From: tabron@binah.cc.brandeis.edu ("Sod the proles!")
Subject: the same-sex and pentacles threads
Reply-To: tabron@binah.cc.brandeis.edu
Organization: Brandeis University
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 21:36:05 GMT


To the Rialto, greetings.

I am having trouble keeping up with the enormous number of postings and
I fear that I may have to overlook some fine points through use of the
"set seen" or be forever lost in the labyrinth of the Rialto, so please
forgive my posting before I have caught up on all that has been written
before.

I would like to say that this is by far the most courteous board I have
ever read, and I appreciate the sincere and obvious efforts made by all
but a very few gentles to incorporate courtesy into their posts. 

I regret that I was not able to make myself so clear in my previous posting
(which was not written in a white heat but which was the result of several
days' thought) that I could not prevent some gentles' mistaking of my tone
for a rancorous, bitter one. I rejoice that there have been so few of these
misunderstandings and I do hope that I will be able to do better with this
and future posts.

I appreciate all the encouragement and good wishes I have received as a 
result of that post, both here and in my personal mail. If there is anyone
to whom I have not expressed individual thanks for their support, please
accept them now: I do thank you.

I do not wish to be the cause or focus of any further unpleasant disagree-
ment, but I do feel that I must respond to one more point, and in public.

Several gentles have expressed the idea that the SCA, or themselves as
individuals, should not be asked to "suffer" just to redress the wrongs that
"society" inflicts on people like me for my differences. I disagree. I am
willing to be hurt for the rights of people who are black, Hispanic, native
American, Asian, because I am white and I can do things that they cannot
and this is not just. I cannot expect them to change those unjust things
on their own, for the same reason. It is I and people like me who are 
maintaining this unjust situation. By doing nothing, I _do_ do something;
I help to maintain an unjust status quo. I could not respect myself if
I did that. 

But I wish to make something else quite clear:
I am gay.
I am a woman.
I am a witch.
I feel that, in the names of courtesy and justice, I can expect people who
are  not any of those things to fight for my rights just the same; I do not
see how they can respect themselves otherwise. 
But I _must_ fight on my own behalf.
I must champion me.
I cannot allow slights against gays, women or witches to go unchallenged,
because that is me. And as so many of you have so clearly demonstrated,
I cannot _expect_ others to fight for my own rights. Most people will not.
Even when I know that the unjust condition will not change until people
who are _not_ like me are brave enough to champion my cause in the name,
so uncherished now, of justice.
I must fight for me.
I cannot just lie down and die.
And, good gentles, as long as injustices _are_ inflicted upon me, and as long
as others, strong and able and with priveleges that are denied to me in the
names of those injustices, _refuse_ not only to help me but also even to
posit that I should be fighting on my own behalf, I will be angry.
I _am_ angry.

If anger is expressed towards you in the form of an accusation of bigotry,
homophobia, etc., it is because you have done something to touch off that
spark. _I_ have accepted the accusation of homophobia with grace and concern,
and had the guts to look at myself and wonder what _I_ had done to deserve
such an accusation. I have been homophobic in my life and no doubt will be
again. I know and accept that my homophobia will make others angry. And
though it is _very_ hard to do, I try to recognize what it was I did that
set off that anger, and change it.

I am afraid that there _are_ some of you who clearly are bigots and homo-
phobes. I know that to be labelled such will make you angry, because today
we all know what those things are and no one wants to be one. 

But I don't think you can be as angry as I am when people scream "dyke"
and "lezzie" and "fag" at me as I pass. When my neighbors threaten to
beat up my roommate because he's a "faggot." When my porch lights are
smashed and my possessions stolen. When someone tries to run me off the
road because they saw me kissing my wife at a red light.

road because they saw me kissing my wife at a red light. When they paint
Judith L. Tabron		Raedwynn aet thaem Grene Wudu
Dept. of English Lit.		Yasun Bogeleku
Brandeis University		Household of the Great Dark Horde
Waltham, MA			(currently scouti-- LIVING in Carolingia)
	SAXON MONGOLS UNITE!
Darwin's Law -- If you're Dumb, you Die!

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