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Permission granted by author for anyone to distribute this
writing free of charge (including translation into any
language)...under condition that no profit is made therefrom,
and that it remain intact and complete, including title and 
credit to the original author.

Ezekiel J. Krahlin
http://surf.to/gaybible
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HETERO SHAME WEEK

©1998 by Ezekiel J. Krahlin
(Jehovah's Queer Witness)

(The following letter was sent to numerous media outlets in the
United States, Canada, and other parts.)


August 16, 1998
San Francisco, CA

Dear Editor:

I am typing this letter here in San Francisco, after having
read the FULL PAGE anti-gay ad in this Sunday's Examiner/
Chronicle (August 16, 1998; page A-22). The official excuse by
the Examiner's publisher is: it's their right to free speech,
as much as we may abhor it (according to a news spot on
channel 5 10 o'clock news Friday night, August 14).

(Note: to read other people's opinions, click here and here.)

Well, then, where are the ads from the KKK that Jewish people
killed Jesus, but they can be converted? Or ads from the Aryan
White Resistance, that black people are subhuman, and should
be relegated to zoos? Or from the Idaho Chamber of Commerce
proposing that all Chinese Americans be shipped back to the
land of their ancestors? After all, that's their right to free
speech too, isn't it?

The San Francisco Examiner--one of the major newspapers of
northern California--has gladly paid its Judas price of
$35,000 to betray its gay citizens. So much for the marvelous
"gay mecca". San Francisco shall go down in history for the
greatest betrayal to its own people. We have also recently
suffered gay bashers and murderers getting off with no worse
than probation...including where one judge blamed the
murderous consequences of a drunk homophobe on "bad alcohol".
Not to mention various gay bashings on MUNI, our local
transit, assisted by its drivers and supported by its
union...for which reason I have renamed this service "The
Homophobe Express".

I have never felt that San Francisco at large, has ever cared
much for its gay population. Now, I see my suspicions
confirmed: just more phony hetero liberals stabbing us in the
back, while they smile in our faces. Meanwhile, I suggest
massive demonstrations and civil dissent at the doors of their
newspaper building on 5th and Market Streets...as well as a
complete boycott of their business...that all present
subscribers should cease, immediately, buying their brownshirt
newspaper. We should demand that the entire $35,000 should go
towards our own homeless, poor, and disabled lesbian and gay
people in the San Francisco Bay Area. Likewise, all gay
reporters and other employees of the S.F. Chronicle/Examiner
should consider a walk-out strike...or even quit their present
jobs.

It is obvious to me that homophobia in America is overwhelming
us. That if it were just a problem with the religious right,
it would never have gone this far. In fact, I conclude that we
have far less hetero friends in political office (or in our
homes, neighborhoods, workplaces and clubs), than most of us
care to admit.

San Francisco is a melange of minorities...and we all have our
differences and arguments. Yet all minorities but one, can
safely visit and enjoy neighborhoods of any other minority. It
is only us gays who are so terrorized by the other minorities.
And the city does little about it.

Now's a good time to test whether or not your hetero
associates are really gay-friendly. Don't be assuaged by their
claims, "What a shame!" Let's see 'em put their money where
their mouth is. If I were hetero, and cared about my gay
friends, I'd be walking with my head lowered in shame
now...and would put away my public displays of het affection,
for the sake of their freedom and respect that America still
denies us gays. Like Christianity, heterosexuality has
blackened its own reputation so badly, that I think any gay-
caring hetero should avoid that term like a plague, and come
up with some new word to replace "heterosexual".

I think we should have our own interviewers, walking up to
straight couples in gay neighborhoods, and ask them why they
feel it's okay to display their affections in public gay
areas, when gays can't do the same in their straight
neighborhoods and hangouts. We should ask them why they smooch
in our bars and clubs, yet don't let us do the same in theirs.
I'd ask them:  would they invite their gay friends to hetero
clubs, and encourage them to feel free to smooch...that
they'll protect them if any homophobic outbreak occurs?

I believe that free speech in this country is being abused,
and used as a weapon of hatred against gays. Most other
western democracies have outlawed homophobic attacks--both
verbal and physical. Yet they defend free speech, don't they?

I think that American free speech is a distortion of what it's
supposed to be...in that it wrongly defends even the most
violent of hate speech. All liberties must have their
restrictions, else they soon lose relevance. The restriction
on free speech should include the three following rules:

1)  No promoting the injury, death, or torture of another
person. (As in: "Stone those faggots to death.")

2)  No invocation of one's religious beliefs to promote the
injury, death, or torture of another person. (As in: "God says
these faggots should be stoned to death.")

3)  No promoting prejudice against a people or person, that is
known to provoke violence or other persecution against them or
her/him. (As in:  "Would you really let a faggot teach your
children?")

Meanwhile (until we earn our freedom as equal-class citizens)
I think we should declare a "Hetero Shame Week", immediately
following "Gay Pride Week"; here in San Francisco and in all
other U.S. cities with a significant lesbian/gay presence.
That is...if we don't all get rounded up first, and tortured
in laboratory experiments, or made into wallets and lamps.

The purpose of Hetero Shame is mainly to address the silence
of the hetero majority that claims to not be allied with the
religious right...yet in their silence, they give sanction.
They do nothing to speak out against homophobia, nor anything
to support gay rights. If this were not true, we'd find many
more gay-supportive posters and announcements in hangouts set
aside for our "liberal" heterosexual populace (which places
indeed DO provide a voice against racism, child abuse, and
women's rights). Instead, there's barely a peep of protest
against gay hatred.

HETERO SHAME WEEK:  whereby all public display of hetero
affection be outlawed for that week. Anyone breaking that law
would go to jail for 10 days, and be fined $500 (which shall
be donated to one or another les/gay rights organizations).
Any hetero who can't afford the steep fine, or time away from
work...ought to heed well the advice to keep his or her public
affections under strict control, for the duration. See how YOU
(heteros) like it!


Sincerely,

Ezekiel J. Krahlin
http://members.xoom.com/ezekielk/

---finis