Fertility and Death
March 26, 2004
To the Editor:
Thank you! Will Berger’s column, “Gay Marriage’s Challenge to Fertility “ (Mar. 25-31), explains everything so well!
I had been seeing the deaths in the Confirmed Dead section of the newspaper as needless waste of human life. But thanks to Mr. Berger, I now understand that “War too, is part of the ancient universal fertility cult.” All these dead American troops––they needed to be eliminated because they were actually “the older and weaker.”
And the 2,928 service members who have been wounded in action––the ones with the massive head wounds and missing limbs––war has in fact, honed the virility of these young men.
I fell so much better about what’s going on in the world now that I understand.
Gay City, keep up the great work! You rock!
Tom Allsup
Manhattan
Bigots in the Bronx
March 24, 2004
To the Editor:
In response to “Bronx Jeer Against Equality,” (David Thurston, Mar. 18-24), the recent surge in “presumed” Americans speaking out against gay marriage is as disturbing as it gets, especially when African Americans are involved.
For one group of Americans who have had to fight for equal rights to turn around and argue against another group attaining equal rights is hypocritical and shameful; the ministers and clergymen who mobilized the recent action in the Bronx against gays having the freedom to marry are not acting very Christ-like at all. And they should know better. In the institution of slavery in America, white people denied black people the right to be free. Slavery had both history and popularity—especially in the South. But just because something has been going on for a period of time and the majority thinks it’s acceptable doesn’t mean it isn’t wrong on a basic human rights level.
More over, it is written in our Constitution that to be an American is to be “dedicated the proposition that all men are created equal.” All means all. Unfortunately, discrimination continues. Blacks have had to continue to fight for their rights throughout the years. We jailed Japanese Americans during World War II just because of their race. We denied women the right to vote for decades because of their sex. Interracial couples had to fight for their right to marry. Now gays and lesbians must fight for the very same right. And it’s civil marriage we’re talking about, folks: no religion’s stance on gays will be affected in any way; no church will be forced to perform gay marriages.
So let us rise above our past. Let us break the pattern of prejudice and discrimination. Let us see beyond our individual definitions and dogma so that we may act, speak out and vote in a fashion befitting of Americans.
Gregory Blair
Via e-mail
Freedom and Choice at the Ballot Box
March 17, 2004
To the Editor:
Recently someone forwarded Mike Signorile’s article in the Gay City News condemning the Log Cabin Republicans for their continued support of Pres. George W. Bush (“Til’ Death Do Them Part,” Mar. 11-17).
Signorile said that their support for the president made him sick to his stomach. He then went on to characterize them as an organization filled with people who consider themselves something other than single-issue voters before he stated his belief that they’re more interested in money than anything else.
I can’t speak for the Log Cabin Republicans as I’m not a member of that organization. Still, I find articles like the one he wrote quite disturbing on a number of different grounds.
First and foremost, I’m human; then I’m a man; then I’m an American––and from there I’m a long list of things. All of it comes into play as I make decisions that affect my life.
Because I fit into two minority groups––I’m black, and I’m homosexual––I’ve been challenged my entire life by people who insist that because I’m a member of these groups that I must naturally support the Democratic party.
I can’t describe with words how offensive it was to learn at a fairly young age that while my white/straight contemporaries had a right to chose who’d they’d vote for in an election, because I’m black and gay I was stuck supporting the Democratic Party. And make no mistake about it, that’s the message that’s been sent.
Liberals in this country have taken the minority and homosexual vote for granted for as long as the demographic has existed. And just how the hell has that worked out for folks? Sure––our country has made tremendous strides in the area of race, but these advances were not partisan. It wasn’t that the great Democrats came and saved the black man; nor was it about Republicans. It was about a nation that said, “We’ve had about enough of this.”
And don’t even get me started on the gay thing.
Mike went off on the LCR for failing to renounce the president because of his weak stance on gay marriage even as the great saviors of all mankind––the Democrats––promote a candidate for president who likewise doesn’t support gay marriage. I’m an American––and rather proud to be an American. And the thing I value most as an American is the freedom to pretty much do whatever the hell I want. I’ll make my choices based on my own educated perspective of any given situation.
I know that Signorile never suggested that Log Cabin Republicans didn’t have the “right” to vote for whomever they chose. But be clear about this, his remarks make clear that he thinks less of them for making this choice. It’s just sad to me that people use these incredible freedoms we’re given to chastise and ridicule those who make choices they disagree with.
Eric-Allen Bass
San Francisco
Fascism’s Threat to Liberal Democracy
March 6, 2004
To the Editor:
As a gay son of two Jewish Holocaust survivors, I denounce flippant analogies to Nazi Germany (“The Third Rail in Political Discourse,” by Michelangelo Signorile, Mar. 4-10).
But I am also saddened how little most Americans know about how Hitler transformed a civilized country into a murdering society. At the turn of the last century, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld’s push to repeal Germany’s sodomy law (Paragraph 175) was gaining momentum in the German Parliament and Jews were becoming “first class citizens.” My own grandfather served in the German army during WWI. Then, in 1933, Hitler manipulated the electoral system to become dictator. One of his first actions was to have Himmler set up the Committee to Combat Homosexuality and Abortion. The whole concept of “Family Values” was also brought into fashion. Individual privacy rights were abolished in favor of the Fatherland. Creating a system of “first class” and “second class” citizens was next on the horizon. The Bible and so-called Aryan sciences were used to prove that Jews––and homosexuals––were inferior beings. Finally, in 1935 the Nazis passed the Nurnberg Laws to focus on the Marriage Laws to prevent Jews from marrying Aryans.
In 1938, after the right-wing ideology had taken hold of society and the democratic opposition was silenced, the Nazis felt strong enough to escalate the persecution to include mass killings. On November 9th of that year, my father, along with 20,000 other Jews males, were sent to concentration camps and the Holocaust began in earnest.
But it is not just German Nazis that have persecuted people in the past. History teaches us that religious zealots have brought us––Jews and gays––witch hunts, pogroms, inquisitions, and the crusades that killed so many people in the name of their god. But while I do not know what kind of car Jesus would drive, if he were to visit America today, I am sure he would be preaching love and same-sex marriage and not homophobic hatred and discrimination. Maybe in a few generations, Americans will look back at how strange their homophobic ideology was, as Germans today question what their grandparents thought.
Rick Landman
Manhattan
