Huckabee spews more homophobic garbage

I confess that I’m damned angry. I’ve about had it with Mike Huckabee, who attempts to conceal his bigotry and homophobia by playing fast and loose with the facts. I’ve already written about his Proposition 8 fantasy. You know, the one where Prop 8 doesn’t actually ban gay marriage. According to Huckabee, it just affirms what has always been. Nice try. On the same day he gave his brilliant legal interpretation of Prop 8, he told Joy Behar of The View that black rights and gay rights are not the same because, essentially, gays haven’t met the violence threshold. Here are Magic Mike’s exact words when describing the difference between the black and gay struggle:

“But here is the difference. Bull Connor was hosing people down in the streets of Alabama. John Lewis got his skull cracked on the Selma bridge.”

Huckabee’s words are about to come back to haunt him. First of all, to intimate that gays must be physically violated to a predetermined, measurable level (and I’m sure the Christians will take responsibility for determining how many hate crimes it will take to meet the quota) before being granted the rights they’ve already been guaranteed in the Constitution, is absurd and dangerous. This is, however, the new conservative mantra. We gays have to have our heads bashed in sufficiently first. Even more ridiculous is the notion that violence hasn’t been committed against gays. I understand that Arkansas is kind of insulated and off the beaten path, but what rock has Mike Huckabee been under all these years?

Here are some statistics for Mike Huckabee: The FBI reported that 16.6% of all hate crimes reported in 2007 were due to the victims’ sexual orientation, and a 2007 study conducted by the University of California, Davis, found that nearly 4 in 10 gay men and 1 in 8 lesbians and bisexuals have been the target of violence or property damage due to their sexual orientation.

Has Mike Huckabee ever heard of Matthew Shepard? Some time after midnight on October 7, 1998, Matthew Shepard unwittingly accepted a ride from two men who pretended to be gay. The men robbed him, pistol whipped him, tortured him and tied him to a fence near Laramie, Wyoming, to die. He was discovered eighteen hours later, still alive but in a coma. Matthew suffered a fracture from the back of his head to the front of his right ear. He also had severe brain stem damage, which affected his body’s ability to regulate heart rate, body temperature and other vital signs. Matthew was deemed too severely injured for surgery. How much hate do you think it takes to inflict that type of physical harm? Matthew Shepard never regained consciousness and remained on full life support until October 12, when he was pronounced dead.

Has Mike Huckabee ever heard of Allen Schindler? Allen Schindler was serving his country in the U.S. Navy, and was killed by shipmates in a public restroom in Sasebo, Japan, for being gay. The beating Schindler received was so bad, according to the Navy pathologist, that his injuries were “more consistent with a high-speed automobile crash or a low-speed airplane crash.” Hmm. I wonder if that was skull-cracking enough for Huckabee. Schindler was just twenty-three years old when he died.

I wonder if Mike Huckabee has ever heard of 15-year-old Lawrence “Larry” King. Larry, a gay junior high school student at E.O. Green School in Oxnard, California, was shot on February 12 of this year. He was removed from life support on February 15 after being declared brain dead. A 14-year-old classmate was charged with premeditated murder. While it has been acknowledged that King was flamboyant and very open (uncloseted, as we gays say), often wearing high heels and make-up, the notion that this behavior justifies a death sentence - as some have suggested - is pathetic.

Not enough? Here are several more instances of violence against gays:

Arson at The Upstairs Lounge in New Orleans, Louisiana, killed 32 people on June 24, 1973.

A man shouted “faggot” as he stabbed Robert Hillsborough to death in San Francisco on June 21, 1977.

In January 1979, playwrite Tennessee Williams was beaten by five teenage boys in Key West, Florida, but escaped serious injury. This incident was just one in a flurry of anti-gay violence inspired by an anti-gay ad run by a local Baptist minister.

Les Benscoter was beaten to death in his own apartment in St. Paul, Minnesota, on June 15, 1979. The words “fags will die” was written in toothpaste on his furniture.

What about Charlie Howard, who was beaten to death in Bangor, Maine in 1984? Or James Zappalorti, a gay Vietnam vet, who was fatally stabbed in 1990? Or Paul Broussard, a Houston-area banker who was killed in 1991 because he was gay?

Julio Rivera was beaten with a hammer and stabbed with a knife by two men in New York City on July 2, 1990.

Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill, a lesbian couple from Medford, Oregon, were murdered in 1995 by a man who said he felt their “lifestyle” was sick. Another lesbian couple, Rebecca Wight and Claudia Brenner, were shot to death by Stephen Roy Carr while hiking the Appalachian Trail on May 13, 1988.

On September 22, 2000, Ronald Gay entered a gay bar in Roanoke, Virginia, and opened fire on the patrons, killing one and wounding six others. He claimed he was told by God to find and kill lesbians and gay men, describing himself as a “Christian soldier working for my Lord.”

I could fill volumes if I kept on going and so could Mike Huckabee, if he cared enough to research his topic before speaking on it. But facts would not suit Huckabee’s purpose. I’d say that we gays and lesbians have more than paid our dues when it comes to harassment and physical violence. Where does the hatred come from? There are plenty of sources, including the conservative “shock jocks” like Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh who clog the airwaves with their particular brand of bigotry and hatred. However, they are not alone.

Fear and hatred of homosexuals comes from so-called ‘Christians’ like Fred Phelps, a disbarred lawyer and pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church (Topeka, Kansas), who routinely preaches that homosexuality and its acceptance has doomed the world to eternal damnation. Phelps encourages his followers to carry “God Hates Fags” signs while picketing the funerals of those who have passed away from AIDS. According to Phelps, the Lord will punish not only homosexuals, but also those who are “fag-enablers.” Perhaps the Reverend John Hagee can be held responsible for throwing gas on the flame when he declares that Hurricane Katrina struck when it did because God was punishing New Orleans for its Gay Pride Parade held the previous week. In fact, Mike Huckabee also contributes to this hateful attitude by suggesting that not enough pain has been inflicted on gays and lesbians. There are plenty of crazies out there who are more than willing to interpret his comments as a call to action.

Hatred and discrimination are not part of the birth process. These attitudes are either taught or acquired by exposure to the bigotry of others. When these attitudes are conveyed by those held in high esteem, they are often adopted without question. Singling out gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people for discrimination makes them targets. I suggest that those who do this in God’s name are exhibiting anything but Christian behavior.