VILSACK'S ORDER KICKS ANTI-GAY HYSTERIA INTO OVERDRIVE

by Rob Borsellino

Stealing, cursing, fighting: none of that was a big deal when I was growing up. Everybody did it. Same thing for drinking and wife beating. Guys would get loaded and smack the old lady around a little and nobody got too crazy about it. No reason to call the cops. That was between you and the wife.

Gambling, running numbers, fencing stolen stuff: that was like our stock market. It was all part of the culture, just like racism, anti-semitism and a whole bunch of other isms that make me cringe just to think about.

The Irish beat on the Italians, the Italians beat on the Puerto Ricans, the Puerto Ricans beat on the blacks and everybody beat on the Jews.

There were only two things beyond forgiveness. First, there were girls who slept around. We had an entire vocabulary for those girls - Italian words, Yiddish words, English and a combination of all three.

But the worst thing was being gay. You wanted to hurt somebody, you called him a homo. And then the fists would fly.

I didn't really know any openly gay people. But I was ready to gay-bash with a vengeance if the occasion called for it.

Then somewhere along the line I got out of my comfort zone and started hanging around with folks who had more than an eight-grade education. I met musicians and actors and guys and gals who were poets and dancers. Some of them were gay. And among those gays there were folks who were scam artists, junkies, the typical mix.

In that respect, gays were like any other group - socialists, Republicans, Christians, atheists. Any group you can imagine will have its share of losers. But most of the gay and lesbian people I came across were normal folks trying to get through the day, go home at night and be with their loved ones.

That was the end of my gay-hating phase. For 25 years or so I never gave gays and lesbians much thought. I had my own problems.

Then I moved to Iowa and I was reminded that homosexuality is a problem. A big problem - in the schools, in the churches, in the workplace.

We've got gays running for the school board who must be weeded out. We've got gay ministers who must be banished. Gay marriages? Not a problem here, but let's pass laws that make it illegal.

Then there's the problem of gays in the workplace, particularly these so-called transgendered types - which is a fancy name for folks who think they were born in the wrong body.

Gay-bashing is one of the few growth industries in this state. People are moving here and making a living off this. Gay and lesbian people who were born and raised here are being driven out, moving to the coasts and taking their talents with them. It's not a healthy situation on either end.

And any effort to deal with this in a sane, rational way is met with more anti-gay hysteria.

A couple of months ago the governor signed an order saying folks wouldn't face job discrimination if they're gay. He included the transgendered. It's limited to the executive branch of state government. It's a small step, mostly symbolic. The reaction?

Tonight there's a rally to whip up opposition to the governor's order. It's being put together by the usual suspects - Bill Horn and Reggie White, guys with a lot of time on their hands. They're bringing in Gary Bauer, a presidential candidate who had to call a press conference recently to say he's not cheating on his wife.

So they'll gather and they'll make their speeches and they'll talk about Jesus and the Bible and they'll push all the right buttons. But when it's over, I don't think any one of them will have been as eloquent as the woman who spoke at the Des Moines City Council meeting last year when they debated a gay rights ordinance.

Linda Christensen, the mother of a gay man, told the council: "I didn't know how to have a relationship with God, where you hate the sin but love the sinner, because having lived with my son for 18 years and knowing him, there is no part of my child that I could hate."

We could have used a Linda Christensen in the old neighborhood.

Rob Borsellino can be reached at borsellinor@news.dmreg.com or (515) 284-8102.

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