This is the headline I gave recently to a posting from the New York Times I made on a yahoo group.  A criticism leveled at me with my headline was that I was no better than Sally Kern and even though Helms was not generous to our LGBT cause he deserved respect as a human being. 

I have to ask aren't adults still responsible for their words and actions unless it can be proven the adult in question is mentally deranged or under the influence of reality-altering substances?

Former Republican Senator Jesse Helms, from North Carolina, was a vociferous, vocal, vehement homo-hater (probably first among his favorite hatreds, with African-Americans being a close second) and he died earlier this month on the Fourth of July, the same day as Presidents Adams, Jefferson and Monroe.  Tell me the sky gods and goddesses don't love campy humor!!

In the 1980's on the floor of the Senate Helms lead the fight against adequate AIDS-HIV funding, among other anti-gay gambits, for education when it would have made a difference in getting the news out about this deadly disease and what was known about it at the time.  Remember that even President Reagan wouldn't say the "A" word until the last of his eight years in office.

The only equality Helms showed in his lifetime was his balanced disdain for all minorities, be it gender, skin color, sexual orientation, or ethnic origin.

I have to wonder if Mrs. Kern used Senator Helms as a role model for her own intemperate remarks which she is sticking to as a tick sticks to your groin.

As many of us know from the now famous YouTube video, Republican Rep. Sally Kern has blasted gays as being worse than terrorists and Islam.  She further amplified her analogy by comparing gays to toe cancer. 

It's odd she never, ever, says the "L" word referring to lesbians.  What are we to make of that?  Does she approve of the same-gender female sexual orientation?  If she could have her own way, oh Lord, would she only outlaw man-to-man sex?  I'll leave that image to the licensed psychiatrists. 

I think the difference between Kern, Helms, and myself is that I'm not advocating mental or physical violence or defamation against anyone.

Nor am I comparing Kern or Helms to disagreeable diseases or activities that bring death and suffering to innocent people who want to live a life much as others do with security, responsibilities, and the benefits of the laws, justly drafted and upheld.

I'm only advocating for the full equality and protection of the law, both Federally and in the 50 states, for all citizens regardless of sexual orientation or gender presentation.   

What bible-bangers pound in their own or others privacy is none of my business and I want them to leave me and my LGBT brothers and sisters alone!

But I can and will continue to comment on the actions of our movement's enemies, be they alive or dead,  which they knowingly make, despite available knowledge that shows them to be as  wrong as a sharp stick in the eye. 

If our enemies prefer to stick their heads where the sand doesn't shine and remain ignorant--promoting their ignorance as the word of their religious belief, insisting that this medieval dogma be passed into civil law--than I will speak and peacefully act out my firm disagreement.

The glass homophobic ceilings, built by the backwardly religious or the double-speaking politicians of any party, won't break unless they're pushed.

It's up to us and our allies to apply that pressure until the ceiling becomes a kaleidoscope.  It won't be done by others; it has to be done by us!