No Faggots in Jack City

"NO FAGGOTS IN JACK CITY!" the gleeful, blood-thirsty cameraman says over and over.

This video is in the process of going viral. A (presumably) gay man is badly beaten outside a grocery store in Atlanta. You'll see it all over the web in the next few days. It's hard to watch, but you need to watch it.

I suspect that no human who values the dignity of others can look at this without cringing. We've come a long way toward toleration and mutual acceptance in America, but we've clearly got a long way to go. There's much talk during the current election cycle about America being a "shining city on a hill." Those are pretty words ... but we're not there yet.

Thankfully, per reports, the Atlanta PD's Gang Unit is all over this incident, and an investigation is underway. But this is one case that got caught on camera (astonishingly, by the perpetrators themselves as a twisted boast or "proof of performance" for their friends or other gang members) ... there are an untold number of similar incidents every day in America that we don't see, that don't get reported or, if reported, are sneered at and dismissed by law enforcement.

There are those of us fighting every day, as individuals and through organizations, to keep awful scenes like the one above from EVERY happening again. I entreat you -- join us. Stand beside us. Do not be silent.  Obviously, if you see something occurring, DO NOT LOOK THE OTHER WAY. But more than that, raise your voice against any intolerance when it crops up around you.

Thank you.

On Veteran's Day, do you stand for what America stands for?

In the 50s and 60s, conscientious white Jews and Christians stood with African-Americans in their struggle. In the following decades, conscientious labor unions, the NAACP and others stood with gays in our struggle. Today, conscientious 1%-ers and unions stand with the 99% in their struggle.

These movements are very different. But they share one important commonality -- coalition. Sweeping social change can come only through coalition.

Muslim-Americans are increasingly facing withering criticism and discrimination. I believe their struggle is the next big American rights challenge. Today, Veteran's Day, in Tennessee, there is an ABSURD "Anti-Shariah Law" conference going on. A string of speakers have addressed a rabid crowd, including a former FBI officer who insists that people who choose to worship Allah "do not have a First Amendment right to do anything." 


The Tennesseean newspaper saw this coming and wrote about it in July.

On this Veteran's Day, when we memorialize American service members who laid down their lives defending the rights of free speech and religious expression, do YOU stand with the anti-Muslim fear-mongers or the freedom fighters? When it's time to build coalition and support our American Muslim brothers and sisters, where will you be?