Why Sally Kern's Comments are problametic

Some of you may be aware of the horrendous comments which Oklahoma Senator Sally Kern made a couple of weeks back. She faced an outcry from a number of sources within the Gay Community, including Ellen deGeneres calling her live from her show. Aside from those comments, Sally Kern was of course within her freedom of speech abilities to make such a statement.

The problem with such a statement/opinion however, is that it is incredibly dangerous for younger members of the Gay community who are subjected to abuse, either emotional or physical because Sen. Sally Kern has given yet another justification to homophobes across the world, not just in the States. Speaking as someone who was a receiver of such abuse in my teens, I can honestly say that for a 14 year old to have to endure a series and torrent of abuse from immature little f*cks, is not the nicest of things to have to endure and from time to time it still affects me. Thankfully I have not let such a negative experience rule my life, but rather it has become something which I acknowledged as having happened in my life but wished that it never happened. For those of you who believe homophobia has all died away in this 'modern' Ireland, that little anecdote is from the period 1998-2000 when I was in secondary school, and conversations with the Baby Gays, Lesbians, bis, & Trans tell me that nothing has changed much in that time period.

Even as recently as 2006 Johnny's Hate Crime in Ireland report, claimed that some 41% of their respondents had been a victim of hate crime and of that group, some 80% did not bother reporting it to the Guards because it was seen as not worth the trouble. Stonewall in London yesterday released their latest report 'Serves You Right' on homophobia in British Society and how latent it has become in the last number of years.

This is the problem with Sally Kern and many others casual homophobic remarks. By making them, they normalize the whole institution of homophobia and make it acceptable to demean, degrade and potential harm our children in Society who identify as Lesbian, Gay, bisexual or transgendered. They also do a dis-service to those of us who are LGBT in an adult capacity because we cannot walk down the street expressing our feelings showing emotions to the ones we love.

Matthew Sheppard's mother Judy commenting on the storm which arose from Sally Kern's comments on gaypolitics.com said:

I don’t know why Sally Kern is proud of comparing gay people to cancer or terrorism, but count me as someone who’s listening now to people like her. She may be free to say people like my son are a threat to America, but when she does she puts other mothers’ sons in danger. I pray she doesn’t say it anymore.

I think that sums up what I have been trying to say. It is all our responsibilities to challenge our own internal homophobia and external homophobic remarks and make this a better world for me, you, them, us and all of our childrens.