I've been quite busy the past 6 weeks with our move and the transition to civilian life but an article in the Globe forced my fingers to the keyboard. (I'll get to that in a minute.) For those who are interested, the L-T-C got a J-O-B and we are pretty much settled in to the new house. We are slowly getting to know the neighbors and the community. It's much easier to make friends on an army post when you start with so much in common already and you share a lawn ;-) but we are finding our way. I get teary eyed every time I see a soldier - a condition that shows no sign of letting up any time soon. All in all, the transition has been much easier than I thought, all of our worries and fears were proven unfounded and with most of the big changes behind us, I can honestly say that we've been richly blessed every step of the way.
Back to the headlines...
Police in Provincetown, Mass logged numerous complaints over the holiday weekend of some gay people showing their true colors. Some of them thought it was funny to 'insult' their straight neighbors by calling them "breeders". Another example of the "we want tolerance but only for ourselves" mentality.
First of all, "breeder" isn't an insult, it's a badge of honor. And you're damn lucky someone chose to breed or you wouldn't exist.
These complaints don't represent isolated events that occurred over the nation's birthday, other incidents are on record of gays publicly confronting citizens who signed petitions in support of traditional marriage. Earlier this year, I published a post about knowthyneighbor, the website that 'outs' people who support pro-traditional marriage legislation in an attempt to bully them into tolerating homosexuality. Guess what! One of the complaints addressed in the Globe article describes a the public confrontation of a petition signer by an offended gay man. He saw her name on the website's list and when he happened into her at a grocery store he called her a bigot. Ordinarily, people don't just accost one another and start name calling but that is the hate bred by the blatantly hate-promoting tactics of knowthyneighbor. They don't want to foster civil discourse. They want to focus and concentrate the anger and frustrations of Massachusetts gays at people who stand up for family values in order to intimidate them into quiet submission. Sounds tolerant, right?
Of the latter encounter, the homosexual juggernaut of tolerance and understanding, Rick Hines, is completely dismissive.
``I knew she signed the petition and I ran into her, and I gave her a piece of my mind," said Hines.
Hines added: ``After being pushed and prodded your whole life for being gay, you run into someone you know sees you as a second-class citizen and it's human to respond. . . . I regret that it happened that way."
Hines shows no real remorse for his behavior. Apparently, he has been on the receiving end of intolerance enough to deserve to heap it on someone else. His past victimizations are no excuse for his present behavior. And not condoning gay-marriage or even homosexuality is not the same as seeing someone as a second-class citizen. As a breeder, I've learned that there is a wide gap between condemning a person and condemning a behavior. If Mr. Hines were a breeder, he'd get that. When you can make a list of the civil rights that are violated by the government's refusal to sanction your sexual relationships, give me a call.
Now, you know, that if Rick Hines were ordering a mocha latte and someone walked up and called him a "pillow biter" there'd be a case pending and the ACLU would be arguing it for him. But never you mind that other petition signers have had manure spread on their lawns and that their names have been printed on fliers and stuck under windshield wipers all over town. That's all in the name of promoting public discourse and fostering tolerance.
