I blame myself

So while chipping the THING off every flat surface and trying to figure out how anyone makes dough that dries to becomes harder than pykrete I ask Beloved, who cleans with rather less skill than he cooks, to get some stewing meat and kidney out of the freezer to defrost over night so I can make stew – niice slooow cooked stew.

Wake up this morning. Open the little non-frozen baggies…

Kidney aaaand… haddock.

Haddock.

I have to say I’m impressed, he is excelling himself lately.

Hate speech has a cost

Let us be eternally clear that there is a link between hate speech and violence. Every time someone gives voice to their bile and hatred against us, every time they indulge in crass stereotyping, every time they let slurs pass their lips they cost us. And they cost us in blood. We can never “lighten up” over anti-gay rhetoric no matter what Quentin Jackson thinks.

We should not let grossly ridiculous hate pass, like Senator Orrin Hatch with his fool statements about gays not tithing and our religion being politics (we involve ourselves in politics for basic survival – mainly because of crusty bigots like himself).

Hate speech has a cost. Not just the verbal harassment. Not just in the slurs we have to face that make us so unsafe

But there is also a cost because it encourages violence and attacks, harassment, assault and pain, with entire areas being unsafe for us – and few places being truly safe.

We cannot deny this link – and sometimes it is made abundantly clear – like the Story of Ken Hutcherson and his campaign of hate that has been extremely well documented by Box Turtle Bulletin http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/ In addition of a horrific history of fighting gay rights at every turn, he has even opposed and encourage parents to keep their children home during the Day of Silence.

And a child has paid the price for that hate

Hate costs. Never forget that.