SHOCKING NEWS - BUT WHO ARE THE GUILTY ONES?

I am shocked, dismayed, worried, and furious. Except that our anguish should be over our continuing failure to change the attitudes of millions of people, and by some aberrant kind of social acceptance, often backed by the “credibility” of religious belief, we validate the grotesque attitudes of homophobia..

Most of us are upset over the latest homophobic attack in New York. Millions of Americans are horrified that this could happen in their country. Politicians and public figures are quick to show their anger and dismay. But the threat to the homosexual is constant, continuing, and in spite of the expressions of horror, all too prevalent. I will not accuse anyone of crocodile tears, because I believe they are sincere. However, they are also naïve.

The suspects are being charged with hate crimes. America, waving the flags of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (most Americans can't distinguish between the two) are reluctant to brand ethnic or sexual hatred as a crime, since there is a Constitutional Amendment that guarantees freedom of speech. Seems not to consider “freedom” even it is a threat to someone else’s life and limb, and a clarion call for others to join the hatred.

I used to feel the same way when Trudeau patriated our Constitution and we added the Charter of Right and Freedoms. My concern then, and it still is, that judgements have been taken out of common law and the courts and put into indelible statutes.

But beyond the quibbling about “rights” guaranteed by any form of legislation, is the awful truth: homophobia is alive and well in America, and to perhaps the same extent in Canada supposedly a more tolerant country. Americans should not allow their naiveté to intrude on reality. The evangelicals almost unanimously militate against homosexuality sometimes piously claiming to “love” these poor “lost souls.” The Catholic Church damns it. The Armed Forces cling to “don’t ask, don't tell.” And hundred of fine citizens are picketing armed forces funerals with signs protesting against the lifting of the “don’t ask don’t tell” provision.

I am not at all certain that there are many of those homophobes who would not, they say, countenance violence, who quietly cheered for the suspects in the New York beatings.

I remember in my Open Line radio days having conversations with people who would say: “I don’t believe in homosexuality.” Believe it or not my friend, you have no say in the matter. It is a fact in our society and the sooner we stop kidding ourselves, the sooner there will be acceptance. And perhaps the teenage guys who think they are being macho will stop using the word faggot. I’m waiting. Hey – we can’t even get them to stop smoking!