Sunday, June 12, 2016

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

There are no words. In August 1993 I got home from a 9-day backpacking trip while my sweetheart was still at work and was surprised to fina a San Francisco Chronicle on the coffee table--surprised because she never bought the newspaper. The front-page was all about 101 California. I started reading the story and then--oh, shit--recognized the name of a good friend of hers.

Weeks later, having drinks with a former co-worker, I found out she too had a close friend who had been killed at 101 California.

Two weeks from today is the Pride Parade in San Francisco. It has always been a celebration, but it has often been a celebration under a shadow: the shadow of Anita Bryant and her kind; the shadow of AIDS; the shadow of legalized discrimination. In recent years it has been more unreservedly celebratory. This year it falls under the shadow of the worst act of anti-gay terror since...well, I can't think of anything like this in my lifetime.

Twenty-three years after 101 California the tools of mass killing are still freely available. Nearly a half century after Stonewall anti-gay hatred still exists, and still erupts into violence. And once again people will be reading the names of friends and loved ones in the newspaper.

9 comments:

aimai said...

Very well said. There is going to be an uptick in violence against LGBTQ people during this election, and an uptick in violence against women and gender non conforming people, as the rage that the right wing and religious bigots feel at losing the White House again comes to a boil.

KenRight said...

"Invade the world, invite the world." Invite Afghanis others en masse while installing puppet governments there if possible and doing our best to make them (the governments there and the Muslims here) gay-friendly, global/capitalist friendly and Israel-friendly.
That's the Obama policy the Clinton policy and the Bush policy.

The result? San Bernadino, Orlando, Fallujah, Taliban resurgence, Kabul, Russia's justified re-entry into the Mideast to protect Christians.....

Clinton will continue same, Trump? A wild card- he could reassure somewhat by replacing Bolton with Buchanan as an advisor...

Glennis said...

The shooter was an American-born citizen, born 29 years ago.

KenRight, you are full of shit along with hatred and a consuming urge to exploit all things for your political bias. It's actually people like you who are the most likley catalysts of this kind of act.

retiredeng said...

We desperately need to cut the balls off the NRA. Assault weapons need to be banned outright. There is only one use for these destructive weapons: killing and maiming large numbers of people. There is no place for them in civilian hands.

Yastreblyansky said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Yastreblyansky said...

Apologies to Steve and the rest of the gang for the appearance of "KenRight" who seems to be my troll "Ken Hoop". I deleted that comment from my place earlier today and I'm sorry it has showed up here.

Belvoir said...

I hear you Tom Hilton, and share your sympathies. We shall overcome.

-Arundel

Victor said...

Can you detect the problem here?

If you have a runny nose, and are sneezing, it's harder to buy a fucking antihistamine for that, than it is to buy a gun and shoot your fucking nose off.
Or, shoot someone else's fucking nose off, just for fucking spite!

The NRA leaders need not be shot.
They need to be drawn-and-quartered first.

Of course I jest.
I'm against the death penalty.
I am...
I am.
Aren't I?
YES!
Well.....................................

Ten Bears said...

Looks like Domestic Terrorism to me. I don't give a shit where his parents came from - you all came from someplace else - he grew up here, it's homegrown, probably bought the dog-damned gun at WalMart, homophobic no doubt racist and misogynous as well Domestic Terrorism.

The worst part of being an Atheist is knowing that the worthless pig won't suffer for all eternity.