Treyvon Martin: LGBT Orgs Rush To Judgement

Recently a group of LGBT organizations, very well respected by my colleagues here at The Gay Report, have come out together to "call for justice" for Treyvon Martin, a black teenager that was killed by a neighborhood watchman who claims that he shot him in self defense. Martin was unarmed and many people are now speculating that racism was a motivating factor. Whether it was or it wasn't it is important to note that I, like everybody else, want the justice system to do its job and ensuring an impartial investigation.

I wanted to stay away from this news item simply because I do not want to politicize a likely crime scene. But now these LGBT organizations have compelled me to react to what I see as nothing but political pandering and the fuming of racial flames. These organizations have made a grand mistake of the third kind by taking upon themselves to judge an incident before anybody is officially charged with any possible crime. This is not "justice" but utter nonsense and outright bigotry against due process which is a constitutional right that all gay rights activists uphold (and should) when we discuss gay rights such as marriage equality. What we are witnessing is not a call for justice but rather a blood thirsty clamoring for vengeance.

Now where else have we seen this bigoted, prejudiced call for vengeance? That's right, Proposition 8. People wanted vengeance against what they perceived was an attack on traditional marriage so they took to the polls to stop it in an act of hostile vengeance. Another great example was the ousting of three Iowa State Supreme Court Justices who ruled in favor of gay marriage by the right wing, I mean you can't get more vengeful than that. Or how about all the current referendums in states to stop gay marriage from passing and killing such laws for equal justice? Remember when social conservatives in New Hampshire tried (and failed) to repeal gay marriage? These are just a few examples of pure pre-judgmental vengeance out of irrational fear without reading or understanding the facts of the matter.

The other thing that bothers me about what these organizations are doing is that they didn't even ask the gay community how they felt about this issue, they just assume we all think alike and have the same inclinations that they have to pre-judge someone without his day in court. They are trying to excuse this endorsement of modern day witch-hunting by arrogantly stating that this could be an LGBT issue. Their rationale is that Treyvon Martin could have been you or me or any other gay person. Yes that could be true. So when any of member of our community gets shot other communities like African Americans immediately join forces with us to "demand justice?" Since when do we see blacks or anybody else outside the community tying themselves to a wooden fence in memory of Matthew Sheppard like we see today as people parade themselves in hoodies in memory of Martin? I don't see these communities at work for ours, in fact you tend to see them working hard in repealing laws that protect our community and join forces with the National Organization for Marriage as they bite their race bait on the hook.

Okay, if anyone of us could have been Martin, equally probable anyone in our community could have also been George Zimmerman, the shooter, as well. Fine, I will accept this theory that we can play other people's roles to formulate some sort of artificial catharsis, and lets say that Zimmerman was gay and was being attacked by Martin for being gay. This is a hate crime, which happens a lot (and rarely gets media attention like this case) and in fact you may see that many of these hate crimes are committed by blacks. So here gay Zimmerman takes out his gun and shoots homophobe Martin in the chest in self-defense. What then? Whose side should the organizations chose then? I think self defense should always be a viable option for any gay person that gets bashed and whose life is being threatened.

You might say that my speculation is unacceptable, maybe that's because speculation is unacceptable and we should let the justice system (as opposed to the vengeful witch hunt that homophobes love to engage in) do its thing. And in the mean time these organizations should take another look at themselves instead of George Zimmerman and strike their names off that statement for the sake of justice not vengeance.

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