From: ae642@yfn.ysu.edu (Kelley Miller)
Subject: Re: Stereotyping
Reply-To: ae642@yfn.ysu.edu (Kelley Miller)
Organization: St. Elizabeth Hospital, Youngstown, OH
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 08:54:00 GMT


In a previous article, joan@koala.berkeley.edu () says:

>
>
>># say with great certainty that nearly all homosexuals agree that child
>># molestation should be a criminal offense.
>>
>>You wouldn't know it from reading soc.motss, or watching gay parades.
>                                                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>	Others have posted here that NAMBLA only marches in the SF
>gay parade.  Evidently Clayton does not believe it.  
>
>Joan V
>

Mr. Clayton is like so many other so-called "intellectual" social observers.
He picks and chooses the images he wants to, then applies those images to
all members of a group.

Even after he has been told repeatedly that NAMBLA is an organization which
is almost universally condemned by homosexuals, even after he has been told
that they were not stopped from marching for the same reason that the Nazis
could not be stopped from marching in Scockie(sp), Illinois, for the same reason
blacks could not be stopped from marching in Montgomery, Alabama in the 50's
and 60's, the same reason gay pride groups could not be stopped from marching
in the Boston St. Patrick's day parade, the reason being that, regardless of
how many people at the time are disgusted by the agenda of the marchers in
that place, they have a right to freedom of expression, to right to demonstrate
as they choose.  No matter how many times he is told of the general disgust
of most gay folks towards NAMBLA, how they were jeered, how garbage was thrown
upon them, he insists that since they are allowed to march, the gay community
MUST be supportive of their agenda.  
I as a gay man would prefer not to see them march.  I as a gay man would
prefer that they disappear from the earth, as their appearance has created
much of the feelings Mr. Clayton espouses (he's not alone, folks..), but I also
realize that if I want my rights preserved, I must put up with the garbage
NAMBLA spews forth.  I don't like it...I never have...but if I ever want
my rights to be upheld, I can't start by denying other groups their rights...
no matter HOW disgusting they are.  And no, I'm not talking about their right
to molest children, here...any person, straight or gay, who molests children
should be proscicuted to the full extent of the law...I'm talking about their
right to demonstrate as they see fit...

Mr. Clayton, I understand your disgust with groups like NAMBLA, I share that
disgust.  I would like to deny them access to parades and other forums...but
I can't, regardless of these feelings.

I would like you to consider this, though...

Would you rather see them march in parades, calling attention to their
agenda, and let the community at large be aware of them to better work against
them and avoid them, or would you rather see then driven underground, where
they can work toward their agenda outside the light of day, where they are 
beyond the reach of decent folks, where we can't work against them...

Or don't you care one way or another, as NAMBLA's existence makes it much
easier for you to be selfrightously indignatious about the entire idea of
homosexuality?




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