Stop using the scars of hatred to justify further hate

Ok we have something to be pissed off about with a Catholic group known as The American Society for the Preservation of Tradition, Family, and Property (and, y’know, I want to thank them for having such a clear name. Let’s face it, the minute I saw the name I knew that NOTHING these people said would fail to annoy me) is saying stupid things about DADT.

Right wing Catholic political organisation is made up of homophobic bigots? SAY IT ISN’T SO! I mean, conservative Catholics have also brought us the idea that hating gay people was more important than caring for orphans and kids in care, and respond to a peaceful protest using affection gestures with threats of violence that the police don’t feel they can protect us from so a certain level of hateful wtfery is expected, right?

So no, this isn’t a rant about Catholic homophobia. I can save that for a slow news day (if I ever start to feel calm and relaxed in the world, I can always rely on the Pope to raise my blood pressure) this is a rant about one of the common refrains within said piece that annoy me a lot.

Specifically – the habit of using the results of homophobia as validation for homophobia. Because that hacks me off – using the results of our victimisation to victimise us? It’s like a perpetual cycle of persecution.

In this case the group doesn’t want gays in the military because if gays are shot they will spread their diseased gay blood all over the clean straight soldiers and infect them.

Oh yes – see, the STD infection rate is so much higher among gays that our “lifestyle” (oh how I hate that term. What I am is not a lifestyle!) should be better referred to as a “deathstyle” (Not an original term, but do yourself a favour and do NOT google it. Really.) The higher STD infection rate among gay men is used to justify discriminating against us.

Which rather ignores that when HIV first came onto the scene it was largely ignored as a “gay disease” and left to fester for so very long. Which ignores the fact that persecution of gays has been so bad that for a very long time, in many places and even today anonymous hook ups and cruising were the only real option for gays to  have any sexual contact, and that the harsh realities of the closet mean many men are still seeking sexual expression under a cloak of secrecy. Add in that the same cloak of secrecy is going to make many reluctant to seek medical help, proper advice and proper preventative measures (and the general AWFUL level of sex-education generally and gay sexual education in particular) and finish off with a big load of societal homophobia saying that that anonymous hook ups are all that gays can hope for and DING, we have a combined recipe for high STD levels.

Or, to sum up, they are using the RESULTS of homophobia to justify homophobia.

Another classic example? Anti-gay groups like NARTH, Focus on the Family, the BNP, Stormfront, Christian Voice, numerous churches – and so many many others – are all joyous to point out that rates of mental illness among GBLT people is higher than among straight, cisgendered people. They’ll also gleefully point to addiction rates and even suicide rates as proof that the “gay lifestyle” is unhealthy. (I’ve debated but I’m not going to link to their sites – giving hate groups traffic is not on my to do list. Besides, googling “mental illness and homosexuality” will give you plenty of hits to depress you for the rest of the year)

So, GBLT people are attacked and persecuted by homophobia, often suffer from various degrees of internalised homophobia and are, let’s be very frank here, often mentally and emotionally scarred from a young age, by homophobia, heterosexism and self-hatred… and this is used as a justification to persecute us some more by the hate groups.

This is another dishonest tactic that is stunning in its cruelty. The scars of our victimisation cannot be exploited as an excuse to victimise us further The wounds of homophobia do not justify further homophobia.

The haters cannot be allowed to continue to exploit our pain to hurt us further. If they truly cared – as they claim – about the suffering of gays then they would stop hurting us and help us – or just leave us to – heal.