And that's where a lot of the objections rest, IMO. "Well, he was just a deranged closet case. Mystery solved! We may all move on now." I have seen that thinking time and time again. As if the self-loathing is the real problem there and not the culture that inculcated it. "Well, if he just accepted himself . . ."
Yeah, and why do you think he didn't? Weird, right? (not addressing this to you, Mark, but to the sentiments that are almost always overwhelmingly expressed by heterosexuals after a closeted LGBTer does something).
And so we're already getting it here.
"Islam had nothing to do with it!"
Really? Nothing at all? Being raised in a conservative religion with a serious animus toward homosexuality had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with what went down? As if his self-loathing and radicalization and alienation from society fell out of an absolute clear blue sky.
I have no patience for this stuff. And we betray and dishonor those we've lost when we allow heterosexuals to refuse to examine their own roles in a society that ensures LGBTers do not love themselves as much as their heterosexual peers.
I know why you've written the post. But I understand the reflexive defensiveness in the community. Because it has been used countless times in the past to lay the responsibility at LGBTers' feet and absolve themselves from asking some tough questions.
And this case is chock full of tough questions. I'm not sure I've ever seen such a perfectly chaotic psychological clusterfuck in my life. The more we learn, the crazier it gets. Where are we now in all of this? A self-loathing, gay or bisexual man, raised in a conservative religion, resentful of racism, but also said to be racist, is attracted to Latino men and then desires to take revenge on them for feeling betrayed and rejected while openly admiring (and expressing this admiration well before the massacre) for radical Islamists in the Middle East while tormenting the women in his life with relentless misogyny.
Do I have all that?
This case is ripe for people to press agendas from every conceivable angle, and boy howdy are people going to town.
The truth should suffice. The whole truth. And all the implications that come with it.
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