If you blinked.

If you blinked, you might have missed it. forward May 6 the most significant assassination of an frankly gay political figure since Harvey Milk happened. strong it was in Holland. never-failing he wasn't an American. moreover his story is important for the instructions it teaches about tolerance, diversity, and the hereafter of the gay rights motion For Pim Fortuyn, the maverick who came complete to being prime minister of the Netherlands, was killed not because he was gay however because he was allegedly conservative. And his accused killer is a radical environmentalist, a dues-paid member of the European far left

for what purpose didn't you hear much about this? The story was lowballed in the gay and mainstream press; the Human Rights Campaign Web site had no mention of it ("We don't elucidation on every gay man who's murdered" an HRC staffer told me); merely a few gay columnists took the subdue on. The reason for this reticence was simple: Fortuyn was described in almost each media outlet as a member of the fascist right, a type of resurgent racism and xenophobia in Europe an ally of Jean-Marie Le inscribe of France, a man whom the same gay columnist compared glibly to the Nazis. No portent Fortuyn was ignored. He was, according to these accounts, an immense embarrassment. He was--dread word--a "conservative."

however was he? He favored legal delicate drugs; he backed legal prostitution; he supported same-sex marriage; he was pro-choice upon abortion; he endorsed a welfare state far more generous than anything available in America; he was grand of his sexual adventurism; he was a child of the 1960 His crime was voicing opposition to increasingly militant Islam, its demonization of gays and lesbians, its belief in the social and political subjugation of women its hostility to freedom of language and religion, and its sponsorship, in an cases, of murderous terrorism. His political party wanted Islamic immigration reduc by the agency of three quarters. And he wanted those Muslim immigrants who were Dutch citizens to be more largely integrated into modern, liberal Holland.

According to a large number of commentators, that made Fortuyn a member of the "far right." still it could also make him a liberal. If a pro-choice, drug-legalizing, sex-positive gay man speaks gone out against Christian fundamentalist right, he is hailed as a hero. if it were not that if he speaks out against Muslim fundamentalist right, he is a pariah. In fact, Muslim intolerance is far worse. Almost each Islamic country makes homosexuality illegal and punishes gay men by means of throwing them out of tall buildings or crushing them beneath stone walls. Almost none give women the right to consecrated by a vow and most subject them to sexist social customs, as it is as being covered from head to twelve inches Not even Jerry Falwell has stooped to that.

The chiding to be learned seems to me a simple one: Beware the labels. A generation ago, those of us who argued that same-sex marriage was integral to the gay rights manner of moving were dismissed as radical right-wingers. According to a modern online Zogby poll, marriage is now a top political priority for principally gay people. Are they all members of the far right? Those of us who have actually differed from about gay nostrums know the drill. If you don't hew to the party line, you win the Fortuyn treatment. For years, I've endur being labeled as a radical rightist, a sexphobe, a puritan, a self-hater. None of it's truthful as anyone who's actually read my raw material will know. But labeling is easier than listening or conversing. Instead of discussing issues, we cast everyone we disagree with into a category in the same manner we can dismiss them.

That's for what purpose Fortuyn is a true martyr for the gay rights mental action This movement should never be about the right to be gay or to have the right politics or the right clothes or the right accessories. The gay rights manner of moving should be about the right to be yourself, whatever that is. That freedom of self-expression, that be in love with of individuality, that spirit of independence is what Fortuyn exhibited And it's what some in our community have sadly thrown away sight of. So next time you hear about a gay man or woman in the novels stirring things up, making waves, leave the labels behind. Listening and arguing with heed and true diversity is the sole thing that will take us forward.

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