Deb’s House Concerts

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I hope you are with someone you love. If you’re the only person in the room, I hope you’ll look in the mirror and offer some love to the one you’re with.

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This afternoon, I saw the movie “And the Band Played On” based on the book (same title) by Randy Shilts.The book sat on my shelf for a decade, and I never read it. The movie has been out for at least that long, too, and I never saw it until today.

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What I got from watching this movie was that a small number of hard-working, conscientious, dedicated people worked diligently for years to solve the puzzle of the “gay cancer”, but it was only after the CDC could prove a link to the blood supply and people other than gay men that the President of the United States publicly acknowledged that there was a problem and committed money to research (after 25,000 people in the USA died from the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, AIDS).

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I don’t know why it was recommended that I watch the movie. The person who recommended it has repeatedly made comments suggesting that gay people are a protected class of citizens with a powerful lobbying organization. Maybe I was supposed to get that from the movie. I don’t know. What I saw in the movie was that there was minimal funding for research to discover the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) as long as it was believed that this was a disease that only affected gay men.

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It amazes me that some people still believe that gay people are protected in some special way. Most hate crimes legislation specifically excludes sexual orientation and gender identity. Opponents of including sexual orientation and gender identity in hate crimes legislation say that would give lgbt persons special rights. Would the right not to be killed just for existing, like Matthew Shepard and Brandon Teena, be a special protection? And, even though more and more large businesses now offer partner benefits, most states in the USA do not legally recognize same-sex couples. And, it is not illegal to fire a person or refuse to rent to a person because of perceived sexual orientation or gender identification (two things which are not the same thing, by the way). How would it be ’special rights’ for people who live, work, pay taxes, have families, contribute to society (and the list goes on) to be recognized as equal by the government of this country and by fellow citizens?

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Why do we, as human beings, have to divide ourselves in to US and THEM in every possible way? Are we not all human? Should we not all be treated with dignity and respect? Do we not all owe basic kindness and courtesy to each other?

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How can anyone believe that lgbt persons are somehow a powerful and protected group of people when things like this still happen: Openly gay student declared brain dead after being shot by classmate. This story was reported today, Valentine’s Day, the day of love.

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I hope I live to see the day when all people are treated with respect because they are human beings, not attacked because they are perceived to be different and somehow unworthy of life and equality.

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Update: Here are timely updates from Good-As-You .

Here is a quote from one of those posts:

They are not only unfairly connecting sexual orientation in and of itself with a virus that can be caught in an instant for a multitude of reasons, but they are also trivializing the threat that AIDS poses to all people by acting as if it is simply God’s punishment for homosexuals. The disease is a killer, but ignorance is a co-conspirator. We who value humanity can fight the former by unanimously opposing the callous bullies who embody the latter!

I also like this quote from The Moderate Voice:

I have observed that with over time most of us learn to adjust both our speech and our attitudes as we come to see the world through the eyes of others. When our empathy is obstructed by religious, racial, gender and nationalistic blinders and separations this process is slowed down considerably. Likewise when the separations are removed the process speeds up.