Guest post: “A Good Week to Hate Christians”

I got this in today from reader Mike Moore:

Hi John,

As I’m sure you and your readers know, Amendment One is on the ballot this week in North Carolina.

Today I don’t even want to get out of bed. Today is only dread.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, a.k.a. Election Day, will be worse. That is the day whereupon all hope will be lost.

Wednesday will be the worst day. That’s when all the righteous gloating will happen. On Wednesday it will be declared that God’s will has been done, that His people have spoken. Wednesday will be the day when I will know, without doubt, that our life here in North Carolina will always be a little bit—or a lot—worse.

Over two years ago, for our business, I and my husband of twenty-six years (we were legally married, in Massachusetts, in 2008: the picture is of us on our wedding day; I’m on the left) moved from loud, liberal, obnoxious, and wonderful New York, and made Asheville, NC, our primary residence. We chose Asheville because, of all the communities available to us, it seemed the most diverse and gay-friendly. And it proved to be exactly that. We have loved it here.

Asheville is still, however, in North Carolina, and North Carolinians are about to inform my husband and I precisely how much they hate us. North Carolinians are poised to inform my husband and I precisely how unwelcome we are in this state. According to all polls, tomorrow NC’ers will vote overwhelmingly that no marriage or domestic partnership, except that between a man and a woman, can be legally recognized in this state.

Anti-gay laws are nothing new. Laws prohibiting same-sex marriage are nothing new. Those laws work hard to crush our hearts and our hopes and our dreams. Those laws harm us financially and professionally. Those laws harm our families. But we are, sadly, used to those laws.

However, Amendment One is something new. Deeply malicious. Unapologetically, proudly bigoted.

You see, same sex marriage is already against the law the in North Carolina. Marriage is already off the table here. Unlike 99+% of legal marriages performed in other states, my legal marriage is already considered invalid by the state of North Carolina.

But that’s simply not good enough for Evangelicals. Baptists. Catholics. Mormons. Those laws are not enough for inbred southern [bleep] rednecks, or for well-educated upper-middle class bigoted white folk who don’t like their “noses rubbed” in the fact that people like me and my husband exist—even as they send out announcements for their daughters’ purity balls.

Denying us marriage is not good enough for that sack-of-[bleep]Billy Graham and his sacks-of-[bleep] kids. No, they’ll only be happy when any and every form of societal support for my family has been obliterated. They’ll only be happy when gay kids can be bullied without consequences to the bully. They’ll only be happy when the very fine hospital here in Asheville that Mr. Graham uses can, without fear of reprisal, deny me the right to visit my sick husband.

Sure, I know it will get better. But right now, even as someone who loves Dan Savage, my attitude is “[Bleep] that ‘it gets better’ [bleep].” Today, and for a few days to come, I’m just angry.

I know your readers are not the kind of people to support such an amendment and the animus it represents. Nonetheless, there may come a time when a Christian asks you, “Why do gays and lesbians hate us so much?” Should that happen, I hope my thoughts here will come to mind. I know the difference between you and your readers vs. those who promote these laws. However, most of my gay and lesbian friends do not.

It’s a good week to hate Christians. But know I love you and your readers. I guess it’s because I don’t really think of you as Christians, but as people who believe in Jesus.

And, John, thanks for being the one guy to whom I could this letter.

Love to you and your husband, Mike. Sorry this is happening to you.

Sorry this is happening to all of us.