Why I stand with the LGBT community right now

13 years ago when I was in High School, my girlfriend at the time and I went for a walk holding hands after a band competition along the school grounds. At some point in an area that wasn't well lit we kissed. Within 20 seconds of us kissing 4 boys my age about 30 to 50 feet away started screaming anti-gay slurs saying they were going to kick our ass and coming towards us. I was quite confused as my girlfriend was very attractive and didn't know who they were talking to. For the band competition my Girlfriend's hair had to have been tied in a way that from a profile in the back it would be difficult to tell whether she was a girl or a boy. She was in the colorguard. Also the tights she was wearing under her jeans and the jacket she wore covered her very womanly figure. The 4 boys thought we were two guys kissing and I guess decided to kick our ass for it.

I was scared shitless at the prospect of having to fight 4 guys at once and got into my fight mode because flight was not an option as I feared for the saftey of my girl friend. When the boys got within 5 feet they were able to see that I had in fact been kissing a very beautiful girl and apologized and walked away. My girlfriend and I had a nervous laugh about it on the way home with me saying good thing you got such a beautiful face and that was the end of it really.

So, I learned for a very brief frightning 5 minutes what it might be like to be a gay American. However, at the end of the day that was just 5 minutes. I went back to having not to fear kissing a person I loved off a beaten track on a cold fall night.

The thing that got me most was the boys were so apologetic when they saw my girlfriend was in fact a girl. That if she had been a guy it would have been somewhat acceptable to harass us and beat me and her up. I to this day sometimes wonder what would have happened if she had been a guy and why it would have been acceptable for strangers to attack us if that had been the case.

So I don't understand what its like to be gay in America other than that experience however, because of that experience I don't think people should have to wait their turn or bite their lip or just deal with it and I understand that communities outrage and I will stand by them in their fight.

eom

We need each other in the quest for a fair and just Society.

for that little bit of time - I'm sorry we get to see inside that way too, that others just can't accept who we are. Maybe it's a shame that everyone doesn't get to feel that way for 5 minutes - they would never again scoff when we said, who would choose this and all that goes with it?

My brothers were both pretty cool with things right from the moment I came out - but my sister deferred to her husband who just can't seem to deal with it - their loss, the rest of the family comes together as often as possible.

But I'll never forget the look in his eyes when I finally just came out and asked him how much better the sex would have to be over the kind he got now to choose to get thrown out of his house, beaten, killed, jailed, fired or spit upon.

oh wait he probably did except the difference was it was because of the color of his skin...that's why this blows my fucking mind right now.

people like his parents from marrying and mixing the races.

has to face harrassment and beating for who they are and who they love and I'm sorry that some people on here who are supposed to be your allies don't seem to get it.

Not that it should necessarily matter to you per se, because I'm nobody.

But unless you are pulling a fast one and playing gay people for fools -- and I have no reason to believe you are -- you completely get it.

And that's very commendable dude. To say the least.

Its always good to get a compliment from someone you used to argue with.

I never was a kool-aid drinker.

I would have loved for people to have told the people marching in the civil rights movement that they had to wait their turn and yes it isn't an exact comparison but there are legit comparisons that can be made.

I'm very upset for three reasons.

1) Some of my friends and some people frankly I didn't even like but respected worked just as hard on the campaign as I did with me have been slapped in the face for no other reason for Barack to make a political point on what a uniter he is. There are some people and some view points you don't honor with a spot at the innaguration. This wasn't a profile in courage moment it was the exact opposite.

2) There are people in this country that are being discriminated against and being harrased, beaten, and killed for who they are. One of the proponents of that discrimination though he dresses it up in a Hawaiian shirt and a friendly demeanor has been honored by my President.

3) You don't get anywhere in a fight for civil rights or any other political issue by biting your lip or waiting your turn. The struggle maybe long and hard but by rolling over and compromising you only embolden your opponents. Some democrats and not just on DU that don't seem to understand to understand that yet will be the first to throw a giant rock on a Senator from NY for rolling over on the war on Iraq yet won't do the same on a President Elect from Illinois on LGBT rights...and yes I just made that comparison too.

And I don't think we argued because we hated each other.

It was politics, and that's what you do on a political message board.

I can't promise we won't argue again in the future about something... HA!

But for now, you're the best for this. :)

Just last week, two brothers were mistaken for a gay couple in Brooklyn..they were touching in some way, arms around shoulders or some such. One of them is now brain dead.
Even at the Stonewall Uprising, one of the victims of extreme police abuse was a straight folk singer named Dave van Ronk. He was just passing by, looking like a folk singer, and the cops dragged him into the bar named Stonewall and beat him to a pulp.

This is a wonderful post, and you learned a profound lesson from your harrowing moment. Not everyone would have. That says many good things about you, jake, in my humble cyber opinion.
Peace

is you aren't being beaten and killed like in the civil rights movement...its untrue.

bigots should be honored. Thank you for sharing a very scary story which should bring out some empathy in the people who are having a hard time getting it. K & R

If I thought this way simply because it was right and this story isn't part of my reasoning.

People shouldn't have to be mistakenly threatened to get it.

Don't worry about which is more honorable or not, you got there, and at a young age. :hug:

edit: after thinking about this a bit more, who is to say which is more honorable, to be born or raised with empathy or to achieve it on your own due to your life experience? Maybe your's is the more honorable way! But really, it shouldn't matter. :hi:

empathy, anyone can feel it.
if only everyone would go back to a time when they were harassed or beaten or treated cruelly for who they are and remember it.
when I was 12 I remember being beaten up, daily, by 9 girls at school. to the point of blood. and my crime? I was shy and looked funny.
this went on for a year.
as time went on, I never forgot what it felt like to be lying on the ground in a fetal position waving my arms trying to fend it off.
now, when I hear about anyone being attacked for no reason, or harmed because of being just who they are, my hair raises on my arms and i want to protect them like a fierce mother bear.
hugs to you

I, too, stand with the GLBT community. As far as I am concerned, this is a matter of civil rights ~~ just like when I fought in the 1960s for civil rights for those of a difference skin color than the white majority in our nation. To me, skin color, sexual orientation, whatever...if it sets a group apart based on the ability to discriminate against them on the basics rights enjoyed by our society, then it is a matter of civil rights. PERIOD.

Until we ALL have the same rights and privileges... then we are NOT a free nation. I will keep standing strong for my fellow Americans who just happen to have been born with a sexual preference that is not totally straight. As an American, I cannot do less than this.

JMHO