A Gay Bashing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

This post/poem has been available on my gay-interest blog for a few years. I am repeating it here at the request of an overseas reader whose best friend was beaten to death by gang of homophobic thugs only last year. No witnesses have come forward so the perpetrators have not been identified.  To date, no one has been charged with the young man’s senseless murder.

Meanwhile, I know of at least one closet gay reader who has participated in n attack on another gay man because he did not want to lose face with his so-called 'friends'. (What is it with some societies that they continue to impose pressure on LGBT people to play chameleon rather than look the world in the eye as they are?)

Now, it is one of the many tragedies of modern life that there are (still) people and groups of people that are so screwed up as to want to see an gay or transgender person hurt, even dead.

Politics, religion, a common humanity…all have their part to play in getting the message across to certain pockets of society that gay and transgender folks are just ordinary people who want to be left to go about their daily lives in peace. How we like sex and with whom is our own business.

Does a perspective on how (or even if) we like sex loom large in our appreciation of society as a whole? Did I hear you answer, no? So why should it matter if a person is gay?

Gay people are not irreligious monsters, although some religions would (still) make us outcasts…or worse.

It is also a myth that gay people are paedophiles. Historically, the vast majority of paedophiles are screwed up heterosexuals.

So come on, you holier-than-thou brigade and you others too busy playing lip service to political correctness to see the wood for trees…give us gay people (among others, worldwide) a chance to prove our worth, yeah?

What’s that? Gay people have never had it so good, did you say?

In 76 countries, gay relationships are still a criminal offence and punishable by death in six. 

As with all forms of prejudice, the expression it takes is likely to turn on the socio-cultural-religious/ home-school-work environment in which people live…in a century that still has one hell of a lot to learn about love, peace, and a common humanity.

Gay bashing is not the only form of hate crime of course; none should be tolerated by decent people, local communities or countries worldwide.

 A GAY BASHING 

Found him late at night, bleeding 

in a street gutter, near dead

His fine features an ugly sight, 

white shirt turning red...

Called an ambulance, did all I could

to comfort, help ease his pain,

but it seemed a long time coming,

and he but barely breathing

as I struggled to speak, anxious

he stay awake, so scared 

for him that he close his eyes

never to hear a human voice again,

feel its warmth spread over him 

like my overcoat, not yells of abuse

chasing him down centuries,

spilling their ignorance and hate 

on streets much like this one

with more horrendous tales to relate

for any who care to listen

A light rain began to fall like tears

(a God of Love empathising?)

I, too, wept that he might even die

believing the world against him

and siding with its sick homophobes

even though a part of me knew

it was already too late - for them

as for him - given a world 

barely even paying lip service 

to LGBT folks in parts,

hearts sporting logos set in tablets

of stone, fronting public roles

that embrace liberality and equality

while inwardly egging on

the sheer bestiality of any criminality 

seen as justified wherever LGBT

spells SCUM, deserving no less,

no matter if (supposedly) we all of us

share a common humanity

Left near drowning in a sea of sirens, 

we'll yet draw strength from straws

Copyright R. N. Taber 2005; 2019

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears in A Feeling for the Quickness of Time by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2005.]