During the terrorist attacks by the radical right-wing christian terrorist Ander Behring Breivik, many people became heroes. I'll focus on two specific women. These two women saved 40 lives on that dark day and just saving one makes them heroes. These women should be praised from hemisphere to hemisphere as an example of what human beings can do when they care enough to step up and do something important. They could've been killed. They had no idea whether or not the gunshots came from one gunman or more than one. That didn't stop them from seizing their chance to do something extraordinary. These brave and amazing heroes are Hege Dalen and Toril Hansen. They are a same-sex couple. Now maybe i'm making something out of nothing, but i'm not surprised that the American media did not cover this story earlier.
I believe that there are only two explanations for the lack of American media coverage of this story. The first excuse is that the couple were hesitant to step forward. That they did not want the attention for being heroes. That they would rather go on to live their lives without the interviews that were sure to come from their heroic acts. This makes a lot of sense to me. It's something that I think we all would understand. That even though they saved lives, they would rather the attention be given to the survivors and other heroes. That's one explanation. It's one that I have no problem with. Then there is the other explanation. an explatation I have a huge problem with, but that I also understand. Some in the American media have no desire to see a positive story that features an LGBT couple. It's due in part to the hostility towards the community. I understand the homophobic tendencies of this nation and if that is the reason why this story was not covered, it wouldn't surprise me at all.
Some may ask "Why does their sexual orientation matter? Heroes are heroes, right?" Yes, heroes are heroes. Yes, Hege and Toril are heroes. However, their sexual orientation matters as well. The question should be why would anybody shy away from that? During the Virginia Tech shooting, Professor Liviu Librescu prevented Seung-Hui Cho from entering his classroom and killing more students. He saved 22 students that day and he lost his life in the process. Professor Librescu was a Holocaust survivor. Although it is an important thing to know, it was heavily noted in the American media. So if we can applaud a hero and note that he was a survivor of one of the worst atrocities in world history, why can't we applaud two heroes and note that they are a same-sex couple? Their actions prove that heroes come in all shapes and sizes. They come from different religious backgrounds. They can be straight, gay, bisexual, or transgendered. There is no specific mandate for how a hero should look. Well, there shouldn't be.
Take a look at our elected leaders. Look at our GOP presidential nominees. You know how Rick Santorum feels about gay people. You know how Michele Bachmann feels. You know how Tim Pawlenty feels. You damned sure know how Newt Gingrich feels about gay people. A lot of our elected leaders despise gay people. We even have the mindbogglingly ridiculous Defense Of Marriage Act. A flawed piece of legislature that prevents same-sex couples from marrying each other and doesn't care about people who get married in Home Depot. Look at our talk radio personalities and news "characters." We know how Bill O'Reilly and Laura Ingraham and Monica Crowley and Glenn Beck feel about LGBT issues. Look at our news networks. Fox News constantly lies about the LGBT community and LGBT issues and has been doing so for years. Why would they cover this story?
Gay people in this country have been called barbarians. I don't have to go into the suicides that have occured due to LGBT kids being bullied constantly. That's in this country. Hell, in Uganda, a law is being advocated that would make homosexuality a crime and allow the death penalty for those arrested multiple times. So why exactly would this country want to promote a story about the heroism of a lesbian couple? There are a lot of smart and tolerant people over here. However, there are a lot of stupid and bigoted people over here. Hopefully this was just a media slip. Hopefully this was just due to the massive coverage of the debt ceiling debate that should've never even happened. This story received less coverage than the killing of Brisenia Flores. This story received less coverage than Anthony Weiner and his personal hobby of sexting. If America loves heroes, wouldn't this be a perfect story? It would be, unless America hates gay people. National and international. So once again, the American media dropped the ball. Once again, it's not hard to see why. Hege and Toril are heroes, even if the media didn't think their heroism was worth even two minutes of airtime.