From: bubba@also.hooked.net (Joel Roberts)
Subject: Re: Christian groups who marry gays ( Oh, boy!)
Date: 27 May 1995 21:31:17 -0700

In alt.homosexual anewton@swcp.com (Allen J. Newton) said: 
 
>.. Wanna mop? 
 
Already got one, thanks.  One night five years ago, right here on the block
where I live, I needed a mop.  I came walking up the hill (this is San
Francisco, so we specialize in vertical earth here, and sometimes it even
MOVES) and decided to go into the corner store next to my apartment before
heading upstairs.  A police car parked in front of the store drove away as
I approached--I paid little attention, since this is downtown and cops
going into stores are a routine sight.  When I entered the store I saw, on
the floor, the reason for needing a mop...a big (foot across) pool of fresh
still-wet blood.  "What happened?" I asked?  "Bunch of rednecks chased a
gay guy in here and beat the shit out of him five minutes ago, that cop car
outside just took him away.  He maced them but it didn't even slow them
down," I was told.  Now I wonder what philosophy prompted them to beat the
shit out of a total stranger?  I wonder what philosophy prompted people in
Florida to display bumper stickers proclaiming "KILL A QUEER FOR CHRIST"
back when Anita Bryant was around (and yes, I am showing my age!  :-)  ) ? 
I wonder what philosophy prompts people to support referenda to deny gays
the right to participate in the political process?  I wonder what
philosophy prompts people to want to criminalize private consensual
homosexual acts (hint: in Hardwick v. Bowers, Justice Rehnquist refers to
the "Judeo-Christian tradition")?  Two-thirds of all hate-related murders
in the USA are murders of gays, according to Klanwatch of the Southern
Poverty Law Center in Montgomery.  I wonder why people would want to murder
total strangers without even robbing them, and risk a life in jail?  I
could go on, but I need not; you get the idea.  It is good to know that you
don't endorse violence.  Are you speaking out against anti-gay terrorism in
your Christian community?  I am aware that some Christians don't like
violence, just as some Germans didn't like genocide and some Mississippians
didn't like racism...but unless people actively speak out against these
things in their community, they are silent partners in letting the violence
continue.  Billy Graham even went further than this...twenty years ago, he
said that "homosexuality is a sin, but so is discrimination against
homosexuals."  That statement made quite a splash in the North Carolina
mountains long before gays were a routine topic of discussion in the news. 
Are you as bold as Billy Graham, or are you a silent partner? 
 
Joel Roberts, Shakytown-by-the-Bay 
"Gays with guns don't get bashed." 
PS-bought the gun a few days after the incident described above solely for
DEFENSIVE purposes.  Despite many years in the South in civil rights and
gay rights activism, it was the ONLY time I've been close to a violent hate
crime.  As you oppose gaybashing, you can walk down my street any time you
want, in perfect safety.  Other Christians (even Republicans!) do that all
the time...