I saw this item posted at Raw Story the other day. Fox News had Ann Coulter and Lis Wiehl, author of The 51% Minority, on to discuss the phenomenon of celebrities and politicians who go to rehab facilities whenever a negative story is reported about their private lives. Coulter was incensed that Grey’s Anatomy star, Isaiah Washington, checked himself into a counseling facility after using the slur “faggot” to describe a fellow cast member, T.R. Knight.
However, Coulter’s remarks aren’t what drew my attention to this story. It’s what her “co-panelist” said about the use of a well recognized homophobic slur that I find not only incredibly stupid and ignorant, but just plain bizarre:
Fox panelist, Lis Wiehl, author of the book The 51% Minority, argued that Washington could have defended his use of [faggot].
“‘What’s the problem?'” Wiehl said Washington could have said instead, “‘It’s my opinion, I can say it, that’s not an issue.'”
It’s my opinion? I can say it, that’s not an issue? I guess Ms. Wiehl lives in a different universe than I do, because where I live the use of slurs to demean other human beings, whether based on racial, religious, gender, or sexual orientation grounds, is not merely an opinion. It is not something over which reasonable people can disagree as part of a civil debate or discussion. You don’t use words like “nigger” or “spic” or “cunt” or “faggot” because you have an opinion about something or someone. You use despicable terms like those against other people because you wish to wound them, intimidate them, or inflame hatred and encourage acts of violence.
Such words are hate speech, intended to dehumanize and harm others. “Faggot” is one of those words, one that is employed by bigots to inspire and encourage acts of psychological and physical violence against gays and lesbians. Here’s just one example:
(cont.)
As a little kid, [Charlie Howard] got laughed at and called a “sissy”. In later years, he got shoved around and got called a “fag”. Charlie had to have a tough shell just to get through most days without crying or running away. Underneath, he has accumulated a lot of scars and bruises. He wondered if people would ever leave him alone – or if, because he was gay, he would be the butt of their jokes forever. Charlie couldn’t wait to get out of high school, but he skipped his graduation ceremony because he didn’t want his family to witness how the other students treated him. […]
Most of Charlie’s friends experienced verbal harassment, and several had been physically attacked. Incidents of gay bashing often went unreported because victims expected little support from the police….
High school kids baited him with obscenities on the street. He got ejected from the West Market Disco for dancing with a man. One day in a grocery store, a middle aged women suddenly started shouting at him, “You pervert! You Queer!” … This confrontation seemed to mark a turning point for Charlie. The stares of strangers began to spook him a little more after that. Sometimes he was afraid to leave his apartment. He stepped outside one morning and found his pet kitten lying dead on the the doorstep. It had been strangled. […]
Midway across the bridge spanning Kenduskeag Stream, in the heart of Bangor, Charlie noticed a car slowing down just behind them. He thought it was one belonging to some high school boys who had harassed him a few days earlier. When they stopped the car and got out, he knew that he was right. The three young men had just left a party to look for some more beer when they spotted Charlie…. “Hey Fag!” one boy yelled. Then the three started running. Roy and Charlie took off, but Charlie tripped on the curb and fell hard onto the walkway. He couldn’t get his breath: the excitement was making his asthma kick in. He felt his legs jamming. Charlie scrambled to stand, but the boys grabbed him. they threw him back down and laid into him with kicks and punches. “Over the bridge!” shouted Jim Baines. Daniel grabbed Charlie under the arms and lifted. Jim got him by the legs. Charlie was gasping now. He snatched enough air to yell, “I can’t swim!” From the far end of the bridge, Roy heard his plea. Jim and Daniel heaved Charlie up onto the guardrail. They had to pry his hand loose. Shawn gave the shove that sent him over. They looked down at the black water 20 feet below and congratulated themselves.
Charlie Howard died because those three teenage boys thought it was fun to “jump” a fag. They were arrested, but the the local prosecutor tried them as juveniles, not as adults. After Charlie died, this is what happened next:
On Monday night after Charlie Howard’s murder, more than 200 people crowded into a memorial service at the Unitarian Church. Afterward, a candlelight procession crossed the bridge. Charlie’s mother had requested that someone drop a rose into the water. The marchers moved on to the police station, where they stood silently in the street. Hecklers from the crowd of onlookers shouted obscene names. A week later, at the spot where Charlie Howard was tossed over, someone spray painted the words “faggots jump here”…
Faggots jump here. Think about that for a moment. A man was murdered because, to those three hateful teenage boys, he was only a “faggot.” They were only having a bit of fun when they chased him, beat him and then tossed him off a bridge into the river below. Into the river where he drowned. And later someone thought it appropriate to mock this man’s murder by spray painting the the words “faggots jump here” at the very spot where he was assaulted and then killed. And this is just one incident out of the thousands (millions?) that occur each year to gay, lesbian and trans-gendered people. Some merely frighten their victims with verbal abuse. Some result in beatings that inflict cuts, bruises, broken bones or worse injuries. And some, like Charlie’s case end in death.
Now ask yourself, were the words “fag” and “faggot” in Charlie Howard’s story merely expressions of opinions by those individuals who uttered them? Is the use of such words to frighten people, to intimidate people, or to rile other people up to such an extent that they commit senseless acts of violence, in any way shape of form defensible? Is the use of the word “faggot” to dehumanize and demean people who are threatened or beaten or murdered because of their sexual orientation, ever justifiable?
I don’t know who Lis Wiehl is. Maybe she’s a wonderful human being. Maybe she loves her family, helps feed the hungry, gives shelter to the homeless. Maybe she’s the most progressive, caring, helpful human being on the face of this earth. But this I do know about her: she’s a bigot and an ignoramus. Because spewing hateful, vile slurs at other people, slurs like “nigger”, “kike”, “wetback”, “gook” or, yes, even “faggot”, is never just an opinion.
