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The Equality Ride bus was defaced Thursday evening outside the hotel where Riders were in a planning meeting for their action on Friday at Lee University. As the meeting dispersed, Riders found pink letters scrawled across the side of the bus reading "Fags Mobile." The bus driver reported that he witnessed a middle-aged woman and a teenager drive away from the scene, possibly a mother and son. The vandalism and suspect description were reported to Cleveland police, who are investigating the crime.
"The attack on the bus is hate speech, plain and simple, spelled out for everyone to read," said Jacob Reitan, Equality Ride co-director. "But a more subtle form of hate speech happens when students at the schools we are visiting are told they are sick and sinful just for being the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people God made them to be."
15 Comments:
How very mature of that woman to bring her teenage son on a venture like that! I guess some people never evolve emotionally past High School.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/17/2006 11:35 AM
Past HIGH SCHOOL? Try second grade! Listen, these hicks are walking blobs of ignorance, and we should expect no less. I think a healthy way to look at it is to allow it to cause us to rededicate ourselves to becoming the smartest, kindest, most caring people that we can be.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/17/2006 12:13 PM
I guess I was thinking about the High School drama I survived. The cliques and taunting and whatnot.
I agree, that "rededicate(ing) ourselves to becoming the smartest, kindest, most caring people that we can be" is the best way to deal with this kind of thing.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/17/2006 12:39 PM
I think we can all just guess as to what type of person would actually go through the trouble of going to the hardware store, buying pink spray paint, and driving to a hotel parking lot and defacing a bus. Associating gay men with "pink" just goes to show the mind-set of these people. Really, be glad you're not them.
Raise your hands to the heavens and thank God Almighty that you're a part of a community of gay men and women who are thoughtful, caring, open-minded, educated, intellectual, kind-hearted and the type of loving, welcoming people that fundamentalists can only claim to be.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/17/2006 2:05 PM
I bet you won't hear a peep out of the Focus-oids on this. You know, the ones wailing and squealing about "gay activists" 'desecrating' their precious LWO signs in St' Louis.
That would be consistent, if they condemned this, too.. but, noooo... -SharonB
posted by Anonymous, at
3/17/2006 4:56 PM
Sharon,
I guess you could call me a "Focus-oid" although I would not classify myself that way. I pastor 2 churches here in Cleveland, TN where the bus was defaced and even heard members of my congregation laughing about it over dinner tonight. I will say here the same thing that I told them. This is a tough issue for me. Being a rather conservative Christian pastor on one side and having a best friend who is gay on the other may give me a unique perspective.
I believe that Lee University, as a private institution , has the right to exclude or include whomever they choose. On the other side of the issue, the riders have the right to do what they are doing. The vandalism was a criminal act plain and simple. It was against the laws of this land and, I believe, against the teaching of God. Patrick Henry said it better than I can: "I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
This is not an easy issue on any side. Traditions are torn down, rights are debated, people are left hurting or angry on either side. That is the nature of struggle whether it be the Nazi's struggling for "racial purity" or African Americans struggling for equal rights. Both sides are certain that they are right and the other wrong. I'm not sure either side in this battle holds the full truth. Atrocities will be committed by both sides and people on both sides will use those atrocities to justify their own actions. In the midst of it all I think that God must weep.
I ask myself, where is the love so passionately taught by Christ in all of this? I wonder where the Holiness he taught is found. I hurt for those disenfranchised on both sides. I think of those who used to live in gay relationships and gave it up because they believed that it was wrong. I think of those who are living now in gay relationships and believe that they are living the life God created them to live. I think of those who find homosexuality “an abomination” but yet try to love homosexuals anyway. I am saddened and angered by those who will find the sin in one person’s life but not in their own.
Should Lee University be forced to allow GLBT persons into their school? I don’t think that they should as long as they receive no government funding. Of course I also believe that if they want to exclude a practicing Satanist they should have that right. I would argue the same for a school that accepted no heterosexual students. While I myself would not perform a homosexual marriage, I believe that GLBT persons should have access to the same rights as heterosexuals, if you want to call it marriage, fine with me, just don’t tell me I have to perform it or allow it in my church (I also have no problem excluding heterosexual marriages that go against my beliefs even though I know they will find someone else to marry them).
Most of you would see me on the side of James Dobson and his Focus on the Family group. I don’t mind that. But don’t assume that because I would stand up for what I believe in, I would deny you the same right. Freedom is what made our nation great, far be it from me to deny it to anyone.
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