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Pen Points
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Pistol Packing Papa
I never leave home without at least one gun and a few other weapons. We have little gay bashing here in Northern Kentucky. How it is in the rest of the Commonwealth I don't know. Across the river in the Kingdom of Ohio it is a nightly occurrence to have people beaten on the downtown streets of Cincinnati. The police have reportedly arrested the beaten Queer for causing the disturbance. Now the Queer brethren are not reporting to the police that they have been beaten. Ohio has no concealed weapons carry law. The Commonwealth of Kentucky does have such a law. A friend and I go to the firing range every month and fire a hundred rounds of pistol ammunition each, to perfect the handling of our weapons and to have the frame of mind to not have to think in a situation where our life, or the life of someone around us, is threatened. What kind of a Queer would be willing and able to kill if threatened? Anyone who does not want to become a statistic. I don't want to be a Matthew or Billy. I have stayed alive for 75 years and I damn well am going to stay alive as long health and fortitude allow. I will not be cut off in my prime by some bastard who is so insecure in his own sexuality, his only avenue to prove to himself and his peers his strident straightness, is to go out and beat up some Queer or a perceived Queer. This old Queer isn't going to offer his body for fodder to make anyone feel good. Why do so many people have the idea Queers can't carry weapons and defend themselves? Look at the result of don't ask, don;t tell. You and I both know the thousand or twelve hundred discharged each year consist of only, the over used term, the tip of the iceberg. There are so many Queers in the Military, and have been since the first Army was formed, each and everyone being trained in the use of weapons. Being brainwashed extensively to know it is all right to kill. Hell there are hundreds of thousands of us walking the streets. What will it take to trigger a revolt, not against the government, but against these Neanderthal sons of bitches who believe an open season exists to maim and kill anyone considered to be Queer? At this time there are 60,000 people in the Commonwealth of Kentucky licensed to carry concealed deadly weapons. In Florida there are 250,000. How many in the other 42 states I don't know. Virginia, 100,000. All I know is I can't be the only Queer who is the worst nightmare for a Queerbasher. In our Commonwealths and States where we are able to carry concealed weapons we are Citizens. In Ohio, California, and other states who do not yet have concealed carry, their people are subjects.. All of us, Queer and Hetero must be resolute. There must be no namby pamby attitudes concerning the right of each human being to preserve his or her life, and the lives of innocents about us who may be in danger. Alpha Scout At the Shrine of the Inflated Pigskin
I see that the state representative for Bossier parish
is seeking to get prayer back at football games. I
wonder what her motive is-winning more games or what.
But I want to record to show that at least one
resident does not support this attack on freedom of
and from religion.
I do wonder what she did while running the Bossier Parish Schools to protect the students from abuse by those who attack kids who are different, including gay students. And for once I think the issue of the Black history speaker asking the 'Christian" students to stand and then asked them, as I understand it, why if they are all Christian, black and white, why they can't love each other, was acceptable, since it did not promote religion but questioned the sincerity of such religious behavior, and that would also say a lot about religious people who attack innocent young children over their sexuality/sexual preferences. And it would take a ignorant person not to see the hypocrisy of Catholic priests who preach against homosexual behavior in committed relationships, but abuse young children in their charge. One does wonder what Jesus would think.
Sincerely,
Replying to My Tranny-Friendly Detractor Stephanie Donald's letter taking issue with my comments regarding the relationship of the transgender community and the lesbigay rights community is deserving of an answer. Although I feel that Ms. Donald's analysis of the situation in general, and of my comments in particular, is overly simplistic and wildly idealistic, she nevertheless raises some points which call out to be addressed. Ms. Donald wrote, in part: "I just returned from a trip to Tucson, Arizona from my home here in Florida. After 5 days of not being near a computer I felt a bit cut-off from news. When I get back and fire up my computer, lo and behold, the ravings of yet another GLB bigot who thinks transgenders ride GLB coat tails. Mr. Buckcub, you amaze me. I am a free lance journalist and I want to relate an experience that I had a few short years ago with a lovely and gentle person by the name of Dana Rivers."
"The behavior of the GLB press turned my stomach in regards to her plight. ," Ms. Donald writes. "For those of you who might not remember, Dana Rivers was a California school teacher who changed her gender from male to female. The immediate reaction to this change by the Board of Education was to fire Ms. Rivers with prejudice for daring to center her inner gender with her physical one. Undeterred, Ms. Rivers sought legal representation to sue her employers for wrongful termination. The internet is strewn even today with discussion postings by Ms. Rivers begging for legal representation for her civil suit. She was turned down by the NGLTF, Lambda Legal Defense and a host of California GLB organizations. Finally, after being turned down by the local chapter of the ACLU, one lawyer member of the ACLU agreed to help her on a contingency basis. They sued the School Board for wrongful termination and won the case. Hooray? The case won national attention and Ms. Rivers got her 15 minutes of fame, having appeared for 60 Minutes, 20/20 and several other news organizations who ran her bio and her comments. Her gentility and charm won an overwhelming support from all communities including the straight one. In jumps Lambda Legal Defense and all the GLB community groups from across the country. Scores of pictures appeared in nearly all GLB media of important Gay and Lesbian leaders with their arm around Ms. Rivers' shoulder in a show of support. This should sadden and anger anyone who has followed the struggle of transgenders for even a hint of support from the GLB community. Even the buzzword, "Lesbigay" purposely avoids transgendered people, until it benefits their community at a time of their own choosing. " THAT is exactly what I meant when I wrote that the Lesbigay community has at last learned to play politics. I don't dispute Ms. Donald's characterization of the events surrounding Dana Rivers in the least. Sensibly, the lesbigay rights community held off on "embracing" her until her case became a success story. That's how you build a positive public image. The world is full of losers who "did the right thing" according to Ms. Donald's philosophy, and ended up being ridiculed and derided for backing a loser. Perhaps their stance was morally and ethically "right." But this is the world of American politics, and morals and ethics take a back seat to winning. "Mr. Buckcub, in a couple of things you're right. First, you're correct in saying that the GLB community has learned how to play politics. We play it like Trent Lott in many cases. It isn't a worthy cause unless we say it is. When it's worthy, we embrace it like an attack on Family Values is taken by the Republicans." I think this is a very unffair characterization of gay rights lobbying efforts. When we choose to support and defend an issue, we MUST "play it like Trent Lott." There's no future in being wishy-washy and leaving a lot of public "yes-buts " available as convenient openings for our attackers. Successful poitics requires a group to take a firm and unyielding stand on an issue -- and then to maintain strict control of that issue. "Public opinion is embraced by the GLB community and we support transgendered rights because we want to hog the spotlight for our own issues. In our opinion if it isn't worthy then it's merely an attempt to take our resources away and "tax" our limited supply of compassion. Having known many great transgendered people and seen them run over by my own community when laws were pressed to legislation, by my reckoning, the transgendered community is due a "tax" refund by us. We've used them at our convenience for far too long. " I couldn't disagree more strongly with Ms. Donald. If any group can claim the victimhood status of being "used," it's the lesbigay community which has been used time and again by the transgender lobby. And to the credit of the lesbigay rights organizations, they have by and large permitted and even encouraged the transgender lobby to ride our considerable coattails. It's taken more than fifty years, but except among the most-benighted citizens of this nation, gays and lesbians are a fact of life in their own lives. An anomaly, perhaps considered unacceptable, but an inescapable anomaly. And only the rare few still maintain that homosexuality is a choice. But transgender, especially accompanied by surgical gender reassignment, is most decidedly a choice. A choice, in the minds of many citizens, to become a freak. There is no question of maintaining inborn gender yet expressing affection and sexual orientation different from the expected -- transgender is all about being a member of one gender born into the "wrong" body. People are mostly sophisticated enough to understand that gay men, by and large, don't have any desire to be women; and that lesbians don't have any desire to be men. Transgender turns all of that on its head -- and introduces a concept more radical and frightening to the average citizen than any expression of same-sex sexuality: the desire to BE the opposite sex. "The second issue you're right about, Mr. Buckcub, is that transgendered issues have little relevance to GLB issues. Most GLB's are far too interested in their own personal interests for transgendered people. Transgendered people seek the equality of all people. GLB's can go to work or play and peek from a closet door about their life and loves. " This too is unfair, and worse, it ignores the enormous strides in terms of "coming out" that the lesbiagay community has made in recent years and continues to make. And as for transgendered people seeking "the equality of all people," I wonder why they don't, instead of hitching themselves to the lesbigay rights wagon, seek out the support of the NAACP, or the Anti-Defamation League? Both are organizations dedicated to affirming and securing the rights of all people. And both are FAR better-funded than lesbigay rights organization. "Unfortunately, a good many transgendered people stick out like a sore thumb for several years after beginning hormone therapy so closets aren't an option for those seriously seeking to change genders. Our community blames them for being silly idioms of the gender they're trying to represent. It takes bravery to face a day in the open where every transgendered person must dread overhearing the question by little children, "Mommy, is that a man or a woman?" " I do not deny that it takes bravery to face the awkward questions of small children. No more bravery, though, than that required of lesbians and gay men who face similar questions. 'Why aren't you married, Uncle Buck?' 'Can I go next door to Mr. Buck's house and wait until you get home from work, Mom, if school gets out early -- he's always home?' 'You and your brother seem to have such a wonderfully close relationship, how do you keep that so strong?' These too are tough questions, some requiring an answer one knows will likely elicit a negative and even hateful response. But I concede that we do not have to face the issue of 'what we are.' I am a man. I was born a man, I have always been a man, I have always felt like a man, with the slight difference that I prefer the romantic, sexual, affectional partnership of another man. That issue, for transgendered persons, is more complicated and FAR more difficult to 'sell' to the average American citizen. 'So, Mr. Buckcub, when you say their issues have little relevance to the GLB community, you're right. Most of my own lesbian community hides at their jobs, from their relatives and straight friends but shout from the rafters for equal rights as long as no one they know finds out. Transgendered people don't have that luxury. In my opinion they are far braver than the GLB community and certainly braver than you are. "
"The GLB community has no right to be bigoted toward any group. Are we to decide that saving our own asses means using the transgendered community when it suits us but when important legislation is pending, such as NYAGRA, that we cut them loose to save ourselves? I never thought that I would see the day when my own people allow the brutality we've suffered from homophobes to be transferred to another minority group to keep it away from us. " There are a number of ways to answer this attack, but I'll settle for the plainest and most obvious. It isn't a question of homophobia being "transferred" to another minorty. Hoomphobia requires a homosexual to be its target or victim, by its very nature. Transgendered people are not homosexuals. And that is why I object to the transgendered community seeking to align and associate itself with us. They are NOT us. They do not share our sexuality, our issues, or our specific problems. And when we include the transgendered community to the point of assimilation, we dilute and weaken our own message. "There are many out there who will not allow this to happen. I have to believe it because if there aren't any others out there like me then what the hell have I been fighting for all these years? I have one question for you, Mr. Buckcub? How does it feel to be the Jesse Helms of the New York GLB Community?" Obviously I am not the Jesse Helms of the gay community or any other -- and I am not a New Yorker, for that matter. But like black activists of the 1960's I keep my "eyes on the prize." And I am not prepared to see decades of brutally hard work go to waste in order to be 'inclusive' of the transgendered community. We fight and work for acceptance and (someday) making our sexuality a non-issue. But frankly, when we align ourselves with folks who in the popular perception are boys who want to get their weenies cut off to be girls, and vice-versa, than we introduce an essentially unrelated set of problems and issues which have no connection to being gay or lesbian. If we are to have any meaningful discourse with America, then we must scrupulously obey the Aristotelian injunction to "Define your terms." And no meaningful discourse can occur, when our definition of terms begins to stretch so far as to include people who are NOT gay or lesbian! BuckcuB |
I have been trying to convince my fellow Queers for years that at least 20% of all Queers, male and female, should be carrying concealed weapons. Legally.
BuckcuB 
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