TEN THOUSAND BY THE FOURTH OF JULY

why gays in the military IS NOT a civil rights issue!

"The darkest places in Hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis."
--Dante

One of the most difficult things to talk about with gays and lesbians these days is Iraq. The so-called "gay media" is only interested in shouting to let "our" soldiers in, to let "us" join and be part of... part of what? Can we refresh ourselves a moment here, I mean, tens of thousands of people have lost their lives in a war everyone realizes was for the sake of greed.

If you bought stock in Haliburton three years ago you'd be sick with wealth today. And if you did buy their stock I hope you do get sick from your wealth, your blood money!

Gays in the military, THIS is the big push? THIS is a civil rights issue? You want the "right" to put a fucking rainbow sticker on your machine gun? You GO G. I. Joe! You Hero!

No, this is not a civil rights issue. Unless we can all agree that it's our right to kill innocent civilians. Can we do that? Can we agree killing is cool? Can we agree that a civil rights issue doesn't have to be civil, can involve civilian killings instead, huh? Huh? You like that do you?

Why do we have to make gay, lesbian, bi, trans rights about BECOMING status quo? Whether you want to remember or not, our foremothers and forefathers of the gay movement did not think so! Many of them still alive! When Marsha P. Johnson (sad to say Marsha is not alive today) threw the first brick at the Stonewall riot it was not so we could JOIN the world in destroying more lives! Marsha and those who REVOLTED with her that day in 1969 did so to release us from tyranny! To be free! Can you remember that with me? Can you TRY to understand that with me?

We were supposed to be better because we understood oppression. What was delivered upon us was not to be wielded in turn on others.

Gays and lesbians and bisexuals and transgendered peoples of the 60s and 70s marched against the oppression of African Americans, marched for labor rights, marched AGAINST THE WAR IN VIETNAM!

How dare you forget this! How dare you be in favor of this terrible war! How dare you say we have to join these forces of oppression! How dare you defile the memory of Marsha P. Johnson and the millions and millions who died of AIDS from years of silent tyranny! For those who are murdered every day in this country for being queer!

Pick up a weapon and join, for what? For acceptance? Your freedom means what then?

Don't Ask Don't Tell, thanks Bill. Bill Clinton started this insanity! He made it such an important American issue. You think just because an American president finally said the word GAY out loud that it was positive. You think that he cared about you. HE EMASCULATED US DAMMIT! He got us to give up our good sense and JOIN the worst possible thing there is to join! He said, Hey, you want to be part of what I've got to offer, Here It Is! Lock and load!

Bill Clinton, DO NOT FORGET, signed the Defense Of Marriage Act. Yeah, he doesn't want us getting married. We can KILL in his name, and he will salute your flag draped coffin. Bill Clinton, DO NOT FORGET, was in the hospital recovering from a heart attack when he called John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election and implored Kerry to embrace the ban on gay marriage. To Kerry's credit, he would not do that. Kerry lost, but remember, it was Bill Clinton flat on his back with a destroyed heart, not John Kerry.

Both Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton are distancing themselves from gays, at least from gays who challenge. If you're queer, good at smiling, good at going along with the wholesale of Nothing But Speech for the gay community then they LOVE you. Dean has recently proven that he will fire any queer on his staff who asks (or in this case whose partner asks) he ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING rather than talk, and pretend. Check this out.

The "gay media" is the worst culprit. If you have anything to say which is contrary to the war in Iraq you will most likely not be in the newspapers, or magazines. In Philadelphia the silence from the Philadelphia Gay News is particularly deafening with this. They did not cover the fundraisers for Stephen Funk's legal defense, an openly gay marine who said NO to Iraq, and was thrown into military prison. They refused to show up at the demonstrations in support of Mehmet Tarhan. If you don't like the military you're a danger to what SOME members of the GLBT "community" are trying to achieve. Exactly what the fuck do they want by the way?

Last summer I was invited to perform in NY at a GLBT arts festival. While on stage I took the opportunity to speak out against the GLBT support of the military, and talk about Mehmet Tarhan who was at the time being beaten and tortured for refusing to join the Turkish military. I had only been on stage for half my allotted time when the moderator, a rather conservative lesbian, marched down the middle of the floor to the edge of the stage and gave me the hook! She then had her girlfriend get up there and read for three times longer about Persephone and pomegranates. And they were incredibly rude to me after, and I thought, Wow, the whole fucking allusion to the Underworld of her fucking sonnets about Persephone are completely lost on her! What a bunch of bullshit!

If you have anything at all negative to say about queers in the military you will be shut up! And that's just if you're queer saying it. If you're straight and have anything negative to say about it you get called homophobic! It's even more outrageous if you ask me! This is such a problem! Open minded straight people who also happen to be against war get called fag bashers if they dare to say that they don't understand HOW gays in the military is a civil rights issue.

We need to do everything we can right now to STOP young gays and lesbians from joining the military! We need to do everything we can to get ALL young people to NOT JOIN! And we need to convince those who have already joined to not go to Iraq. However and whenever we can do this, we must do this.

There's an excellent new book out I ask you to please look into. This book WILL come in handy one day when you are faced with a young person who is thinking about joining one of the branches of the military. It's called 10 EXCELLENT REASONS NOT TO JOIN THE MILITARY, edited by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg.

Here's some links from the book:

SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE MILITARY

ARMY RAPE VICTIM SPEAKS OUT

Here are the titles of the 10 chapters:
1. YOU MAY BE KILLED
2. YOU MAY KILL OTHERS
3. YOU MAY BE INJURED
4. YOU MAY NOT RECEIVE PROPER MEDICAL CARE
5. YOU MAY SUFFER LONG-TERM HEALTH PROBLEMS
6. YOU MAY BE LIED TO
7. YOU MAY FACE DISCRIMINATION
8. YOU MAY BE ORDERED TO DO THINGS AGAINST YOUR BELIEFS
9. YOU MAY FIND IT DIFFICULT TO LEAVE THE MILITARY
10. YOU HAVE OTHER CHOICES

Please look at this book, even buy a few copies to have on hand in case you need to give one away. It's the kind of book that could change the decision of a lifetime.

In memory of Marsha P. Johnson, a true hero,
CAConrad

posted by poet CAConrad @ 9:24 AM