Executing the Gays

Last night I read an article in the New York Times that left me in a state of shock. It was the last thing I thought about before I went to sleep. It was the first thing I thought about when I woke up this morning. According to the article, a California lawyer, Matthew McLaughlin, has “proposed a voter initiative that would mandate the execution of sexually active gay men and women”. The California attorney general is quoted as saying “This proposal not only threatens public safety, it is patently unconstitutional, utterly reprehensible and has no place in a civil society”.

That’s putting it mildly.

The attorney general, Kamala D. Harris, has asked the California Supreme Court to allow her to refuse to give a summary and title to what is being called “The Sodomite Suppression Act”

Regardless, the reality is Mr. McLaughlin will get his chance to collect the 365,880 signatures of registered voters that would be required to put his initiative on the ballot. He will have 180 days to get it done. If he succeeds, the people of California will be allowed to vote on whether sexually active homosexual men and women in their state will be killed.

In 1986 I received a phone call from my younger brother. He was a big, good looking guy that had just returned to the States from Germany where he had served in the Army. He was distraught. The first thing he said was “I’m scared, Charlie”. By the time we finished talking I was scared too. He told me he had AIDS. He didn’t want anyone to know. He didn’t want me to tell our mother or anyone else in the family. When I asked how he knew, he said he had taken a test, but I convinced him to have another one, and told him I would come to Birmingham to be with him when he did it, so he agreed to do it again. We went to the VA hospital in Birmingham together. I was in the room with him when the doctor gave him the news. My brother had ARC, or Aids Related Complex. He also had Hepatitis C. I will never forget the look on his face when he heard the doctor say those words. It seemed as if his soul had already left his body. I doubt if he heard another word that doctor said.

We left the hospital and went to a restaurant and had some lunch. We talked about everything but the HIV virus. We talked about growing up and being in the military. We talked about school. We talked about family and friends. Before we left, I remember telling him that a lot of people had managed to live a long time while carrying the virus. I told him he could spend that time living, or spend that time dying.

Ten years later, my brother died from complications of AIDS. I never told anyone else about his status. I wanted to, but a promise is a promise.

My brother was gay, but he was just as human as me. He was just as much an American citizen as I am. We both served in America’s military. He paid his taxes just like I do. His faith in God was as strong as anyone I know. It is nauseating to me for anyone to suggest that because of his sexual orientation he was not deserving of “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.

Discrimination and bigotry is personal to me.

In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. If they come for the homosexuals today, will they come for the Jews tomorrow? Will they come for the Blacks after that? Who will follow? The Muslims? The Latinos?

Last night, I thought of how asinine this ballot initiative in California really is. I thought to myself that it is next to impossible that the fool that is proposing this thing will be able to get more than 365,000 people to sign up for this. Then I thought, even if he does, no way a liberal state like California would vote to implement it. Then I thought, even if they do, the Supreme Court would strike this thing down in a New York minute. Then I thought about Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas. And then I thought, oh shit.

When the Nazi’s first suggested that maybe Germany would be better off without the Jews, I am sure that many Germans thought to themselves that they can’t be serious. By the time those same Germans (and the rest of the world) realized how serious they really were, it was too late.

Matthew McLaughlin is not the only right wing, homophobic zealot in California. They are others that will sign his initiative in California, and there are those in other states that wish they could. The big question, is will the right-wing money show up?