To quote the good doctor:
The day I read in the News-Leader that our Human Rights Commission was being cut from the city's budget, I was also handed a notice published by the local neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Movement, announcing their intentions to disrupt this weekend's Pride Fest (Sunday, 1 to 8 p.m., on Commercial Street).
The plight of the gay community in Springfield has certainly improved over the past decade, but we are a long way from being the kind of city that is so free of racial, gender and sexual prejudice that we can close down our Human Rights Commission. But in the absence of a city-funded office to advocate for the targets of discrimination and hate crimes, persons of conscience must become increasingly willing to publicly and visibly stand up in defense of the rights of minorities in Springfield.
As we learned in the 2001 incident in which a local black man was stabbed by neo-Nazi skinheads in a Denny's restaurant, the perpetrators of these hate crimes can be difficult to apprehend when they are acting in a group. It took nearly three years to find and charge those responsible for the knife attack on Maurice Wilson. We are fortunate that the attackers were found and identified at all because these gangs tend to move their members around the country to avoid detection and apprehension since one flabby, tattooed bald guy with bad teeth looks a lot like other dentally challenged, heavily tattooed, hairless, unemployed, corpulent men.
I had been invited to speak at the Pride Fest and was weighing that invitation against an invitation to go to a friend's lake house. The thought of a gang of thugs in black uniforms, decorated with red swastikas attempting to disrupt the Pride Fest sealed my decision. The stated goal of this little gang of terrorists is to "let the homosexuals know that they are not welcome in our town and that we will not tolerate their "celebration"."(sic)
I’ll reserve from commenting on the good doctor’s decision to not go to his friend’s lake house.
I do applaud Dr. Ray’s appeal that the straight community join us at our Pride celebration. We welcome all who support us to the party, and Nazi’s or no, it should be a good time. I think we can all agree that the more we stop dividing things between gay and straight the more we can accomplish together.
But back to the matter at hand, I saw the same flyer Dr. Ray did. I think he’s taking things a twee bit out of context. Yes, the Nazi’s are coming to Pride, to protest. They have a First Amendment right to do so. But let’s examine some hard facts:
1. Pride is being held on private property. There will be police there. The Nazi’s won’t be allowed on said private property.
2. The public property the Nazi’s will have available to protest on is a sidewalk. A small, crumbling sad stretch of sidewalk on Commercial Street where few of the Pride celebrants will even be able to see them.
So if the Nazi’s disrupt Pride it’s because we LET them. What irks me beyond measure about Roger Ray’s over-exuberant attempt at help is it gives the Nazi’s just what they want, they now think we’re afraid of them.
Well, we aren’t afraid of a few Nazi’s Dr. Ray. I’ve read the National Socialist Movement’s literature. Yes, they’re a scary group who believe in the most horrible bigotry imaginable. But the Nazi’s also know there are going to be cops there and none of them want to get arrested. They just want to make enough noise and nuisance that one of us queers gets out of line and slugs one of them. Then they can show the world what reprobates we are.
Do. Not. Give. Them. The. Pleasure.
I challenge each and everyone of you to outright ignore them and if you must speak to them, let honey drip from your tongue. Do not give them the satisfaction of thinking for one nanosecond you give a rat’s ass about their worthless bigotry. The minute you take their bait, we all lose.
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