Thank you for allowing comments. I feel compelled to share my anguish and grief and anger as I have done on my Facebook page, uppercase letters and all:
MOURNING THE DEAD IN ORLANDO FLORIDA. AND OUR THOUGHTS ARE WITH THE WOUNDED. OUR HEARTS ACHE FOR LOVED ONES AND THE FAMILIES OF THE DEAD AND WOUNDED.
ENOUGH VIOLENCE, ENOUGH HATRED, ENOUGH INTOLERANCE. ENOUGH!
And I would add so much gratitude for the brave men and women, both civilians and professionals who assisted the wounded without regard for their own lives and safety. Truly heroes.It is time for ALL religious leaders to condemn hatred and violence toward Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Persons WITHOUT RESERVATION AND WITH CREDIBLE ACTION.
IT IS TIME TO LEAVE BEHIND LEVITICUS and CORINTHIANS and HEBREWS, and the rest of the biblical poetry, AND STOP PERSECUTING US. ENOUGH!
This heinous act may have been inspired by a distorted version of Muslim teaching, but there are distorted versions of Christianity and other religions that inspire hate and violence toward us as well.
Religions MUST figure out theologies or philosophies that are compatible with our inherent dignity as human beings, with our civil rights and with civil respect or THEY SHOULD HOLD THEIR PEACE (i.e. shut up).
We cannot allow religious extremists or even religious conservaives to define the dialogue or the laws or the culture of this diverse nation. ENOUGH! It is not ENOUGH to PREACH "LOVE"
If religious leaders and other people of faith who have not yet realized that their teachings are dangerous and hurtful, then THEY ARE JUST AS RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE TRAGIC DEATHS as the gunman. AND THE NRA and all the Republican legislators who they've bought. BLOOD IS ON THEIR HANDS AS WELL.
Watching news coverage almost non-stop, I am just so outraged that this could happen, especially in view of all of the bullshit that we've been going through since we got marriage equality. And yes the availability of guns is a big issue, but people must realize that people shooting a gun, nay an assault weapon, generally have a target and the belief that LGBT people are evil makes us an easy, convenient and expendable target. I am outraged and angry. I know I will probably cry a river when the reality hits over the next week, with funerals and outpouring of grief. But right now, ENOUGH!
I dread the upcoming week, not for the 50 funerals, not for the tears and sadness that will pour out as we are faced daily with the reality of the tragedy in Orlando, but for what is sure to be the twisted rhetoric from politicians and pundits who will try minimize the fact that this massacre was an act of hate aimed specifically at the LGBT Community. Some are already trying to hijack the conversation to make it about anything but violence toward the LGBT Community. We will not let the fact that a significant culture of outright hatred and bigotry toward LGBT persons, most often nourished by religious fundamentalism of various stripes, gives permission for people who share those sentiments to express their hatred more and more vehemently and to perpetrate violence to us. We must NOT let them get away with hatred in the guise of "religious freedom" nor should we ever, ever, let hateful rhetoric overshadow our love. Because the LOVE THAT DARED NOT SPEAK ITS NAME HAS DARED TO DO SO and WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED.
I am a regular reader here and I wanted to thank you for all that you do.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate all the work/effort you put into keeping us informed.
Frank, your comment addresses what so many of us are feeling.
Thank you for taking the time to put it into words.
love will win..
Jen