Gabi Clayton's Guestbook #52 - From 5/18/04 to 7/26/04
Note: This guestbook reads from the bottom of the page up. -- Gabi

Monday, July 26, 2004  4:51:47 PM Name: Carlos E-Mail: freed_01@yahoo.com Homepage: Location: Los Angeles CA Comments: I read the story of your son Bill after finding a link on another website. It saddened my day and felt for him and his friend Sam tremendously. I felt for his mother and his family that they went through these events of hatred from the time he was raped by that man. I, however, was saddened some more when I discovered the links and comments of the Iraq War and our president, George W. Bush. Were these the types of comments we should teach our children? Teach Bill? This is the lack of respect for the leadership that the leftist sector of the U.S. “society” continues to outpour daily? If Bill lived in Iraq, he would certainly been tortured and murdered under Hussein’s government. The new government, graciously thankful to the U.S. invasion, must be “taught” of tolerances in the world today. Of course, that may be difficult in the Middle East as it continues to be in the U.S. Countries like Cuba and North Korea continues to torture and murder the gay population. A memory to a great boy like Bill has been tarnished by his mother with the leftist, anti-war rhetoric on the website. The site should maintain its initial ideals of tolerance against sexual orientation, racist, religions, sexist, etc. issues. As a bisexual father of Hispanic origin, I totally understand the tolerance issues to be addressed. I do not understand the political overtones instilled on the site especially by his mother. Thank God for the United States that we can state our opinion and sometimes pay the consequences but this is not true in Iraq, Cuba, China, etc. etc. etc. From a most distressed concerned bisexual man who is also a father, Hispanic, God-fearing religious Christian, politically moderate and supportive of the country in foreign lands.

From Gabi My answer in part to Carlos (above): I think we have something on the Safe School Coalition website that speaks to some of what you are concerned with and objecting to on my site. At http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/LGBTAntiWar.pdf in pdf format. It is "Is Opposing the War An LGBT Issue?" and in part it says: As Audre Lorde, the noted poet, activist, and writer who was both Black and lesbian, said, "There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives." Race, gender, culture, class, age, and the complex interrelationships of these factors are central to our LGBT experience and analysis of the impacts of the "War on Terror" here and abroad. While all of us in the LGBT movement are affected by the " War on Terror," people of color, immigrants and refugees , women, children and youth, and poor people — including LGBT people — disproportionately bear the burden of war-related repression, violence, and harm. These are the same groups in the United States who already suffer the multiple harms of domestic and sexual violence, hate violence, poverty, and dispossession. You may want to read the rest for more. It was created by LGBT Program, Community Relations Unit of the American Friends Service Committee http://www.afsc.org/lgbt/peace  in partnership with the National Youth Advocacy Coalition NYAC www.nyacyouth.org