Do You Recognize Her?

This is Malala Yousufzai, the fourteen-year-old girl who was shot in Pakistan on her way to school because she was attending school.  She was defying what the religious extremists had declared as proper in the eyes of God.

I was commenting on Facebook today.  A longtime friend from high school who is a partnered lesbian posted a current meme pleading with her friends and families that if they love her they would not consider voting for Republicans.  It links to a Huffington Post article entitled The Big Lie: I Love My Gay Friends, But I'm Voting For Romney Anyway.

My comment on the thread was, "Been slowly cutting ties with alleged friends that turn out to be Republican..."  The next comment was by Ed, someone who I am presuming to be Republican.  He responded, "Unbelievable that such thinking in the last post could exist. Words just can't describe that level of mouth-breathing, degenerate mentality."  

I only stated that I am no longer considering Republicans to be "friends." (Excuse me while I pause to wipe the fog off my lap top screen from my degenerate mouth-breathing.)  If perhaps you agree with Mr. Ed that my comment was that unbelievable over the top that he is left speechless or if you are Mr. Ed himself who I intend to invite over here to have a read, then perhaps the rest of this post will explain myself.

Let's go back to the image of Malala.  Her desire for equality, her challenge to the theocratic status quo, was deemed so threatening that they attempted to assassinate her as an example to any other uppity women taking the American message of equality to heart.  You may wonder what that has to do with me?

Back in 1989 I was living in Florida attempting to find gainful employment.  For Halloween that year, the friend with whom I was staying and I drove down to Key West for the long weekend.  Two points here for background information.  (1)  Halloween is THE gay high holy day (well, at least for the boys), (2)  Key West is one of a few points on the map that is decidedly PINK (think San Francisco, Provincetown, Greenwich Village, West Hollywood...).

I was dressing up in this rather cheesy leather drag outfit...black pageboy wig, motorcycle cap, short black shorts, black nylons and garter belt, and HEELS.  I had gotten separated from my friends, either to make a trip to a rest room or some such thing and was walking back to be with them during the big Halloween Parade.  I was walking past this young man and his girlfriend when he gets in my face and points his finger up close and with an unbelievable level of hate dripping in his voice he informs me that I deserve to be shot.

Thankfully on this crowded street he didn't feel capable of carrying out his threat.  Imagine the embarrassment if they had to have laid me out in the morgue in THAT outfit.  I'm sorry but the only way I can still emotionally deal with that level of hatred is through black humor.

Earlier this year a North Carolina pastor preached that gays and lesbians should be rounded up and put into a camp until we die off.  The video of his sermon went viral.  There is a profound level of hate out there.  Hatred of gays and lesbians, hatred of transgendered folk, hatred of Muslims, hatred of undocumented Mexicans, hatred of African-Americans, especially the guy in the White House.

"Lock and load" and other quaint little tid bits of gun rhetoric are regularly used by the Right.  Lest we forget that infamous map with the gun sites over the politicians to be targeted, one being Democrat Gabby Giffords... Thanks be to God that she is alive today and can serve as a reminder to those who hate that we will not be silenced.

This past month was the anniversary of Matthew Shephard's death.  I could pull up the information on the physician who was murdered because he performed abortions.  The examples of right wing inspired violence goes on and on.

For me though it will always go back to that otherwise unremarkable young man who believed in his anger, disgust, and hatred that I deserved to die because I was gay.

Mr. Ed (the shocked man who feels I have no right to choose my friends based on politics) thinks that the gay thing is just another "issue" and one can't make a decision based on a single issue.  I'm sorry, Ed, but this is more than one issue.  This is part of platform that would grant increasing power to what can only be called The American Taliban.

Many people out there want to believe that Mr. Romney is really just a nice guy who's a bit misguided.  Well, that misguided, would-be President, chose as his running mate a politician who wishes to impose his conservative Roman Catholic beliefs on the rest of us.  The runner up in that God Awful beauty contest known as the Republican Primaries is non other than former Senator Rick Santorum (you can Google his name if you can't remember him, go on, you really should...).  He too is ready to impose socially conservative Roman Catholic ideology on us all.

It has been declared improper to bring up the National Socialist Party from history.  We are not allowed to see any comparisons between the rise to power of the Nazis and what is occurring in American politics today.  All I will say is that a significant number of otherwise good natured Germans repeatedly handed over power to one Adolph Hitler as the man who stood for a powerful Germany, who would bring the right kind of change so desperately needed, and who brought along some rather extreme social ideas as well.

No, I am not comparing Mitt Romney to Hitler.  He doesn't have nearly enough charisma.  He is simply a very spoiled, exceedingly rich, man who thinks it would be cool to be president  (another son with "daddy" issues).  However, there are some very frightening people in our country today who are waiting for the right individual so they can put on their brown shirts and start cleaning up this country.  These people are the "base" of Romney's support and they are armed and dangerous.

And so I am drawing a line in the sand for people who I deem to be my friends.  I cannot respect anyone who would pretend the hate isn''t there and vote Republican.  Mitt Romney has shown over and over that he is beholden to this extreme, tea bag right wing.  The man who kenneled his dog on the roof of his car would throw gays and lesbians under the bus if it meant he kept his hold on power.

If that isn't enough to convince you, then perhaps we should talk about what this means to women and girls.  If the Republicans take control of the Federal Government, how long before an American Malala is attacked on her way to school for being too uppity?  Peace.