Gay pride, gun pride
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Gay pride, gun pride
John Featherman
Early this month, new Philly.com columnist and colleague Mark Segal wrote a compelling piece advocating gun control in his publication, The Philadelphia Gay News (PGN). What gathered my attention wasn’t the controversial topic chosen by my progressive friend, but rather that the editorial was titled “My non-LGBT column,” and that not one mention was made of gays and lesbians.
That begged the question, “Shouldn’t gun rights actually be an LGBT issue?”
The brief answer is, “It should be.”
Here’s why. And you may be surprised to learn why.
With the rare exception of gun show loopholes, most gun buyers have to go through a criminal background check. I was thinking about Segal’s article and, among other things, considered, “Hey, what happens to gays and lesbians that were thrown out of the military because of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT)? Would they fail to pass a mandatory criminal background check because of their less than honorable discharge?”
So, I found the government Website associated with The National Instant Criminal Background Check System – a system launched by the FBI on November 30, 1988. This system instantly determines whether a prospective buyer is eligible to purchase a firearm. According to the FBI, more than 100 million background checks have been made over the last decade, with more than 700,000 rejections. Could any of those denials have occurred, in one way or another, because of the person’s sexual orientation?
The answer is “yes,” according to Alan Edmunds, a San Diego-based family law attorney who has a practice in military discharge. While Edmunds admits on his Website that “The “don’t ask don’t tell” discharge is given as an honorable discharge,” he also acknowledged in a phone interview with me that some gays and lesbians may have been given “Other Than Honorable (OTH)” discharges, where they may have been cited for “failure to meet standards” or “poor performance,” which are disguised legal methods of removing gays and lesbians from the military. According to Edmunds, an OTH discharge may lead to denied criminal background check.
Guilty. Guilty of being gay.
Why should that matter anyway? Aren’t many prominent LGBT advocates pushing gun control, anyway? Yes, they are.
But perhaps they shouldn’t be.
Arguably more than any other group in 2013 America, the LGBT community knows what it’s like to be bullied. The Pink Pistols is a gay gun rights organization whose motto is “armed gays don’t get bashed.” Yes, there is a special interest group for everything, and, sure, mixing the conservative issue of “gun rights” with the liberal notion of “sexuality” may be a bit of an anomaly. But the way the Pink Pistols see it, “The Gay community unfortunately has a reputation of being easy targets. As we grow in size, the perception that the Gays are easy targets will change … No longer will we tolerate being helpless victims. Self defense is a “human right.”
Every week in Mark Segal’s PGN, there’s a column titled “Gayborhood Crime Watch.” At times, the column – covering the previous week’s crime – is pages long. In almost every edition, there is mention of a murder that occurred to a member of the LGBT community, whether it’s on the front cover or the “News Briefing” section.
Maybe gay rights and gun rights make sense.
Violence against LGBT people is rising in the United States. While reported hate crimes as a whole went down in 2011, crimes targeting gays and lesbians went up by 2.6%.
Matthew Shepard - the gay college student who was robbed, pistol-whipped, and tortured because of his sexual orientation - died on Oct. 12, 1998 at the precious age of 21. His violent death heralded international attention to the notion of hate crime legislation. Shepard didn’t own a firearm, but had he, it’s possible he might be alive today.
Unfortunately, too many LGBT Americans still face the threat of anti-gay violence every single day. Jonathan Rauch, the author of “Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America,” said in 2000 that “If it became widely known that homosexuals carry guns and know how to use them, not many bullets would need to be fired. In fact, not all that many gay people would need to carry guns, as long as gay-bashers couldn’t tell which ones did. Suddenly, what is now an almost risk-free sport for testosterone-drenched teenagers would become a great deal less attractive.”
So perhaps LGBT Americans – many of whom are assumed to have been long aligned with the gun control community – might want to make a U-Turn, come out of the closet, and proudly profess their love for firearms. No longer should they tolerate being helpless victims. Self defense is a basic right to which all humans are entitled.
homos . the march to communism continues . stfu , go back into the closet and stop spewing your hatred and your way of life onto society!!— matthewbrandley
Comment removed.- @Doc - While I don't subscribe to Matthews position, the 1st Amendment is a great thing in that it allows anyone, no matter how much you disapprove of what they're saying, to have to right to speak their mind. "Hate" as you know is subjective and cannot possible be interpreted by one or several people.
You're clandestine threat is hollow and rings lame to someone who should know better. I expect more from someone who has a PhD....that is if its real.
How 'bout it Doc?— Professor1982 - g@@k pride!— Billanthony
- hard to say who is more confused, elfman or matthewbrandley.
perhaps you should try reading the article and THEN commenting.— ekw555 - Seeing that history homosexuals have been persecuted and killed over their orientation,
I would think that they would also wish to have a strong presence in the pro gun lobby to aide in protecting themselves from their abusers.— Wildman Bill - So, if someone feels that they're being picked on, packing a gun is the answer? Wow, many people - of all walks of life, age, education...can fit that description. With the movement and growth/outing/acceptance of the LGBT community, and considering the well-spoken -yes, valuable and respected on many levels- members of this community, I think words, an intellectual, civilized approach to combatting the abuse has been and will continue to be the most effective and appropriate response. For those who think otherwise, have you read the never-ending daily reports about gun-violence and death over petty arguments like bumping into someone or jumping in a parking space. Really...I understand the anger, but, packing is not a solution...By the way, I know a few people who carry or have carried weapons and more than a few were completely gutless men w/ severely low esteem levels. Wish they'd just gotten a pit-bull to show the world how tough they are.— ptahan
- Actually, no, I haven't seen the never-ending daily reports of gun violence over parking spaces. I think I have seen, in the past several years, maybe one such report, of a road-rage incident where some moron pulled a gun over something as silly as a parking space, or being cut off. Seriously, that's as much a canard as "ermagherd, the streets will be awash with blood, it'l be like the shootout at the OK Corral!" Funny how those things NEVER HAPPEN.
And no, "packing" a gun (stupid term for it, like "packing heat" -- this is not a Mickey Spillane novel) is not the answer if you're "being picked on". Lawfully carrying a gun is for when you are in danger of grievous bodily harm or imminent death from some hateful schmuck(s). That's hardly "being picked on". That's like saying the Jews in Germany got "roughed up a bit".
GLBT people are frequently targeted for violent assault and murder, just for being who they are.— Demosthenes - They are not denied the purchase of a gun because they are are gay. They are denied it because of a dishonorable or other then honorable discharge from the US Armed Forces. They were discharged that way for breaking rules or not meeting standards. Stop trying to twist things to gain sympathy. When they joined the Armed Forces they knew the rules and still joined on their own free will.— Taxpaying Voter
- I find their logo interesting - Pink Pistols - There is a pistol on the right hand side but clearly the handle of an M-16 (or some other automatic weapon) on the left. They are sending mixed messages.— teddybear415
- of course these two issues should be together........they have the common denominator of RIGHTS. plain and simple. It's why every American gun owner or not should side with the gun rights movement, since at it's core it's a rights movement.— dgsophilly
- Interesting. Thousands of gays were given OTH discharges from the military. In fact, it was common to do that until Clinton stopped it. This disqualifies them not only from purchasing a gun, but also from getting a License to Carry in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, no mechanism has been established to identify the trousands of potential mass murderers under psychiatric treatment. Trying to ID them for the NICS system could even be a violation of their privacy, under HIPAA!
Let's see... Violent mental case = pass background check, privacy protected by law. Gay = fail background check, privacy not protected by law. Something's very wrong here!— DonQ - @teddybear415 You must explain for us the advanced technology you are using to tell the difference between a select-fire M-16 assault rifle and a civilian-model semi-automatic AR-15 solely by seeing a portion of the carry handle. I'm sure ATFE would be interested in exploring law-enforcement applications of this technology with you.— MaggieL
- I should add that our logo is the pink triangle...the weapons it is displayed with were added by the photographer, in this case I believe Oleg Volk, a very talented photographer and art director.
But those are both legitimate self-defense weapons, albeit for different circumstances.— MaggieL
