I don't actually disagree with you on hate crime laws, I just objected to the notion that people who do support them believe that a homosexual life is worth more than a heterosexual life. I don't think that's the case, and I don't think that framing the debate in those terms does the debate any good.
I realize that you were not involved in the recruitment discussion, but that discussion was what started the whole mess, and there is a similarity, so it seemed reasonable to include it.
A short story, and a question:
I went to a small suburban high school, very white, very middle class. In my class there was one kid that everybody knew was gay. There must have been others who were, but this kid was "the faggot", and he was treated unmercifully. Nothing criminal, nothing you could go to the police about, but absolutely incessant abuse. He couldn't walk down the hall without getting pushed or tripped, couldn't stand in front of his locker without taking a kidney punch. Gym class was the worst, and he was terrified of it; he got shoved around on the playing fields, kicked, stepped on, knocked down. In the locker room he was smacked by half the kids that passed by, and a lot of them went out of their way to pass him by. The gym teacher knew perfectly well what was going on, but made no move to stop it. (The guy was a total ass in every regard; he crippled the best athlete in the class ahead of mine. Sent him into a football game with a knee injury, the kid did the manly thing, played, ended up in surgery, and spent the next few months on crutches.)
I wonder if that gay kid is now an activist, demanding hate crime laws. I wonder how he feels about heterosexuals.
I'm a long way from the American high school scene... does this sort of thing still go on? |
