Unity, Part 2

I got into town from the Democratic convention in Charleston just about 6:30 P.M. Saturday, and met Joe at a restaurant downtown. Services at Tree of Life for Shavuot, Jewish Pentecost, were called for 7:30. Not many people showed up, and Joe was home by 10:30. The plan was to have study sessions and blintzes (traditional, but I don't know why) until midnight. I was exhausted and left early.

We awoke Sunday to the horrible news about Pulse in Orlando. There was a meeting in the afternoon of an interfaith group started to counteract gun violence. It then moved into combating Islamophobia and supporting Syrian refugees.  I don't always go, but I wanted to discuss what had happened in Orlando. I thought the group would draft a statement. The group from the local Islamic Center didn't show up, and not many people came. We all expressed support for the LGBT community, agreed not to condemn Islam generally for this crime, and said we would work for gun control. Eve Faulkes had designed headscarves for women and t-shirts for men with a message of peace, inclusion, and a plea to accept refugees. Joe bought t-shirts and Eve photographed us with a statement on cardboard from Rabbi Michael Lerner.

Facebook was awash with chatter about Orlando. There was a push from WVU people to have something, a ceremony of some kind. It was scheduled for Thursday night. Because so many people on Facebook were angry that there was silence from clergy (not entirely true), I checked with Joe, and he was willing to speak at the event. He is  probably the only openly gay clergy in the area. Word came back that they wouldn't need him. The event was well-attended, despite horrible storms just a few hours earlier, with some roads blocked by fallen trees. The speakers they had: a Vice President at WVU in charge of the Division of Diversity and Inclusion, the mayor of Morgantown, a Muslim student involved in student government, and a self-identified transgender Latina woman, an honors student in the Women's and Gender Studies Department.They all spoke well. The weather cleared and we were able to go outside to light candles at the end. I knew many of the people there. I know Morgantown has a large population of involved and caring people. It was for them that I ran for office.

Meanwhile, the local newspaper had run an anti-Muslim column from columnist Cal Thomas on Tuesday. The Islamic Association of West Virginia put out a strongly pro-gay statement, which I saw on Facebook. I called the paper and asked if they would run that and they said they would not without a local angle. So I wrote a letter critical of Thomas and excerpted the Islamic Association's post. Meanwhile friends of friends on Facebook whined about their "Second Amendment rights"; others went on about "Islamic extremism." A minister in California said it was too bad more pedophiles weren't killed, and a Republican from Texas said it wasn't really a gay bar. We have a lot of work to do.

A week after the tragedy, Morgantown was scheduled to have its first Gay Pride celebration, at 123 Pleasant, a hipster locale downtown. This being not West Hollywood, it was indoors in the evening, with a panel discussion called "Activism, Advocacy and Our Rights" organized by a friend from the LGBT Equity Commission at WVU. She asked me to be on the panel, and I agreed. I didn't have much to say, but I felt bad for one panelist, a gay male high school student who said he rarely goes to school because he is harassed. Apparently no one, including his parents, will stand up for him. This made me feel powerless. There was a poetry reading and some acoustic music. A band was coming in later. Joe was with me, and we left about ten.. That's as late as we stay out. I knew some of the people there, some gay and some straight allies, and I met a group of transgender women and heard their stories. That is a hard life.

Despite all of the negativity in this country, there is a core of people who care about where we are heading. They grieve with us for LGBT lives lost, and for Latino men and women out for a night of fun, who were gunned down or held hostage. They know blaming Islam is not a solution, that Republicans have never been in any way concerned about the LGBT community, even as they now try to paint Islam as the enemy of gay people. Banning assault weapons would be a useful start. I'm glad for all of that, yet we really need to look at why there are so many deeply disturbed men (almost always men) who fetishize weapons, have a deep-seated hatred of Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton, applaud deaths of gay people even as they ask us to condemn Islam.

Our Shavuot holiday was a bust, and I am just coming out of a week of depression over the events that weekend. I'm feeling more hopeful now. Maybe we can make a coalition of people of all races and faiths to see the United States as a unified country, one where we all care for each other and respect diversity in unity.

Here is what I wrote to the paper. They edited it; this is the original:

It's hard to tell when I'm not dealing well with the world, but there are tell-tale signs. Like when I don't want to go out of the house, or I spend time on Facebook arguing with people I don't know when I should be doing something else, or if someone asks how I am and I don't want to answer.

That's how it's been this week, and I know it is about the shooting in Orlando. I feel close to those people. I am no longer them; I would never be at a bar at two A.M., but there was a time when I would. I think of younger gays and lesbians as my children. Many of them have parents who support and nurture them. Even today, though, parents inflict pain and grief on their LGBT children. I'll take them in as mine. I feel like it was my children mowed down by a killer in Orlando.

Young people I know locally, college and just post-college, are mostly what we now call "allies," not gay, but supportive. Many of them still have friends in the little towns where they are from, and some of those friends have posted about their "Second Amendment Rights" on social media even before expressing sympathy to the gay community and our friends, who are in mourning. I tried to tell them to respond to our grief now, and talk about guns later. They mostly don't get it.

In your paper Tuesday, June 14, Cal Thomas expresses no sympathy for gay and lesbian people, for the general population of Orlando, or for the Latino population, mostly Puerto Rican in that bar from what I have read. He never has expressed any sympathy for LGBT people nor, for that matter, for people of color. Instead, he launches into yet another attack on President Obama for calling for control of assault weapons, and he says "No more mosques should be built in the U.S. until we gain an upper hand against radical Islamists." I'm sure Thomas thinks he is a great patriot, but that is clearly unconstitutional and hateful. He has the right to say it, but the Dominion-Post has the right not to print something that demonizes a whole religious group.

I got comfort from this, from the Islamic Association of West Virginia:

"We will continue to spread our belief in the tolerance, kindness and peace we have found within Islam, and we will stand with and support the LGBTQ community during this difficult time.We will prove that love conquers hate."

I would love to see that sort of statement, perhaps from other religious groups, on your pages more frequently. 

And here is the full statement from the Islamic Association of West Virginia.

Statement on the Mass Shooting in Orlando

Early this morning, as we woke to eat the suhoor meal before the beginning of our Ramadan fast, we received news of a horrifying shooting at Pulse, a gay bar and nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that has claimed the lives of fifty people, and seriously injured fifty more. It is the deadliest mass shooting in American history. Based on the information presently available, the perpetrator was twenty-nine year old Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, who was very likely motivated by Islamic extremism.
The Islamic Association of West Virginia strongly and unequivocally condemns this attack. We denounce acts of extreme cruelty and violence without reservation, and we offer our sincere condolences and heartfelt sympathy to the victims and their loved ones. We pray for the recovery of those injured, for the comfort of grieving friends and families, and for the healing and safety of LGBTQ communities the world over.
While the perpetrator claimed to be Muslim, he did not practice any form of Islam that we know. Our Islam vehemently forbids these heinous crimes, and the killing of innocents violates countless sacred laws and traditions of our religion. Furthermore, as Americans, we strongly believe that LGBTQ rights are an integral part of American civil rights and, more broadly, basic human rights. People of all gender identities and sexual orientations are entitled to dignity and respect, and we fully support their right to live, work and celebrate openly and without fear.
We will continue to spread our belief in the tolerance, kindness and peace we have found within Islam, and we will stand with and support the LGBTQ community during this difficult time. We will prove that love conquers hate.

Dr. Fryson, of WVU, speaking at the memorial event June 16

Candle lighting and traditional bell ringing outdoors at WVu's event, June 16

The panel discussion at 123 Pleasant, June 19