When a group of SAE fraternity students on a bus from Oklahoma University sang a racially derogatory song that used the “N” word and referred to hanging African-Americans from a tree, former governor and current OU President David Boren kicked their fraternity off campus in response. He was lauded for that quick and decisive move by many. Now the fraternity is suing, saying that the racist chant was constitutionally protected free speech, even though it was clearly hate speech.
Many right-wing conservative bloggers have defended the fraternity’s right not to be expelled from campus, even if their behavior was bad. Those same right-wing conservatives are also adamant in their opposition to marriage equality. So, in a nutshell, they believe hate speech is protected by the Constitution but love is not.
Perhaps, hate speech is protected; I am not a constitutional scholar so my opinion does not count. Still, I would think that if hate is protected by our Constitution, surely love must be too. Of course, to hear right-wing conservatives talk about it, same-sex marriage has nothing to do with love but some perverted lifestyle choice that is threatening to destroy the sanctity of marriage.
Religious freedom has been used as a reasoning to deny LGBT members the same rights as everyone else. In my state of Oklahoma, state Senator Joseph Silk, all the while claiming he has gay friends, has introduced a law to make it legal to deny ordinary services to LGBT people. Restaurants can deny gays a table, apartment managers and property owners can refuse to rent living space to LGBT members, etc. I guess the old saying is true; with friends like Sen. Silk, who needs enemies.
Soon, the U.S. Supreme Court will finally weigh in on the constitutionality of love between gay people. Though it is expected to be a positive decision handed down from that court, I cannot help be skeptical, as I am sure many of my gay brothers and sisters are that yet again we could be denied the right to marry the one we love by a right-leaning court. Then there is a possibility that a Republican could be elected president in 2016 and he (definitely not she) could yank whatever rights we have already gained, if somehow both bodies of Congress remain in the hands of the GOP.
I know I should not be so fearful, but after spending much time posting comments on media websites like the Huffington Post and the Washington Post, I can well see the vitriol out there toward LGBT members and it is frightening. Hate is a very real and present danger, constitutionally protected or not. Not only are gay people the target of the hate that is coming from the right but so are African-Americans, Hispanics and most of all, President Obama.
I am glad to live in a country that its citizens are free to speak their mind without fear of the government arresting them, but hate often turns into violence and I know that this country also is the largest gun-toting nation. Religion, specifically Christianity – which is also my religion – is used as a whipping tool not only to deny equal rights to LGBT members but also to deny them Heaven as well. This is under the assumption that being gay or transgender is a choice. With that same religion, derogatory words of hate are often spewed from the lips of those who claim to be followers of Jesus, words that are hurtful and destructive. Not like Jesus at all, not from what I know of him.
When I watched the video and heard the lyrics of the chant on that bus concerning African-Americans, and when I listened to the hateful comments coming from a woman in a crowd at an event former senator Rick Santorum spoke at concerning our president, it reminded me of the past. I remember the many times I have heard the cruel and wounding words coming from those who hated me because I am gay. I also remember the violence taken out on me by three huge men, just because one night I was coming out of a gay bar and the derogatory names they called me, which made it clear why I was being beaten to the ground so mercilessly.
Yes, hate may be constitutionally protected in this nation of ours, where freedom is so important, but so should love, and not only should love be constitutionally protected but it should be at the heart of all freedom-loving people, thought they be white, black or brown, gay or straight, woman, man or transgender, Christian, Jew, Muslim or Atheist. Those who spout hate from their lips, though it is to deny someone their rights or to deride their character, deserve no place and no voice among us, because their kind and their hate-filled words, is what divides us. However, this is America after all, and even bigotry and ignorance has a right to speak.
This is a republish from my website: Fidlerten Place