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Date Posted: 16:09:28 06/11/03 Wed
Author: Bester
Subject: Wow... emotional blackmail much?
In reply to: Sergio 's message, "Bester," on 11:56:48 06/11/03 Wed

I'm very sorry if I cause Lance any pain, but do you know HOW difficult it is to write in opposition to hate crimes laws when you have that much death being used against you. I felt like a first class dickhead just for writing my original post, because by Lance's logic I was betraying the death of each and every one of those GLBT people. Well, I don't think I am. Having a different view on Hate Crimes than someone does not make me a heartless monster.

"How any gay person can look into the face of Judy Shepard when she makes a plea for Congress to pass a Federal Hate Crime Law. How any gay person can think about the circumstances in which Matthew died, listen to his mother and still deny her some comfort by supporting a Feredal Hate Crime Law is something I will never understand."

When you put the argument like that, how can I disagree with it without looking heartless? Well, I'm gonna disagree with it anyway. There are families of murder victims here in New Zealand who want to bring in the death penalty to deter murders and punish particularly brutal crimes. I totally empathise with these people, and totally disagree with their call for the death penalty. Empathy for a victim's family is NO reason to support a legal measure if you truly believe it won't work.

I notice, serge, that you didnt address the substance of my argument, but rather concentrated on a peripheral point. My point in posting about that list of names is that the did not INTEND to die as martyrs. They are murder victims. I perhaps did not put my second point very well. I didnt for a second think that Lance didnt have empathy for those people. I've known Lance for quite a while, too, Serge, and I'd never think that of him. What I was saying what that the emotion he was invoking in listing those names (he could have just as easily listed a statistic on victim numbers, rather than list all the names) is VERY hard to argue against. As can be demonstrated by this post. I thank Mitchell for his well thought out, well-written post, you made some good points. I was writing in a new zealand context, where the environment is very different from the US. But I'm afraid, Sergio, that I feel very threatened by your post. I'm not some monster trying to defame Lance. I'm not a heartless b*tch who doesnt care that gay people are being murdered. I was hesitant to post in this thread but Lance ASKED me to. So if I offended him, I'm sorry. It was not my intent. I have a huge amount of respect for Lance, and have told him so. I also stand by the main thrust of my argument, and also the fact that saying "Look at all these people who died: therefore we need hate crimes legislation" is an unfair and illogical argument.

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