dojR002337.xml

dojR002337.xml

born-digital

email

yes

no

2002-03-20

Wednesday, March 20, 2002 10:27 AM
Victim Compensation Fund

I want to express my outrage, my hurt at the anti-gay bias in the
distribution of September 11th Victim Compensation Funds. I just want to
remind those involved that someone they know and care about is gay. You may
not know who, may be surprised at who they are, but you know and interact
with them, possibly every day.

Would you treat your son, daughter, parent, cousin, niece, nephew, aunt or
uncle this way? Think about your circle of family and friends and consider
the stab in their hearts as you take this action.

Brave people died in this terrible tragedy. Gay people, out and closeted,
died; gay people who were parents, children, spouses, partners, brothers and
sisters; gay people who were loved.

To support bias, bigotry and hatred raising the banner of religion as our
foundation, rally cry or excuse, flies in the face of the freedoms our
forefathers worked so hard to create including the right to be free of a
government whose laws were based solely on religious grounds, and the right
to pursue happiness.

Or to throw up your hands in powerlessness to debatable laws and use them as
crutches that support bias and bigotry and discrimination of any sort - that
is not what our country is made of.

Worse still, it smacks of the same intolerance that breeds monsters like
those that perpetrated this horrible event.

On September 11th, our beliefs were attacked, our belief that all humans are
equal and our moral obligation to stand up for the underdog. Do not let them
destroy our values. Do not subscribe to their discriminatory fervor to
foster a spark of hatred for any group of people.

So I encourage those who can make this decision to stand up for all of the
victims and those that relied on them and loved them. Stand up for what they
know in their hearts is the right thing to do.

Show the world that in the United States there are no second-class citizens.



Individual Comment

2002-03-20