Maybe itâs just me.
In 2001 it was not New Yorkers under attack. It was not businessmen, it was not stock brokers. It was westerners, it was free men and women, it was Americans.
In Orlando it was not gays or lesbians that were attacked.Â
It was westerners.Â
It was free men and women.
It was Americans.
I see but do not understand the vastly different responses our society has had to these two events. I do not like it at all and I very much do not agree. We were all Americans then, why canât we all just be Americans now?
BECAUSE IT IS PRIDE MONTH AND PRIDE WEEK AND THE LGBTQ+ community have separate clubs to stay away from ignorance and violence against them and an OPENLY homophobic man shoots up a GAY club kills 50 and seriously injured 53 (I donât know if the number has gone up). If youâre gonna post about it bothering how people shouldnât be labeling it a GAY hate crime but are not bothered about the fact that these LGBTQ+ people died and are constantly scared for their lives, you have a problem.
People seem to be more bothered about the fact that weâre emphasizing it was a GAY club and not just a club than they are that these people were killed at a place they were supposed to feel safe at. I wonder why it would bother someone to say it was a gay club. It sounds like the whole âgay people are throwing it in our facesâ trope conservatives say when you guys say things like âWhy does the media emphasize it was a gay club and not just say it was a club? Donât they want gays to be equal?â It sounds whiny like âUgh why are they throwing it in our faces that these poor victims were gay?!â
STOP TRYING TO ERASE THE FACT THAT THIS WAS VIOLENCE SPECIFCALLY TARGETTING THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY.
You have worked to help prove my point, despite clearly not understanding it in the first place. I am bothered by our attacks on each other and complete failure to identify the actual issues at hand, as you have so clearly done.
I am not trying to erase the fact it was a gay club, I mourn because 49 free people (the 50th death was the killer) were killed while practicing the right to live their life as they see fit. It is not important if I agree or disagree with their choices or even what those choices are so long as they are not harming others. In America they had the right to do as they wished and I support that right and they should most certainly not have been attacked for doing so. I understand for many the fact it was a gay club makes it feel closer to home and more personal. I am not saying it should be erased, I am only saying overall it is not the most important fact of the situation and it should not be an focus of the story or coverage.
I am bothered by the emphasis that it was a gay club because it is being used to deny the truth of the situation, it was an attack on freedom as a whole, an attack on infidels, carried out by someone who was not just homophobic but Islamic of the same strain as daesh and those who behead Christians and throw homosexuals off rooftops to their death, with their government and religion sanctioning those activities.
If you want to get into the month being important I must say I agree, to a point. I do not think Gay Pride month had a great deal to do with it however, instead the fact that it is Ramadan is likely a large factor, at least in terms of timing.
And, to use the yelling caps you seem fond of to perhaps make my point in a way you may be more able to understand; STOP TRYING TO ERASE THE FACT THAT THIS WAS VIOLENCE SPECIFICALLY CARRIED OUT IN THE NAME OF ISLAM. Because, overall, who and why this was done is much more important than the specific flavor of freedom that was targeted this time. Believe me, so long as we continue to respond by working to disarm ourselves and blame each other they will have plenty of opportunities to get around to attacking every type of freedom you can think of.
Iâm so tired of you all trying to brush over minorities being murdered saying itâs actually an attack on this or itâs actually an attack on that. An openly racist shot up a black church admitting he did it because âtheir people are ruining our country and raping our womenâ and people said it was an attack on religion, not black people. A guy who, before shooting up a gay club killing 49 people, did so because he got so angry and tired of seeing gay men kissing, and people are saying it was an attack on western culture and American ideals and blah blah blah. Yes, it was an attack on freedom, the freedom for someone to love and be with whoever they want. It was an attack on homosexuality. That was the main reason and so yes, it should be emphasized tremendously.
These hateful attacks done by extreme racists, homophobes, sexists should be seen for what they are, an attack on minorities finishing the never ending American tradition of excluding and allowing violence towards blacks, LGBT people, women, Hispanics, Nativeâs.
Most people just donât want to acknowledge that most are still very racist, sexist, homophobic, & transphobic, so they opt for the opinion that the shooter was a threat to something else, mostly fitting their agenda. For example, racist Christians claimed the shooter of the black church was attacking Christianity and not so much African Americans, even though he stated his reasoning before opening fire on the church members. It fits their agenda of Christianity being attacked, and at the same time they donât have to acknowledge that black people are still mistreated so they can continue being racist. Trust me, I live with these people who claim this.
What I find funny (I donât actually find it funny) is that Christians are now trying to use this to hide their homophobic views and trying to play the âbetter guyâ by saying at least they are not as extreme as a murderer. They are saying they are not murderers of homosexuals like âthose damn Muslimsâ to protect themselves because they know damn well they are just as hateful towards the LGBT community without killing them. They are playing the âoh they are human beings too they shouldnât be killed even if I donât agree with them,â which to me shows some problems. First, a person who acknowledges a literal human beingâs humanity should not be given brownie points for decency. Congratulations on seeing gay people are people too, but theyâre still a homophobe sorry. Second, on any other given day they are making hateful comments about LGBT and being just as violent with their words by saying God will punish them and burn them in hell with Satan. Also, claiming the Quran is accepting of murdering homosexuals and that shows their religion is more hateful than Christianity, but suddenly forget that one of the most quoted bible verses used as an argument against homosexuality says gays shall be stoned to death. As my grandfather said just today, âHomosexual lifestyles are running American familiesâ when a few minutes later he was saying how hateful Islam was towards homosexuals. He is trying to say they are worse than Christians and so homophobic, when he makes disgusting homophobic comments all the time saying they will burn in hell. Also, I should mention that the shooterâs father said his son shouldnât have punished homosexuals but God shall punish them and this bothers me and angers me as well and is just as violent thinking as the actual shooter. So yeah, many homophobic people are trying to pin point this on something else because they cannot admit that people with their beliefs still openly hate on minorities. Itâs always been this way. People will say their main motivation for a hate crime, and the public still questions it because apparently they think social inequalities are a thing of the past and the motivation has to be something totally different than hate towards a minority group.
The fact that it had more of a negative effect on the LGBTQ community should be proof enough that because it was a gay club it should be put out there every single time it is mentioned. Society needs to see how unsafe it is for us out there just to be ourselves. We are literally scared to hold hands with our partners in public because of past instances where our peers have been beaten up, murdered, and ridiculed for it. We are scared to go to LGBT areas because it happens more often than you think that a very angry person comes by and starts yelling slurs that have to be escorted out. We are scared to come out to family because of the risk of cutting you off or sending their kids to conversion therapy camp that furthers misery. We are scared of losing our jobs, our health care, our protection because of our sexualities and gender identities. We are not taken seriously enough already, and maybe just maybe theyâll take us seriously if they see our gay bars being shot at resulting in the lives of 49.
Iâm sure itâs easy for non-LGBT people to say it was an attack on other things. We shouldnât be silenced. We are scared. If we want to emphasize our community being killed still in the year 2016, that is not for you to shut down and silence us even more.
I am pointing my finger and I am blaming homophobic ideologies ingrained and intoxicating these peopleâs minds. I am blaming extreme religions and their hate they think is justified. I am way more scared and effected as a member of the LGBT community, and not so much as an American citizen. Wanna know why? This country before the past recent years has never worked hard to ensure the safety of homosexuals and allowed violence, hatred, and breaking the amendment that allows freedom of religion, just to make sure LGBT people are not treated equally and fairly. Their freedom was never there until recently. They are guilty of the hate and murders of people like me in past generations. As an American citizen, if this was only a year ago, I wouldnât of had the freedom to marry another woman anyway. The only freedom I felt I lost is the ability to feel safe enough to go to LGBT spaces without risking my life.
Starting off with an unrelated fyi, the theme you have chosen for your tumblr makes any text you post practically impossible to read. I had to open this as a reblog to even be able to see what youâd said.
After reading, I wonder though if you are not understanding my point or are simply choosing to ignore it in favor of discussing issues that are loosely or not actually related. I will reiterate for a final time that I am not trying to brush over or ignore anything or silence anyone, in fact I am complaining about important facts being brushed over in favor of others that are less important.Â
In this instance, like many others, but not all, the important thing to understand is the motivation by radical islamic jihad. That absolutely trumps and is more important than the type of freedom under attack because that ideology will attack any and all freedoms and we need to understand that is what motivated this vile person to carry out a horrible attack so that we can understand the issue and work to try to prevent or minimize as much as possible things like this happening again.
In the context of this terrorist event I do not care much at all what Christians do or say, nor do I care who the victims chose to have sex with or most anything else they may have done or not done in their day to day lives. Because the important fact is that they were killed because of Islam and considering Christians or homosexuals or gun bans or any other thing you can mention that may well be true about this incident does not in any way help to understand the motivation to carry it out or provide any assistance in preventing such attacks in the future. That would include, to a degree, even the specific reasoning behind selecting this particular target.
I mourn for those lost and those injured, because they did not deserve to be killed or attacked, not because of any group they may or may not have been a member of. And I want to work to save anyone else from having a similar thing happen to them, again regardless of any group affiliation. I am saddened by our societyâs insistence to categorize by group at all but much more so in situations like this where we focus more on that than we do determining true root cause and prevention. I wish it was an attitude that did not exist, although I thank you for some great examples demonstrating exactly what I am talking about.
I also find it interesting to compare and contrast, when a shooter claims motivation from what some clearly already believe is motivating him they believe him without question and use it as a basis for arguments and even bans and attempts to pass legislation. Yet when a shooter claims motivation and group affiliation that is contrary to the pre-determined conclusions they ignore or, at best, cherry pick from those comments to again attempt to form arguments or push legislation. Personally my primary goal in response to these incidents is to determine how to lessen them in the future, so I believe it is always important to look at the motivations and groups of the perpetrators and in this case many have decided the group of the victims is more important, despite the fact it does little to nothing to help prevent reoccurrence. And I have a problem with that for the very simple reason that it helps others with similar Islamic views to be more likely to be able to carry out other, similar attacks.
