Why some of us are so ambivilent about Robert Bryd

dsc

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Sun Feb-18-07 07:05 PM
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Why some of us are so ambivilent about Robert Bryd

First, I want to say, I respect Byrd's position on the war. I respect his postion on the line item veto. I respect his clear and abiding love for and knowledge of, the US Senate. But I don't respect his hatred of gays.

http://www.oprah.com/tows/vintage/past/vintage_past_20010727_b.jhtml

"Like a Science Fiction Movie"
Oprah: We welcome you to the show, and appreciate your coming back to town to do it, Mike. Do you remember the day at the pool? What happened?

Mike: I went for a swim. It was very hot and that's basically it, we went for a swim.

Oprah: And what happened? Did you notice other people reacting to you?

Mike: Not 'til I got inside the pool, and the lifeguard recognized me and they kind of ran, like people do on those science fiction movies, where Godzilla walks into the street or something. They kind of ran.

Pool Politics
Oprah: Mike entered the swimming pool and the mayor ordered the swimming pool closed. The mayor is here; Mayor, to this day, do you think you did the right thing?

Mayor: If there's just one chance—if there's just one chance in a million that somebody could catch that virus in a swimming pool, I think I did the right thing. I contacted the newspaper, which let everybody know that there was an AIDS patient in the pool. Then I contacted the State Department. Of course, they said I overreacted, and that they felt the pool should be opened. But everybody in the community knew that there was an AIDS patient in the pool, and they could use their own judgement, if they wanted to go in or not.

Rumors Lead to a Social Death
Oprah: How were you treated, Mike?

Mike: Like an outcast. I was afraid to go into restaurants. As a matter of fact, I went and spoke to the manager of Food City after . The police came to my sister and told her that they had heard rumors of me spitting in salad bars and if it wasn't stopped that something would have to be done with me. So I definitely was shunned and left to die.

Oprah: Explain to us how life was for you here.

Mike: I went through a social death. I stayed in a back room a lot of the time at my sister's apartment, and pretty much laid around and just wished that I could hurry up and die. I had nowhere to go. Every time I got out, people looked at me and followed me around and screamed at me and pointed.

Oprah: Did people every try to cause you physical harm?

Mike: No. I never encountered that, other than at the pool, people were screaming and pointed, 'Why are you letting him get away? We've got him here, why don't you lock him up now, while we've got him, and—'

end of quote

Can you imagine the level of pure fear and hatred that would lead to this behavior? Can you imagine going home to die and dealing with that? I remember this story quite well. I was 19 at the time and coming to terms with the necessity of telling my family I was gay. I also was dealing with the fear that someday I would, not could, not might, but would, become infected with AIDS. I knew if I got infected I would just end it all. I was determined not to be the next Mike. Luckily it never came to that. It turned out that condoms and discression combined to make many gays able to survive the plague physically unscaved.

What has this to do with Robert Byrd? Well, at the time this was going on he was quoted as saying that AIDS funding was unimportant because there were no gays in West Virginia. He wasn't just some old crank or young nut appearing in Oprah's audience spouting off hateful nonsense. He was Majority leader of the US Senate. His record on gay rights is lousy period. No support of ENDA, voted for the FMA, voted for DOMA (not only voted for but cosponsered), and was adamantly against gays in the military. In short, he hasn't been any kind of leader on gay and lesbian issues. He has been just plain horrid.

I wouldn't vote for a Republican over him. I would vote for him for Senate if I lived in WV. But spare me the "conscious of the Senate" crap. A true statesmen would have been with Mike when the whole world was against him. Byrd was saying he didn't exist. Byrd is able to fight the fights he fights now, because he built up political points with his constituents by abandoning people like Mike. In a very real sense, everytime he stands up to Bush now, he is cashing a check written by people like Mike. I am just glad he is spending his blood money well.