Preamble: By Fredric L. Rice

Gary Hiles is one of the many homophobic bigots among us in the United States who uses the Christian gods to justify his hatred and bigotry. If they weren't in the United States and were in Iran or Iraq, they would be using the Islamic gods to justify themselves. The fault isn't with religion causing this problem; it's with religion being used by these people to justify themselves. This is something that I, as the Chairman of The Skeptic Tank, must constantly keep reminding myself of.

I don't blame honest Christians for the behavior of the Gary Hiles of the world.

Mr. Hiles' hate-filled rants sent to The Skeptic Tank and our gay staff member are far too disgusting to post to the web site. I can and will provide copies in a ZIP file upon request, however.

From: Rod Swift <rod@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au>
Subject: Truth According to You
To: amlink@infinet.com (Gary Hiles)
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 05:14:18 +0800 (GMT+0800)

"On their walk back from their neighborhood bar to the Victorian [house] which, over the years, they have lovingly restored, Warren and Mark stop along San Francisco's Polk Street to pick up milk for breakfast... Just for kicks, some wealthy teens from the valley drive into town to 'bust some fags.'

Warren dips into a convenience store, while Mark has a smoke outside. As Mark turns to acknowledge Warren's return, he is hit across the back of the head with a baseball bat. Mark's blood and vomit splash across Warren's face.

At San Francisco General, Mark is dead on arrival.

Subsequently in 1987, a California appellate court holds that under no circumstance can a relationship between two homosexuals -- however emotionally significant, stable, and exclusive -- be legally considered a 'close relationship,' and so Warren is barred from bringing any suit against the bashers for negligently causing emotional distress, let alone for wrongful death."

-- Richard Mohr, A More perfect Union: Why Straight America Must Stand Up for Gay Rights, Beacon, 1994, pp. 33-34. ]

Another California case along the same lines involved a group of teenagers who shotgunned a gay couple, killing one of the partners. The surviving partner was left bereft, having been assaulted twice: once by the gang, and once by the state and its supporters (YOU, should you fail to notice), who define away the very nature of the relationships at the center of the lives of many of us.

It must be very convenient -- very comfortable -- to imagine that you are so removed from the policies that you support that you have no accountability for their outcome when they DO result in misery in the lives of your fellow citizens.

You should be ashamed of yourself.