Hometown Memories
Growing up in East Texas I have fond memories of beautiful places like Sam Rayburn Lake, summers at Crystal Beach, and canoeing with my dad on Village Creek. I have been so blessed and lucky in my life to have wonderful supportive parents...parents who back in the early eighties did stuggle with the news of my homosexuality.
While home with my father in late 2005, (who had just discovered that he would probably not live another year due to a rare cancer) I was very touched the day my parents ran out to vote AGAINST the ridiculous Texas anti-gay marriage amendment efforts to write discrimination into law. It was very obvious that we [gay peoples] would be clobbered due to the hateful agenda of the right wing Christians [disguised as family men] but I can't say that I have ever been more at home and felt so lucky to have two amazing and supportive parents.
You're always proud of where you came from despite some of the craziness you see around you when growing up. As conservative as my parents were on economic issues, I also found that they were progressive in regards to tolerance and inclusion of other races and religions. Im lucky in that because I know that hate breeds hate. Up until recently I had thought that my [GLBT] community might be only a generation/twenty years or so before most of the old bigoted people of the US were gone - as in D-E-A-D. [as in the Wizard of Oz song Ding Dong the Wicked Witch is DEAD!] Young kids just get it these days, they know gay people as their uncles and aunts and teachers and friends, and also from TV shows and networks like MTV who have done an amazing job to raise awareness about hate and intolerance in America.
I fell asleep early the night of the "stop the gays from marrying" election in Texas without even watching a return only to wake up in the bed in a cold sweat after a dream which included a cast of characters including Matthew Shepard, Paul Broussard, James Byrd, and a few other strangers from my childhood. Byrd was murdered about twenty miles from where I was sleeping, Matthew Shepard a thousand miles away in Wyoming, my sad bipolar Aunt Patsy who died years ago after being sucked into a Christian cult in Pensacola [after the pastor told her that she didnt need her medicine] ; my post college friend Paul Broussard from Houston who was later murdered by teenagers carrying baseball bats in Houston's gay neighborhood Montrose; and a Pentecostal girl who was in my sisters Brownie troop whose name I couldnt recall. It was a random scary dream that got me thinking about all of this hate in the area of Texas where I grew up and in America in general. After a lot of reading I could confirm something I already knew - that Hate Speech often results in Violence and even murder against the targeted minority group.
It really doesn't take a genius to connect the dots of hate in East Texas, or anywhere for that matter. I find it rather embarrassing that East Texas is known to be a bastion of intolerance and home to many white supremcist groups like the KKK of Vidor and Cleveland, Tx. As a kid I remember that big billboard as you drove into Jasper, Texas on the way to the Lake that read "Jasper, The Jewel of the Forest." Unfortunately little old Jasper, Texas (a city which was one of the least redneck of any of the little towns in East Texas in my opinion ) is now a city (and County) with a major image problem struggling to attract new industry and residents.
Is it any wonder that right wing terrorists shot a hole in the window of Planned Parenthood in Lufkin recently? Lufkin has a new organization named Vision America Mobilized, Inc which is run by a right wing preacher named Rev. Rick Scarborough. Scarborough selected Lufkin for his new headquarters, spreads his message to the local Rotary club, and organizes public rallies to save America from activist judges and gay marriages. Do speakers like Alan Keyes and Scarborough incite violence and gun shot holes into places like Lufkin's Planned Parenthood? Considering the company that they keep, and those they allow to speak and exhibit at their "Christian rallies" - you have to know that the answer here is absoultely, Yes! You just dont allow nationalist right wing folks into you church or conferences Dr. Scarborough who publish and write books adovcating the death sentence for gays and lesbians, or announce that Katrina might be due to America's gays and lesbians and/or jews.
Have you ever noticed how these right wing Christian fundies seem to be so sensitive when labeled homophobic, and how they get so angry when added to a Hate Watch List or being identified as a Hate Group? Have you been sick at your stomach lately when you see them in the news claiming that they are being persecuted in America (hell.... They've taken over and ruined the Republican Party, supposedly have weekly conference calls with President George Bush, have seen GB move literally Billions of dollars in social programs to their fundamentalist, often unlicensed Christian non profits, they control Congress, and on and on. I just don't get it.
Open minded People who consider themselves to be both Christian and Patriotic really should maybe dig a little deeper into these fundamentalist hate groups before they blow the window out of another Planned Parenthood Office, or before their mean spirited rhetoric ends the life of another Matthew Shepard, Paul Broussard, or James Byrd. Go out and buy a few of Rick Scarborough books at Amazon (..and don't spend more than 0.36 cents on any of the used books if possible) Go out and read "Kingdom Coming" by Michelle Goldberg, which is an excellent read. Do it before these uber right wing nutbag Dominionist preachers disguised as Christian Family men brainwashes the rest of America, before their little army of home-schooled bigots are old enough to vote, before you find yourself living in an America which has declared Christianity as the official and only allowed religion, before you find every public building plastered with the ten commandments, and before they attempt (and it will only be an attempt I can assure you) to crimininalize every aspect of life for GLBT people, or throw us in jail, or attempt to kill or "exterminate" us did Hitler.
Do it before the children of this Country are brainwashed and taught to hate by these so called Christians, their global TV and radio networks, and their cash heavy non profit organizations. Say yes to Values which support all families and no to the hate campaigns of people and groups like Alan Keyes, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Vision America, Rick Scarborough, Tom Delay, Ralph Reed, the KKK, the Conservative Citizens of America, Rick Santaorum, Ann Coulter, Gary Bauer, Phyllis Schafely, James Kennedy, Exodus Ministries, Love Won Out, the AFA, and their friends.
We need a Better Vision for America without the tired Un-Christian message of these off the chart right wing fools.
While home with my father in late 2005, (who had just discovered that he would probably not live another year due to a rare cancer) I was very touched the day my parents ran out to vote AGAINST the ridiculous Texas anti-gay marriage amendment efforts to write discrimination into law. It was very obvious that we [gay peoples] would be clobbered due to the hateful agenda of the right wing Christians [disguised as family men] but I can't say that I have ever been more at home and felt so lucky to have two amazing and supportive parents.
You're always proud of where you came from despite some of the craziness you see around you when growing up. As conservative as my parents were on economic issues, I also found that they were progressive in regards to tolerance and inclusion of other races and religions. Im lucky in that because I know that hate breeds hate. Up until recently I had thought that my [GLBT] community might be only a generation/twenty years or so before most of the old bigoted people of the US were gone - as in D-E-A-D. [as in the Wizard of Oz song Ding Dong the Wicked Witch is DEAD!] Young kids just get it these days, they know gay people as their uncles and aunts and teachers and friends, and also from TV shows and networks like MTV who have done an amazing job to raise awareness about hate and intolerance in America.
I fell asleep early the night of the "stop the gays from marrying" election in Texas without even watching a return only to wake up in the bed in a cold sweat after a dream which included a cast of characters including Matthew Shepard, Paul Broussard, James Byrd, and a few other strangers from my childhood. Byrd was murdered about twenty miles from where I was sleeping, Matthew Shepard a thousand miles away in Wyoming, my sad bipolar Aunt Patsy who died years ago after being sucked into a Christian cult in Pensacola [after the pastor told her that she didnt need her medicine] ; my post college friend Paul Broussard from Houston who was later murdered by teenagers carrying baseball bats in Houston's gay neighborhood Montrose; and a Pentecostal girl who was in my sisters Brownie troop whose name I couldnt recall. It was a random scary dream that got me thinking about all of this hate in the area of Texas where I grew up and in America in general. After a lot of reading I could confirm something I already knew - that Hate Speech often results in Violence and even murder against the targeted minority group.
It really doesn't take a genius to connect the dots of hate in East Texas, or anywhere for that matter. I find it rather embarrassing that East Texas is known to be a bastion of intolerance and home to many white supremcist groups like the KKK of Vidor and Cleveland, Tx. As a kid I remember that big billboard as you drove into Jasper, Texas on the way to the Lake that read "Jasper, The Jewel of the Forest." Unfortunately little old Jasper, Texas (a city which was one of the least redneck of any of the little towns in East Texas in my opinion ) is now a city (and County) with a major image problem struggling to attract new industry and residents.
Is it any wonder that right wing terrorists shot a hole in the window of Planned Parenthood in Lufkin recently? Lufkin has a new organization named Vision America Mobilized, Inc which is run by a right wing preacher named Rev. Rick Scarborough. Scarborough selected Lufkin for his new headquarters, spreads his message to the local Rotary club, and organizes public rallies to save America from activist judges and gay marriages. Do speakers like Alan Keyes and Scarborough incite violence and gun shot holes into places like Lufkin's Planned Parenthood? Considering the company that they keep, and those they allow to speak and exhibit at their "Christian rallies" - you have to know that the answer here is absoultely, Yes! You just dont allow nationalist right wing folks into you church or conferences Dr. Scarborough who publish and write books adovcating the death sentence for gays and lesbians, or announce that Katrina might be due to America's gays and lesbians and/or jews.
Have you ever noticed how these right wing Christian fundies seem to be so sensitive when labeled homophobic, and how they get so angry when added to a Hate Watch List or being identified as a Hate Group? Have you been sick at your stomach lately when you see them in the news claiming that they are being persecuted in America (hell.... They've taken over and ruined the Republican Party, supposedly have weekly conference calls with President George Bush, have seen GB move literally Billions of dollars in social programs to their fundamentalist, often unlicensed Christian non profits, they control Congress, and on and on. I just don't get it.
Open minded People who consider themselves to be both Christian and Patriotic really should maybe dig a little deeper into these fundamentalist hate groups before they blow the window out of another Planned Parenthood Office, or before their mean spirited rhetoric ends the life of another Matthew Shepard, Paul Broussard, or James Byrd. Go out and buy a few of Rick Scarborough books at Amazon (..and don't spend more than 0.36 cents on any of the used books if possible) Go out and read "Kingdom Coming" by Michelle Goldberg, which is an excellent read. Do it before these uber right wing nutbag Dominionist preachers disguised as Christian Family men brainwashes the rest of America, before their little army of home-schooled bigots are old enough to vote, before you find yourself living in an America which has declared Christianity as the official and only allowed religion, before you find every public building plastered with the ten commandments, and before they attempt (and it will only be an attempt I can assure you) to crimininalize every aspect of life for GLBT people, or throw us in jail, or attempt to kill or "exterminate" us did Hitler.
Do it before the children of this Country are brainwashed and taught to hate by these so called Christians, their global TV and radio networks, and their cash heavy non profit organizations. Say yes to Values which support all families and no to the hate campaigns of people and groups like Alan Keyes, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Vision America, Rick Scarborough, Tom Delay, Ralph Reed, the KKK, the Conservative Citizens of America, Rick Santaorum, Ann Coulter, Gary Bauer, Phyllis Schafely, James Kennedy, Exodus Ministries, Love Won Out, the AFA, and their friends.
We need a Better Vision for America without the tired Un-Christian message of these off the chart right wing fools.
1 comment:
Beautiful! ..and how true!
God bless our gay and lesbian children.
-texas pflag member
http://pflag.org
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