Courage: Standing up to the haters
"Today, I had my first real experience with fearing for my own safety because of my sexual orientation. It's not a good feeling.
”I was looking at books in section called "gay and lesbian studies" when man told me he "hates f**s." I asked him why he was in LGBT section.”
“He then said, "lesbian bitches like you make me want to fucking cut somebody." I told a security guard at front of store & left immediately.”
After posting, Jenny got immediate support from her Twitter friends. (Another reason I love this community!) Suggestions were made to contact the bookstore again and to contact the local police. Jenny agreed and did both. In calling the bookstore she discovered that the bookstore did the right thing and confronted the man as he was leaving. He admitted to what he had said. The bookstore also filed a report with the police.
This is an on-going story; I just found out from Jenny that the bookstore was Barnes & Nobles, kudos to them for looking out for their customers.
I would also like to give a shout out to another Twitter friend, @casoly, who had written a piece yesterday on racial slurs. She waited to post because she didn’t feel it was appropriate for Thanksgiving, but the timing is perfect for it today. She adapted it to include homophobia:
“Dear lazy racist and homo phobic"
I think in all of the effort to promote gay and lesbian rights, it is sometimes forgotten the courage that it takes for those who are gay and lesbian to come out. There can be real danger to their lives and safety in making such a difficult decision. Your choice of reading material at a local bookstore should not subject you to intimidation and possible danger from the haters.
Ultimately, it is important for all of us to stand up and speak out against the haters whether they are racist or homophobic. We cannot be silent and allow them to win.
Labels: Barnes and Noble, haters, homophobes, kudos, racists