On October 6th and 7th in 1998 a brutal crime was committed against a young boy. Matthew Shepard was beaten to the point of death by other boys for being gay. In the little town of Wyoming in the United States of America, two other men decided to beat Matthew Shepard and left him hanging in the fields for death. A biker that drove by at first thought that Matthew was a scarecrow. On the 12th of October he died in the Hospital of severe head injuries that caused stem damage among others.
Protestors carried placards at the funeral saying “No Tears for Queers”.
This young boy suffered but his story has been the main driving force for the legislation against gay crimes. Not that this is a comfort for a mother who lost her child. Judy Peck (mother) in 2009, wrote a book about the event and the events that followed her sons death.
You can read more about this tragic accident on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard
Most of us look at this accident and think that it does not affect us at all and we are so glad that we do not live in Wyoming. The fact is that hate crimes against gays still do exist and it happens all around you. You have just chosen to close your eyes to it and you have chosen to laugh about the ‘witted’ gay jokes. But even a young boy that grows up in a very liberal home during the 80’s and 90’s gets affected by these ‘witted’ gay jokes. You think it is a joke to call someone gay and then link that gay title to something less than human. You teach society to point and call gay and then beat up. You teach your children that gay people are fudge packers and all sorts of horrible names. You show your work colleagues and friends that you wont associate with your gay brother or sister. You tease, you belittle, you brake the souls of people all over the world and when confronted you say it was a joke. YOU ARE A SICK INDIVIDUAL. YOU ARE GUILTY OF GAY HATE SPEECH and YOU ARE JUST AS GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER.
I was 25 when I finally came out of the closet. Just about 4 years ago. It was the scariest experience that I have ever had to go through. I am that boy that grew up in a very liberal home in 80’s and 90’s. My mother had just passed away the year before and I was lost. What scared me the most is what would my siblings think. Especially one of them. Not because he ruled my life but because my siblings were all I had now, the only family I knew. And for my entire life I have been the underdog of gay jokes and comments relating to how fucked up I am therefore I am gay as per one of my siblings. Yes of course he sees it as a friendly jest, a joke. Those jests and jokes and fucked up comments ruined my life and made the most important choice of my life also the scariest one. I was too afraid to breathe in fear of what may happen if someone could smell on my breath that I enjoyed to suck cock. It has been four years since then and I have forgiven and moved on, but how many cannot. How many are too scared to come out of the gay closet for fear of what their family and friends and society will do and say. How many rather end their own lives due to that fear. And you in your perfect straight world with your white picketed fence and your 2.4 kids can’t understand why. Because it is your fault if you have ever told so much as one poor tasted gay joke, teased one gay person, or made one negative comment about a gay person. If you have done that then it may have been you that took that persons life. Makes no difference.
Fact is, it is never just a ‘witted’ joke. And next time someone is killed or someone’s soul is destroyed or someone commits suicide due to gay hate speech, just think, it could have been your child.
So go tell your fucked up jokes to yourself. The rest of the world does not want to hear it.
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