I am very proud of this letter that appeared in the SF Chronicle this weekend, and I’d be honored if you took a moment or two to read it. Here's the link, text below.
To put it in context, I am commenting on an article about people who supported Prop. 8 who are now carping and whining that people are threatening to boycott their businesses and, allegedly, their livelihoods. My heart does NOT bleed for them in the least bit.
Rightful challenges to Prop. 8 supporters
Editor - I must take issue with John Diaz's assessment of the Proposition 8 aftermath ("The ugly backlash over Proposition 8," Nov. 23). People who support Prop. 8 cannot have it both ways. They cannot expect to revoke an entire group of people's civil rights and then cry "foul" if someone decides to contact them personally and call them on it.
I am not advocating any type of personal physical attack and I am certainly not advocating attacking someone's family members, especially minor children, but yes, if an adult makes a public statement supporting Prop. 8, he or she needs to understand that those of us who are affected by their opinions might choose not to sit back in silence and we might take it upon ourselves to approach these people and to challenge them on their opinions. Accordingly, if that person is a business owner, they need to understand that we might take our checkbooks and do business elsewhere.
Try this on the other foot, perhaps. Try to imagine what we, as LGBT people, must face every single day because we choose to make public statements about who we are, merely by attempting to live our lives openly and proudly and by advocating for, and at times even demanding, the equal protection under the law that we are entitled to.
Personally, I am offended almost every day by liars, frauds and propagandists who have never met me but at the same time profess to be experts on who I am and how I live my life. I am offended by those people talking about me as if I were some abstract concept and not a real human being, someone who feels and someone who hurts. The backlash I feel every single day of my life is ugly. Yet, I go on. The Prop. 8 supporters need to do the same. Prop. 8 hurts everyone. If someone thinks they are bold enough to make a public statement supporting legalized discrimination, they need to expect that there might be non-violent consequences to their statement, that they will be challenged, and deservedly so. Seems to me that the people who support Prop. 8 can dish it out, but they can't take it. Of course, I'm not surprised. That, my friends, is the true definition of a bully.
KENNY ALTMAN
San Francisco
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