The Cost of Hate

This past week I attended the Midwestern Bisexual, Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Ally College Conference in Ann Arbor Michigan. The conference itself was excellent and it was great to see a supportive and affirming community of Queer people gathered in one place to discuss issues. However, sadly the greater communities response to the conference was not as supportive as one would hope.

One event that was held on Saturday night in the Michigan Memorial Union was a dance for the attendees of the conference. As the dance was ending (around 2am)and delegates were leaving the Union a car carrying several unidentified individuals drove by with bb-guns and opened fire on the delegates. While no one was seriously hurt, this is still an incredibly violent response and someone could have experienced serious bodily harm as a result. It is not a far leap to move from assault with a bb-gun to deadly assault with a real weapon. In addition the larger issue is that anyone felt they had the right to open fire on a group of teenagers and young adults simply because of their sexual orientation.

This experience, along with others in my own life, have left me questioning what is the cost of hate? Both literally and figuratively. As a queer identified person it saddens me that there are very few places where I can feel supported and affirmed in my identity. The media and various conservative organizations launch almost daily attacks on LGBT people in this country and LGBT individuals are disproportionally the victims of hate crimes; with Transgendered individuals being more likely to be killed in a hate/bias incident than all other groups (including African Americans, Jews, Women, etc) combined. These attacks, both physical and verbal, are not just attacks on queer people but on all people. It saddens me to live in a world where we sanction or ignore violence against any group...simply by virtue of being a member of that group.

At the conference one of the key note speakers advocated for LGBTQ youth to get involved in anti-racist, anti-ableistic, etc. movements because if we allow hate and violence towards any group...it means we are allowing violence against all people. You can not pick and chose.

When I think about the hateful rallies, media, postings, blogging, speeches, etc. that target not only LGBTQ individuals but also people of color, people with disabilities, people without citizenship, women, Muslims, etc. I wonder how the world would look if we did not spend millions of dollars and hours sanctioning these actions. How much good could an organization do if they focused on making positive changes (feeding the hungry, providing shelter to the homeless, fueling our failing education system) rather than funneling money and time into acts of hate.

I am left wondering what is the true cost of hate? In this time of financial crisis how much money continues to be spent on furthering a hateful agenda? On denying others rights?