Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Washington Blade - August 11, 2006
Rev. Irene Monroe
HATE SPEECH IS not a passive form of public speech. And one of the signs of an intolerant society is its hate speech, whether used jokingly or intentionally, aimed at specific groups of people.
When this form of verbal abuse becomes part and parcel of the everyday parlance and exchange between people, we have created a society characterized by its zero-tolerance of inclusion and diversity, and where name-calling becomes an accepted norm.
Lately, this Republican political era of "compassionate conservatism" has brought forth displays of a no-holds-barred attitude when it comes to the passionate invective hurled at queers, African Americans and Jews.
In an interview with Ann Coulter, author of "Godless: The Religion of Liberals," on the July 27 edition of MSNBC's "Hardball" with host Chris Matthews, Coulter called former Vice President Al Gore "a fag" and hinted that Bill Clinton might be gay.
Perhaps Coulter intended to be funny or satirical, but her remarks are not only directed at Gore and Clinton, but also at lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. Coulter is taking a swipe at Gore, Clinton, and the entire gay community in one fell swoop and with just one word.
Let us not forget that the word and image of "fag" derives from the word "faggot," meaning "bundle of sticks for burning," and LGBTQ people were supposedly righteously burned at the stake in medieval England.
However, the real hell we gay people confront from this type of name-calling and stereotyping is a societal disparage of sexual relations between people of the same gender where both the church and government ban us from marriage, adoption and serving in the military.
BUT THE HATE speech doesn't just stop with gay people. Jews are also a target. Devout Catholic and staunch Republican Mel Gibson, the megastar behind "The Passion of the Christ," got pulled over on July 28 for drunk driving and flew into a tirade spewing both sexist and anti-Semitic vitriol. "Fucking Jews," he reportedly said to police "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. Are you a Jew?"
The relationship between homophobia and anti-Semitism is that Christian fundamentalists target gays and Jews for not adhering to the "true" tenets of Christianity.
Racial epithets are such a mainstay in the American lexicon that their broad-based appeal to both blacks as well as whites have anaesthetized us to the damaging and destructive use of epithets and highlighted our ignorance of their historical origins.
My state's governor, Mitt Romney, apologized this week for using the racial epithet "tar baby" at a Republican political gathering in Iowa over the weekend while describing a collapse in a Big Dig tunnel that killed a Boston woman.
"Tar baby" is a pejorative term referring to African-American children, especially girls, and was used by whites during American slavery. Today, the term has come to depict a sticky mess or situation.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN homophobia and racism is shown not only in how gay and African-American civil rights struggles are pitted against each other, but the relationship between homophobia and racism will also be shown in the federal government's new HIV/AIDS supposed prevention program mandating all public health authorities and agencies to report HIV-positive patients. It's a program in which African Americans - straight or queer - will ostensibly feel profiled.
Language is a representation of culture, and it perpetuates ideas and assumptions about race, gender, religion and sexual orientation that we consciously, and unconsciously, articulate in our everyday conversations, and consequently transmit to future generations.
The liberation of a people is also rooted in the liberation of abusive language in the form of hate hurled at them. Using epithets, especially jokingly, does not eradicate its historical baggage, and its existing social relations among us.
Instead, using them dislodges these epithets from their historical context and makes us insensitive and arrogant to the historical injustices done to specific group of Americans.
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