Dharma_rainbows's Blog

In Response to Hate Paraphrasing from Mark Twain, I believe it is better to admit faults up front. Though I don't all see these elements as faults or biases, my background and experiences are elements about my self which I feel are important in understanding my voiced concerns and actions. I am an out and open homosexual and homo-affectionate male, born in Denver, Colorado into a loving home. Was academic and active in sports and activities throughout my public schooling, including a student ran Gay Straight Alliance and Diversity Club that is similar to Hanover's Love Out Loud and Kaleidoscope. I attended conferences held by the Boulder Valley School District as well as a metro-wide conference, ranging from "breaking the silence" to workshops on gay-teen suicide prevention to safe zone training for teachers and staff. By no means was the school or the society around me perfect, my outing was a struggle as it all too often is. But there was precedence that hate in all forms was not to be tolerated, and that there was an active movement to change peoples perceptions away from hate or mere tolerance. As a Transgendered Woman spoke to the class room during "diversity day" my senior year said profoundly, being "queer" (a term that the community is claiming as a name of pride to encompass all GLBTQ persons and allies) is but one word that describes me. It by no means define who I am, by no means fits me in a little stereotype or limits me to live as character on Will and Grace, it simply gives me an element of uniqueness. Queer is but one word on the long list that comprises my life, one crystal to my snowflake, one pebble placed on my mountain. Queer is not a choice, no one would rationally choose to be hated, to be segregated, to be abused, to be second class citizen in a nation founded on equality; Queer is as much as who I am as my eye color, my hair color, my cleft palette, my voice. Unlike hair color, or eye color or even my sex, being Queer is integral and irreversible. What has set me apart though from many within the GLBTQ community, and allies me more with our heterosexual allies and all human rights activists is that I am out, open and active. I see a lot of wrong in this world, and it is with the grace of God within me (indeed, the same grace that is within all of us) that I hope to change this world for the better. Being gay or straight is not a choice, but speaking and acting are choices I actively make. My actions are in spite of the fear that I still have for my wellbeing, and the lives of loved ones. No one has to remind me of what happened to a out and open gay man (about my age now) in a small college town just a few hour drive north across the state lines. I have been to Laramie, have friends at the University of Wyoming and due to the geography of the area, even physically tied to the small Wyoming town for I lived in the shadow the same mountain range. It is perhaps this proximity, doubt you may the closeness of my connection, to violent acts of hate that occurred in October of 1998, and then living within the aftermath and trial following Matthew Shepard's death that has fired up my activist spirit. In high school, a group of friends and other members of the Gay Straight Alliance went up to Laramie to peacefully protest the installment of a monument that Kansas based Westboro Baptist Church led by Fred Phelps proposed to be erected that was to say "Matthew Shepard Entered Hell" (http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2003/10/03/news/casper/f060e8d5f0ddf401c07f72e2617c79c6.txt). Even with this violent pretext, perhaps most influential in my continual activism, is the love of my family and friends. I remember laying in my dorm room the night before August Experience, debating on whether or not to come out on a campus and a community that was all too unacecpting. Even now I still get asked by friends back in Colorado, if weather or not I had been attacked in "hick-college."As my mom has often said while quoting from Dr. Suess' Oh, the Places You Will Go "The people who matter don't mind, the people who mind don't matter;" then she would tell me that all we can do in the brief time on this wonderful world is to "live and love fully (as quoted from Wake Up and Live)." I do admit, thanks to the support of friends on campus, the professors staff and to an extent the community at large, I do not see myself being left to die in the cold night. Despite this, there are still pangs of fear and hate prevalent in all element of our society, which Hanover is also apart of as seen in recent events in Wiley Hall. To address this, I call out the student body, the professors, the administration and the community as a whole to look beyond divisiveness or apathy. One should stand against hate regardless of political afiliation, for all sides of the political spectrum are diverse in that they encompass the broad expanse of our diverse melting pot (yes, there are GLBTQ Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Independents). Regardless of religious beliefs or philosophic professions, we each must ask ourselves what role does hate play in our lives. Regardless of your personal views on marriage, adoption, etc, there is a time and place for each of our voices to be heard. And to those who are apathetic, to those who feel that nothing can or should be done, it is just as detrimental to stand aside and be idle as it is to participate in the acts of hate. This by no means is a simple process. Despite the progress of the civil-rights movements there are still events such the Jena Six, the inequality of a woman's pay in the workforce, and the 1138 rights denied to milions, and thousands of other examples in our constitutional republic that go without mention on the evening news or the morning paper. As a community, we must remember the founding of this institution, and even our nation and strive for the betterment of our society and our world, for the most basic human right to live without fear. If one individual or group lives with that fear, then we all suffer as individuals by undermining our ideals and beliefs. It is as a Hanoverian and an American, as well as an out and open homosexual, that I publically speak out against all forms of hate. thank you, Brooks A. Ahlfenger