by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
May 28, 2012
Image by Creativity+ Timothy K Hamilton via Flickr
The sentencing of Dharun Ravi for the hateful abuse that may have driven his gay roommate at Rutgers, Tyler Clementi, to commit suicide, or Barack Obama’s public acceptance of gay marriage, prevents many of us from seeing that life for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people is getting worse—much worse.
No one understands this better than the gay activist and pastor Mel White. White, along with his husband and partner of 30 years, Gary Nixon, founded Soulforce, an organization committed to using nonviolent resistance to end religion-based oppression.
[…]
via Truthdig
Copyright © 2012 Truthdig
Chris Hedges spent two decades as a foreign reporter covering wars in Latin America, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. His latest books are Death of the Liberal Class, and The World as It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress.
From the archives:
Never forget that Bradley Manning, not gay marriage, is the issue by John Pilger
Bill Moyers Journal: Same-sex marriage + Lucille Clifton + Supreme Court
Dandelion Salad 
I could be wrong, but what I got from the whole “religion is the problem” bit is that gays and lesbians need to “retackle” (if you will) religion – instead of fleeing from it due to being the victim of intolerance emanating from the church. I get it, I do…I’m a godless homo and I know how it’s considered “not natural”…but if that’s our measuring stick these days, then I’d say most of Western society needs to hold the “not natural” mirror up to their own faces. But what do I know, I was raised Jehovah’s witness, so that might as well be like saying I was raised Muslim, or Jain, or Sikh or Santeria as far as “mainstream” Christians are concerned – as though 144,000 smiling elders in the sky is any more “fantastical” than a goat-headed demon with a pitch fork in the Earth’s mantel waiting to roast me alive for impure thoughts of “sodomy”.
Chris Hedges attacks every religion,every society, all humanity which has alternative perspectives to his identified victims.
Chris in one broad stroke he declares billions of fellow humans to be the enemy of his cause.
Some universal complexities cannot readily be reduced to a chosen cause.
For example :
Arguments for reducing our carbon foot prints are difficult to hold when discussing family size.
Donal , agreed .
Religion’s hypocrisy is sickening!
Vera , any kind of hypocrisy is sickening . Every one has done something hypocritical in their lives . Everyone . so dont point the finger. and another thing that is misleading about this article –it assumes that so called religious people are the problem with the gay community . Gays have their own problems within their own community . ‘example :
1. many gays believe in ”outing ”, many dont .
2. Many are against the baths ( spread of aids ) many are not .
i could go on and on . homophobia is not just caused by religion . that is too broad of a brush .
look at the quote , ”without religion there would be no homophobia ”. what ? just as there is ”internalized sexism ” ( male against male , and female against female in heterosexual life ) ..that same thing exists in the gay life . If all religion was wiped off the face of the earth right now , people would still be homophobic . sad but true . Many Atheists and agnostics are homophobic . i know them personally .
now , if one was to say that religion is a chief contributor to homophobia , then that would be correct. but one could also say that the propaganda from the U.S. government has also caused a great deal of Islamophobia , and one could also say that phoney liberals have caused a great deal of Christophobia . But nothing is all and every .
Of course any kind of hypocrisy is sickening – and worst of all, when coming from people who pretend to have your ‘best interests’ at heart. I think humankind needs recalling and start all over.
Vera, i vote for the total recall. if we don’t change from the bottom up, at the very root… we are doomed to destructive circularity.