Deadly homophobia
By Max J. Castro
MIAMI – The flames of hate often seem extinguished once and for all amid cries of “Never Again!” But the crushing of the Nazi killing machine, the triumph of the U.S. civil right movement, and the victories of the forces of human solidarity and justice in myriad places in the world almost never completely put out the embers.
Or, as Albert Camus puts it in his novel, “The Plague,” an allegory of the German occupation of France, the epidemic may be vanquished but the bacillus survives dormant, ready to emerge again under the right conditions. Indeed, the embers may flare again and the bacillus may rear its ugly head once more in the most unexpected places, as unlikely as Norway or Greenwich Village.
We think of Norway as a Scandinavian haven of tolerance, yet it was there that in 2011 Anders Breivik, a fanatic, delusionary xenophobe, murdered 77 people – including 69 students – to express his outrage at what he regards as Norway’s runaway multiculturalism. Breivik’s murderous rampage was only the worst in a long series of heinous anti-immigrant crimes in Russia, Eastern and Western Europe, and the United States.
If there is one place in the world that would seem safe for the embodiment and the expression of difference that place would be New York City, crossroads of the world, the most cosmopolitan city in the United States. Yet even there, the specter of racism continues in the police department’s “stop and frisk” policy, which has led to the harassment of countless minorities but has yielded a miniscule number of arrests and prosecutions.
Continued racial discrimination in NYC is outrageous, but not surprising, because it never stopped. But what is truly astonishing is that in 2013 a brazen homophobic murder could be committed in Greenwich Village, birthplace of the Stonewall riot that sparked the U.S. gay rights movement more than four decades ago.
But it was there that Mark Carson, an African American gay man, was gunned down, allegedly by Elliot Morales, who previously that night threatened and taunted Carson and a friend with anti-gay slurs.
Carson and his friend tried to leave the scene of the verbal assault, but Morales followed them despite pleas to desist from a companion. After the alleged shooter’s friend left the scene, Morales proceeded to kill Carson with a single bullet from a revolver, according to police. An officer quickly apprehended him.
Earlier in the evening Morales had urinated in front of an area bar, then entered the establishment and directed anti-gay slurs at the bartender. He showed the bartender a revolver and threatened to kill him if he called police.
Carson’s murder threw a veil of fear over some in the city’s gay community, who had considered the area a homophobic-free zone. Still, it would be wrong and unfair to portray the neighborhood as seething with anti-gay violence, although some residents report frequently hearing homophobic slurs. And while assaults have increased this year, and criminals are said to consider gays easy targets, Carson’s murder was the first in the area in 2013.
Nor would it be fair to blame a lax attitude by police for this crime. Police have already charged Morales with murder and weapons violations. And NYC police commissioner Raymond W. Kelly was quick to characterize the shooting as a hate crime. He said: “It is clear that the victim here was killed only because and just because he was thought to be gay. There is no question about that.”
Moreover, Morales was hardly an average citizen of the city. He served ten years in state prison for robbery, and in a search of his home police found an assault rifle among his possessions.
On the other hand, this particular instance of extreme homophobia is not an isolated case. Hatred and hate crimes against homosexuals are hardly uncommon. One particularly horrendous case was that of Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was left to die tied to a fence after having been robbed, pistol-whipped and tortured.
Wikepedia reports that “Fred Phelps, leader of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, took his church’s “God Hates Fags” message to the funeral of Matthew Shepard, held in Casper, Wyoming, on Saturday, October 17, 1998. Two of his picket signs read: “No Tears for Queers” and “Fag Matt in Hell.”’
Although polls show young people in this country today are significantly more favorable toward gay rights than their elders, a lot of harassment and bullying still takes place, especially in schools. And while President Obama has shown leadership in ending the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in the military and coming out for gay marriage, there is fierce hostility against the idea among the electorate, in the overwhelming majority of state legislatures, and among Congressional Republicans.
The Carson murder is a wake-up call to those who think that lethal homophobia is a thing of the distant 1990s or confined to benighted backwaters like Laramie, Wyoming. It can still happen anywhere, even in Greenwich Village (or South Beach where in 2009 a Miami Beach policeman physically and verbally attacked two gay men after the men reported a mugging. The gay man was charged with prowling.)
The good news is that homophobia in this country is in frank retreat as a result of the scant bias of the younger generation. The bad news is that its defeat is generating a dangerous backlash and its death throes will be prolonged and painful, especially to the Matthew Shepards and the Mike Carsons of this world and the many more who in the process will incur less extreme but nonetheless grievous injuries.
