On Being Offended
Published December 29, 2003
The Sunday before Christmas (12/14/03), my dad and I set out to get our Christmas tree from a local tree farm just outside of Ann Arbor. As we made our way down Stadium blvd., passing The Big House and Chrysler Arena (home of the University of Michigan Wolverines), we saw a small group of protesters in front of the arena toting signs that said things like “Death Penalty for Fags,” and “AIDS Is God’s Punishment for Homosexuals.”
Later, I looked into what this was all about. Interestingly, it all goes back to an event a year ago at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School (my alma mater, although they strangely deny any connection to me) that was dubbed Diversity Week (the incident is described in “Students' Free Speech Is Upheld”). Part of Diversity Week consisted of students breaking out in different discussion groups about race, sexual orientation and religion. The goal was to promote diversity, openness and acceptance. A student, Betsy Hansen, requested to share her Catholic-based views that homosexuality is a sin in a discussion group created by the Gay/Straight Alliance. Administrators forbade her from doing so. She was allowed to present a speech at the event, but she was told to edit out the language about homosexuality being a sin. After a year-long lawsuit, argued by The Thomas More Law Center (a conservative firm which is “dedicated to the defense and promotion of the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life”), Judge Gerald E. Rosen found that the school violated her free speech rights: “[The Ann Arbor Public Schools] discriminated against Betsy Hansen on the basis of both message and religion, denying her the right to deliver her own message while at the same time affording the (Gay/Straight Alliance) the right to deliver its own religious message."
As a way of celebrating the decision, Rev. Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas decided to picket with his group of faithful outside of Pioneer High School which is kitty corner to the stadium and arena (see “Hate drives preacher's busy life”). Seeing all of the people entering the arena (Winter commencement was going on), the wily group of protesters must have wandered over for some attention. I checked out their website Godhatesfags.com (countered by a website Godlovesfags.com), and concluded that this was a group that protests everything that even slightly offends them, all over North America, without qualms of offending other people in the process (hypocrisy?). They protested the Matthew Shepard memorial, for crying out loud, and they intend to erect a monument dedicated to Shepard’s “entry into hell.” The heartless bastards actually have a page that counts how many days it has been that Shepard has “been in hell.”
- On Being Offended
- Published: December 29, 2003
- Type:
- Section: Culture
- Writer: Dirtgrain
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Comments on this articleComments
Well-written and thoughtful, but way too long. This needs to broken up into more than one entry.
I don't think there is really any question that continual abuse harms people. The rates of hypertension, depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are extremely high in minority communities. The constant battling against a hostile society definitely takes it toll. I doubt any person of color ever goes a full week without at least one clear episode of discrimination. We pay for it many ways, including shortened lives.
However, I don't see freedom of speech, which attaches only to government action, as much of a bulwark against the daily abuse fest that is living in America much of the time.
Uhh, the separation of church and state is a myth that doesn't work. Then the only people who could hold government office would be atheists because any theist might have their religion influence their decisions. Then you would totally screw up society and exclude all Christians/Muslims/Jews/Hindus from the entire government in the name of separating church and state. As long as our government is run by the people, and some people go to church, you can't separate church and government. Anyway, doesn't everyone ascribe to some view in the same way religious people ascribe to church? Doesn't everyone have their own "church," their place where they go to meet with others who share their beliefs? Separate church and state? You might as well kill us all.
The point is that people in government can't have beliefs, it is that they not misuse them. Largely, people comply with that or we would be living in a theocracy by now.
Man, the way I'm going on these message boards I feel like the "anti-Mac Diva." I know the point is that the people in the government shouldn't misuse their beliefs. My question to you is, what would misusing a belief entail? I can't really understand your comment until you clarify this. Please, I am all for intelligent discussion even though I am aware we have conflicting views.
Mis-using a belief would be George W. Bush saying that he is making it his mission to protect the sanctity of marriage. Sanctity is a religious word and by Bush writing it into his job description to protect the "sanctity" of anything is wrong. That is a violation of the separation of church and state in my eyes.
Here's a comment for you:
AARRR RRRRRRRRRRGGGG GGGHHHHHH H!!!!!!!!!!
I AM YOUR FATHER!!!!!!
Fred Phelps reads the Bible very selectively. I don't claim to be a theology expert, but "Love thy neighbour" is a verse I don't think he's read.
Fred's been out lately protesting the funerals of US soldiers killed in Iraq, on grounds that they were defending a "fag country."
He reminds me more and more of Col Fitts, the violently closeted gay dad in American Beauty.
Don't ask me how, but somehow I ran across these blogs/posts. I couldn't believe there was a site called Godhatesfags. I went there and to my surprise they are going to be in Ann Arbor to picket the Laramie project on Sat. Nov 19. I just recently got involved with supporting the Glbt community when I heard the the executive director of Triangle Foundation speak of his formation of the Triangle Foundation at a small benefit party in a home. I guess it isn't really a surprise, more like a nightmare. I actually felt like I was in a real nightmare when I got to the WBC chronicles pages on the Laramie project and phelps addressing Judy Shepard as the "mother from hell", especially since I just went last month to see Judy in person when she spoke at Oakland University on her journey with and without Matt.
I am determined to go to the Laramie Project in support of the Laramie Project. Hopefully it's not sold out,
because I sure don't want to be standing outside with that crazy freak.
I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.
As I've been trying to get this message across to my friends and family for the past year or so and starting to feel like a Jehovah witness without being one, I've found aomething in Dirtgrain's posts that really brings out this point.
"First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me."
You're post are informative and awesome, Dirtgrain and so is this site!
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/11290)
Excellent post DG - when people don't comment on a post of mine - as is often the case - I choose to believe it was because there was nothing to complain about.
I too am for free expression - let the ideas contend in the intellectual marketplace. I am a staunch believer in the separation of church and state however: if we are going to say it, then we need to actually do it.