H8 in Idaho?

After the, by all reports, surprisingly successful turnout in Idaho for protests on the passage of California's Proposition 8 (find a plethora of links at Left Side of the Moon), Dennis Mansfield not-so-subtly poses this question:

Do the soft-seated fill-in-the-blank cubical employees and others who attended the downtown rally in support of same-sex marriage REALLY even have a clue regarding H8?

Really, Mr. Mansfield?  You really want to tell gay Idahoans and their straight supporters that they don't have a clue about hate?

Mr. Mansfield, that's the problem.  People like you don't have a clue what gay people in Idaho go through on a daily basis.  Gay people in this state live in fear every day.  They fear the loss of their employment.  They fear losing their insurance (if they're lucky enough to have it).  They fear getting kicked out of their housing.  They fear not being able to visit their loved ones in the hospital.  They fear walking down the street in some places and going to school in some places.  They fear looking like, acting like and saying anything that might "give them away" to their neighbors, co-workers or people on the street.  They fear reporting assault and domestic violence attacks.  They fear reporting vandalism and malicious threats.  They fear pursuing legal remedies in the dissolution of relationships.  Make no mistake about it, Mr. Mansfield, gay people in Idaho know a little about H8.

The subtle hate that is insidiously perpetrated through not feeling safe in your home, place of business or community is just as concrete and destructive as any physical abuse that one could endure and Mr. Mansfield your ignorance of that fact and the not-so-subtle manner in which you suggest that this is something gay people have just imagined, is perpetuating and exacerbating the hate.  When three different people in the span of less than thirty minutes time on a talk show in the Magic Valley suggest that the community would be better off if gay people just killed themselves, that's hate, Mr. Mansfield.

Yeah, gay people, "soft-seated" or not, know a little about H8 in this state.  We're your neighbors, your friends, your family, your co-workers.  We wait your tables, we deliver your babies and we serve this country.  We fix your cars, your broken bones and your computers.  We're taxpaying members of the community and you might do well to get to know some of us.

Hat tip:  Tara at The Political Game

Update:  PrideDEPOT has some nice photos of the Boise protest and as an editorial aside, I removed the Robert Frost poem "Fire and Ice" from the intro to this post.

Comments

[Kitt]

I had a dream about this last night, I swear. It's probably because I simply DO NOT understand WHY the hate. I don't get at all the simple obsession with who the f*ck marries who, who does what or who believes what. Simply put they cannot be followers of Christ (their Jesus Christ) while maintaining that someone is not worthy of respect or love and being treated as such.

And WHAT! is the preoccupation with the Old Testament and it's tenets. The "sacrifice" of that same Jesus Christ above brings forth a new paradigm, a new kingdom in which there are two - count 'em, two! new commandments (found in the New Testament in the gospels).

["The subtle hate that is insidiously perpetrated through not feeling safe in your home, place of business or community is just as concrete and destructive as any physical abuse that one could endure and Mr. Mansfield your ignorance of that fact and the not-so-subtle manner in which you suggest that this is something gay people have just imagined, is perpetuating and exacerbating the hate."]

Say IT, SISTER!

ws

[Dennis]

Thanks for your input. I experience your comments as sincere and deeply felt.

What you missed in my blog posting at www.dennismansfield.com, I believe, is my comparison with Brigitte Gabriel's book, "Because they Hate"....which deals with a family living in a bomb shelter in the Middle East, being pursued by Islamofascists...to kill them.

The comparison was truly impactful to me, as I am in the middle of that book and then saw the coverage of the rallies.

Hate? Hmmm...all the minorities in CA who supported the Yes on 8 movement? I think they have more-than-real reasons to REALLY understand bigotry and hatred, don't they? Yet they voted for Prop 8.

I do believe that gays have many people who view them as less than who God made them to be, as individuals, regardless of sexual orientation...and people who feel that way toward gays often feel deep hatred to many others, as well ; usually themselves too, if the truth were REALLY known.

Here's all I really know: we are valuable to God...all of us. His son died for everyone who wakes up and sees what happened so long ago...and yet that truth remains fresher than today's news. He loves us so much and he created us to love one another. Hatred has no place in our lives towards people we do not agree with or understand. He alone sets the standards. It is our choice as to whether we ignore those standards to love him, and therefore to love or hate others. I choose love.

Dennis

[Sisyphus]

Yet you perpetuate all the trappings of hate. Your metamorphosis into a "progressive conservative" seems deeply flawed to me Dennis. Can't figure the penchant y'all have for misleading and often pejorative labels, like Islamofascist.

"Hate? Hmmm...all the minorities in CA who supported the Yes on 8 movement? I think they have more-than-real reasons to REALLY understand bigotry and hatred, don't they? Yet they voted for Prop 8."--talk about your moral relativism. Dennis this is based upon a myth that was perpetrated by not so deep thinkers in the trad med and spread by the same like yourself. Click my name for a post that debunks the myth.

[MountainGoat]

Dennis, I appreciate that you took the time to comment on this issue here, but I have to say that I didn't miss your point. I got your attempt to contrast the "real" hate endured by the woman in your example to the "supposed" hate (as you imply it to be), that gay Idahoans protesting against prop 8 feel. And while I appreciate your transformation of sorts (many have not forgotten your work in the early 90s with the Idaho Citizen's Alliance, the first real organized anti-gay rights group in this state) and I don't doubt your sincerity that you now "choose love," I'm afraid that you have missed my point.

The fear and hate endured by gay Idahoans is just as real and concrete and even life threatening as that endured by the woman in your example. The, in many instances, subtlety of it makes it no less so and the absolute reality of it in some cases doesn't either. What happened to Matthew Shepard 10 years ago could just as easily happen in any small town in Idaho today and I challenge anyone to deliver a more concrete example of "real" hate. Oftentimes, due to socialization, the marginalization of gay people and even indoctrination, religious and otherwise, that one's sexual orientation can somehow be changed, the "enemy" becomes our own minds, turning on ourselves in the form of self-loathing, self-hatred and for some even suicide. Having to fight for rights that are inalienable to others adds to the psychological damage, and when those rights are determined to be up to a "public policy debate" as you wrote in your post, even more so. What you claim to be a fair decision of public policy by the majority, are what courts have determined to be fundamental rights, and minimizing the effects of that or the reality of the hate that this implies is just as destructive.

When you in one breath say that all are "valuable to God" yet in another imply that their rights are up to the vote of a majority as you did in your post, that, whether you like the label or not, feels very much like hate.

[Wordsmith]

Still waiting for more clarification from Dennis......

Like you say here: "When you in one breath say that all are "valuable to God" yet in another imply that their rights are up to the vote of a majority as you did in your post, that, whether you like the label or not, feels very much like hate."

It's because it is hate, MG. Just because they don't identify it as hate but defined instead as some 'moral prerogative' doesn't mean it's any less hateful. It isn't. The smoke screen of 'their moral compass' is simply a justification to continue their contractured beliefs, especially those regarding the gospel of Christ.

[MountainGoat]

Yeah Wordsmith, seems we're *still* waiting on Dennis....

Never ceases to amaze me how some can use religion to justify hate.