Subject: Re: Impressed by your solid pro-gay support
From:    xanadu222@mchsi.com
Date:    Mon, August 2, 2004 2:09 am
To:      "Chief Thracian Usenet" 

Hi Zeke!

   Thanks for your VERY kind words, regarding the work I've been doing
to fight homophobia.  As a fair-minded egalitarian, I regard homophobia
with the same abhorrance that I felt toward the segregationists, 40
years earlier.

 I was one of the white "Northern agitators" that those losers whined
about; an active Civil Rights worker in Mississippi -- mostly during the
summers, since I was in college -- in 1963-64.  This, TOO, is every bit
as much a Civil Rights issue (despite the loud and lying whines and
howls to the contrary that emanate from the RRR cultists), and it must
be WON just as decisively as was Civil Rights Movement I.

      Just as no person who inwardly is a segregationist would date
publicly admit that now, the same must ultimately become true of the
homophobes.  They must come to discover that their peers will regard
them as undesirable sociopaths if they ever again publicly speak out
against gays having full ACCESS to the EQUAL rights to which they have
*always* been entitled.

     Thus, I am honored by your request, and grant you full permission
to present my writings in the manner you described.  I'm up for whatever
it takes to totally disrupt and disintegrate the bigotries of the
"Religious" Radical Right.  So by all means -- go for it!!  And, THANKS!

Best wishes,
Craig Chilton


> Hello, Craig. You may or may not know of me, but there's a chance
> you do...as I've been quite "notorious" for my gay activism, in
> challenging homophobes on Usenet: Zeke Krahlin.
> 
> My participation in newsgroups is sporadic, however...and for that
> reason, I haven't noticed your excellent participation against
> homophobia. So today, in doing some searching around in Google's
> Usenet database, your name popped up many times.
> 
> And, as you well know, just as whites who stood up for blacks in the
> '60's were called "nigger-lovers", today those who do same for
> queers are called "faggots". (Seeing as "faggot-lover" ipso facto
> makes one a "faggot", unlike "nigger-lover".)
> 
> This is just to thank you for your wonderful attitude, and doing the
> right thing on the gay issue.
> 
> I would also like to include you on my web site, in section "other
> voices / other minds". What I'd do is create a database of your
> usenet participation, similar to one I've done for gay activist Tom
> Keske. You can see what I mean by visiting Keske's page, which I
> created:
> 
> http://www.gay-bible.org/other/keske.htm
> 
> I think you words on this matter are too important to relegate to
> the cyberspace dustbin...and lead the way on how straight folk ought
> to oppose homophobic bigots.
> 
> 
> -- 
> True Tales From The Castro
> (Eat your heart out, Armistead!)
> Ezekiel Krahlin, webmaster

=====================================

Subject: Re: Impressed by your solid pro-gay support
From:    xanadu222@mchsi.com
Date:    Mon, August 2, 2004 4:32 am
To:      "Chief Thracian Usenet" 

Hi, Zeke --

    You have pinpointed one of the things that is the greatest
puzzle to me. Who and where is the Martin Luther King, Jr. of
Civil Rights Movement II (CRM II)?  From what you said, I
begin to see why such a standout leader for THIS cause seems
to be nowhere in evidence.  Substantial divisiveness within
the GLTB community!  How incongrouous, since you all face a
common and formidable enemy!

    How I've often wished that there were only some way that I
could step up to the plate and somehow unify this movement
into a discrete and focused entity. But, of course, being
straight, I couldn't accomplish that any more than any white
person could have spearheaded Civil Rights Movement I.  Only a
person who is a member of the oppressed group could have the
necessary credibility.

    Yet -- I know that within (and in leadership positions of)
the GLTB organizations, there are VERY dedicated people at
work.  So I woneder why a clear leader dosn't emerge?  And I'm
amazed that there always seems to have been a significant
percentage of gays who actually **oppose** same-sex marriage.
THAT, I find both appalling and inconceivable.  (Reminds me of
the "Uncle Tom" blacks in the 50s and 60s who sided with the
segregationists -- probably because they figured they'd be
with the winners that way. If so, it's fortunate that they got
mightily fooled!  There are names for people like those...
Quislings, and Benedict Arnold, come to mind.  WHAT are those
people THINKING??!!

    I put up a post in "aph" a few days ago (and some other
relevant groups) that showed in no uncertain terms the degree
to which GLTB apathy appalls me. What the hell?  We're (the
gays and their egalitarian straight allies) WINNING! But we
haven't yet WON.  So this is NO time for people to be
lethargic, or take anything for granted.  (To the contrary, if
Bush is elected on Nov. 2nd, about all we're likely to have to
look forward to is a scenario of the society depicted in
Orwell's "1984.")  IN that post, I expressed the dismay that I
felt whaen my two Senators' offices told me that the calls and
correspondence they had received pertaining to the "Bigotry
Amendment" had run FIFTY-to-one in FAVOR of that amendment,
before the majority of the Senators had the sense to kill the
thing on their OWN hook, **despite** having heard from all
those people who had favored bigotry.  The Senate SHOULD have
been INUNDATED with **opposition** to the Amendment.  After
all, from a numbers standpoint, egalitarians outnumber bigots
massively!!

    Know what THAT tells me?  It tells me that the
rank-and-file of the GLTB community is ASLEEP, and that
everything that *is* being accomplished is the result,
primarily, of their hard-working corps of LEADERS.

    If THAT had been the case in CRM I, the Civil Rights Acts
of 1964 and '65 probably never would have come about, and the
South might still have been segregated in the 21st century.
Those courageous and massive marches and demonstrations on the
part of the blacks (culminating in that memorable one on the
Mall in D.C.) was what it TOOK for them to WIN!

    WHERE is the gay community's MLK, Jt. -- now that we need
him (or her) to VITALLY and URGENTLY -- right NOW???

    Hmmm.  My letter sounds more like a post.  Guess that's
because i write so many of 'em.  Well -- please feel free to
include this letter in the website, if you wish.  CRM II needs
a clear and vocal, energetic and articulate, LEADER!

    Thanks again, Zeke!  I'm looking forward to your sending
me that URL, when you're ready.

Best wishes,
Craig Chilton 


> Craig Chilton  said:
> 
> >Thanks for your VERY kind words, regarding the work I've been
> >doing to fight homophobia.
> 
> Only too glad to acknowledge your good efforts.
> 
> >As a fair-minded egalitarian, I regard homophobia with
> >the same abhoorance that I felt toward the segregationists,
> >40 years earlier.
> 
> Wow! Not only do you have all your ducks in a row, you have clearly
> *defined the necessity of queer liberation, in our time.
> 
> >I was one of the white "Northern agitators" that those losers
> >whined about; an active Civil rights worker in Mississippi --
> >mostly during the summers, since I was in college -- in 1963-64.
> 
> A true veteran, I see! I was only 13 back then. I've been a
> self-made gay activist since, oh, 1973. Unfortunately, I have not
> achieved much support or circle of friends by now...as the
> divisiveness in our gay community is strong, including class
> elitism. I live on a disability stipend, surrounded by "guppies",
> who are very antagonistic towards me. And my street activism days
> are over, as I'm totally burnt out on the extraordinary amount of
> hard-drug addicts among the homeless...who are also mostly
> homophobic, and intimidate/terrorize the sexual minorities on the
> streets. Thus, I find the Internet my newer venue for my voice to be
> heard.
> 
> Thanks so much for your ongoing efforts. I will see to it, your
> relevant posts have a home on my site. Once I've come up with a
> user-friendly presentation for your writings, I'll send you the URL,
> so you can check it out. So I'll get back in touch with you again,
> in a few days from now.
> 
> 
> -- 
> True Tales From The Castro
> (Eat your heart out, Armistead!)
> Ezekiel Krahlin, webmaster
> http://www.gay-bible.org/truetales


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