I used to believe that, but I do not any more. It does not account for the at least once-a-week harrassment TJ and I encounter even in NYC. In what other situations does a secret affinity result in such violence? Was that 14 year old's secret affinity responsible for him deciding to put two bullets in the back of a 15 year old boy's head?
By the secret affinity argument, unacknowledged bisexuals should top the list of violent offenders.
The issue is also being reinforced as TJ and I try to adopt children. We are looking to adopt lesbian and gay children and finding that they are subject to the same violence that we were growing up. Nothing seems to be changing.
> That, plus the fact that men are trained and conditioned by patriarchal
society to be violent -- especially to women. In fact, I'd argue
gay-bashing and domestic partner abuse are really two sides of the same heterosexist coin.
But I am a man and certainly received the same training as any other boy. Did being queer somehow cause me (and other queers) to be immune from the effects of such training? Why am I not violent? Why don't I want to pop a cap into every het male I see? If a queer male is a threat to a het male's sexuality and evokes a violent response, why don't I see het males as a threat to my security and, therefore, respond violently to them?
Brian