The Advocate is the news organization of record for the LGBT community. Reflecting longstanding reader support for civilian disarmament, Erin Fitzgerald [above] minces no words in her editorial lambasting the pro-gun group known as the Pink Pistols. The writer calls their call to arms “misguided, misinformed, and utterly irresponsible.” Apparently, “there is a vast body of evidence that disproves these pro-gun talking points and suggests that gun ownership would have disproportionately negative outcomes for LGBT people.”
Note: “suggests.” Not “proves.” Indeed the “vast body of evidence” disproving the benefits of armed self-defense for the LGBT community is generated entirely by organizations that love them some civilian disarmament (e.g. Mother Jones). Provided by Ms. Fitzgerald without links. Capped by an asinine anecdote: “An armed vigilante [at the Gabby Giffords shooting] admitted to almost shooting a bystander who helped tackle a shooter.”
Forty-nine people were shot and killed at The Pulse nightclub. Are we really supposed to eschew armed self-defense in case a good guy accidentally pops another good guy while trying to stop mass murder? Like, I dunno, armed police? Not to put too fine a point on it, would a Jew in a boxcar headed for Auschwitz have the same concerns?
In cases where LGBT people have been able to fight off an attacker, they are often denied the benefit of self-defense laws. In 2011, CeCe McDonald, a black transgender woman, was assaulted by a bar patron who sliced her face open with a glass. Several people became involved in a scuffle, and McDonald fatally stabbed an attacker with pair of scissors in self-defense. She accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to 41 months in prison, and served 19 months incarcerated with men. The same year McDonald was attacked, Ky Peterson, a black transgender man from Georgia, was sentenced to 20 years for killing a man who was raping him, despite the state’s permissive self-defense laws.
Ms. Fitzgerald is saying that LGBT Americans shouldn’t have guns because they shouldn’t fight back because they’ll be jailed for doing so. How messed-up is that? It certainly flies in the face of the NRA’s core message to people of all colors, creeds, religions and sexual identities or orientations. Specifically, their Refuse To Be A Victim® program. Oh yes, the NRA . . .
NRA officials have spent the last 20 years engaging in virulent anti-LGBT rhetoric, calling us “twisted” and “perverted,” and praising Zimbabwe’s dictator Robert Mugabe for saying that people like me and those who were killed in Orlando “don’t deserve civil rights.” In response to the tragedy in Florida that explicitly targeted LGBT Latinos, the NRA released a statement that did not mention the LGBT community even once . . .
Make no mistake: The newest iteration of the pro-gun agenda has nothing to do with protecting LGBT lives and everything to do with blindly and irresponsibly selling guns to an untapped market. Telling LGBT people to carry guns so they don’t get “bashed” — as the Pink Pistols group has done recently — is like telling a woman to stop wearing short skirts to avoid rape. It’s out of touch and deflects blame from those who should truly be held accountable.
The NRA has come a long way baby. The fact that they’ve hired an openly gay commentator tells you all you need to know about that. Which highlights the fact that Ms. Fitzgerald’s NRA bashing is misguided, misinformed and utterly irresponsible. She’s demonizing the most powerful group working to ensure LGBT gun rights, which the LGBT community can and should use to protect itself from predation.
As for Ms. Fitzgerald’s “short skirt” coupe de grace, nonsense. Pink Pistols’ message advocating armed self-defense is like telling a woman who’s wearing a short skirt she has the right to wear anything she wants, and the right to protect herself against anyone who would attack her for her choice. What’s wrong with that?