News of Matthew Shepard’s tragic death outraged America. Nevertheless, his life was an inspiration to the gay community. Small in stature but not in spirit, he had the courage to be himself and the compassion to teach love and tolerance, activists say.
Still however, everyday somewhere within the gay community, a crime is committed against a homosexual, bisexual, or transsexual out of hate.
So said a panel of five- English instructor S. Diane Bogus; De Anza Lesbian Gay Bisexual Association advisor Bruce Henderson; and students Vinh Nguyen, Jessica Naugle and Paige Boger – last Monday when discussing assaults on gay people in America today.
They explained that “gay-bashing” has become fashionable in some arenas. It does not necessarily involve physical violence, they say. It can be as “innocuous” as a threatening letter or a telephone call. “Gay bashers” vent their anger against the community by attacking individuals whom they believe are part of that community, they say.
Homophobia arises out of everyone, Bogus said, even among homosexuals who sometimes experience self hate because of the “normal mindset” or “heterosexual matrix” that says that it is unhealthy and wrong to be homosexual.
Children accused of homosexuality become internally homophobic, according to Bogus. That is, they absorb gay bashing and terrible jokes such as “bulldigger and bulldike.”
Many times the media does not report hate crimes.
The panelists say that although society has made progress in social and political arenas, there are those who cannot abide by the presence of the gay population due to religious or moral viewpoints.
Bogus explained how she previously attended church on a regular basis but “enough was enough,” she said. She tried hard to be a Christian woman but she did not want to be called a sinner. “The Lord is my shepherd; he knows I am gay,” she said. So she got up and walked out of church.
“There is no hell for any of us. Make peace with God on your own terms within you,” Bogus said.
However, not everyone agreed with Bogus that day. Student Domonic Shaw said, “There is no greater sin than homosexuality.”
He said that although Jesus loved everyone and that society should love homosexuals, society should hate what they do because according to the Bible, God judges against their actions.
Shaw refers to the line in Leviticus 11:10 “But whatsoever hath not fins and scales, of those things that move and live in the waters, shall be an abomination to you.”
Abomination is the same word used in the anti-homosexual line.
Student Moria Feighery-Ross says, “someone who believes the line in Leviticus and seeks to enforce it should be paying attention to whether or not they are following the thousand or more other rules laid out in the very same book of the Bible.”
The panelists said that the longer society has narrow views such as this one, the longer the hatred will exist.
“Find your own feedback to make you who you are,” Bogus says.
