An upstanding couple from Philadelphia took the time to spew their anti-gay bigotry vis a vis a letter to the editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer.  Like a lot of hate, it sounds so very rational and well-thought right up until that fatal little vicious jab.  I'm going to post the whole letter as a classic example of how reasonable bigots can appear:

PROPONENTS OF same-sex marriage discredit their position by continuing to equate it to inter-racial marriage. The comparison is not only historically inaccurate but morally offensive.

Before the abolition of slavery and the subsequent ratification of the 14th Amendment, blacks were not permitted to marry at all, even within their race. To enter into the sanctity of marriage recognizes "What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder." Hence slaveholders wouldn't have been able to sell, trade or give away "chattel" if it would separate family.

It is quite a leap of jurisprudence to claim the equal-protection clause for previous servitude includes sexual disorientation, but outrageous to compare human bondage to aberrant behavior.

Joseph J. Catto & Shawnita Armstrong-Catto

Philadelphia

So Mr. Catto and Ms. Armstrong-Catto are morally offended by the homosexual struggle for equality.  Fair enough.  They are free to wallow in their hatred and equally free not to marry a homosexual.  I'm sure they are a delightful couple to have over for dinner and probably contribute regularly to some gay-bashing church deep in the bowels of Philadelphia.

And they might feel right at home in southwestern Kansas where a local thug stole a rainbow flag that a 12 year old boy purchased for his parent's bed and breakfast.  The parents flew the flag because it was a gift and as a symbol of non-discrimination.  The boy bought it because it was pretty -- he had no clue about the symbolism.  The parents are determined not to succumb to hatred and have ordered two more flags as replacements. 

Like the Amstrong-Cattos, one of the towns citizens had no qualms sharing her bigotry with the world.

Waitress Vicky Best says such a flag has no place in Meade.

"It's hard enough to keep your kids on the straight and narrow without outside influences like that," she complains. "We stay in a small town to stay away from the crap like that that's happening in big cities," she says, calling homosexuality "biblically wrong."

Ah, Ms. Best, does that crap include theft and stealing?.  Why flying a rainbow flag is  likely to corrupt young children and send them prancing off to NYC and San Francisco while your tacit endorsement of THEFT will probably have no impact whatsoever on their moral development --- your kids will likely grow up to be as intolerant and bigoted as you.  Congratulations!

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health got caught in the crosshairs this week when a local gay leadership group lodged complaints about the violent scenario in a recent ad campaign targeting African-American men.  The campaign encouraged HIV testing, targeted gay, bisexual and "down low" men and featured images of African-American men in the crosshairs of a gun with the tagline "Have You Been Hit?" (Philadelphia Inquirer)

The Black Gay Men's Leadership Council objects to the direct association of black men with gun violence in a city plagued with increasing rates of gun violence, especially among the African-American population.

"Putting the face of a black man in the crosshairs of a gun paints a damaging message about violence and black men. ... Given the violence perpetrated against gay men, it is not far-fetched to see how this campaign fosters violence," Lee Carson, chair of the 1-year-old leadership council, wrote last month to interim Health Commissioner Carmen Paris.

Amidst concerns over the legitimacy of the campaign's use of focus groups and embarrassment about the associatio, the city is being rather weasley about the reason for pulling the ads, indicating that the pull date just happened to be last Friday.  The PR departments of various media outlets indicated otherwise, stating that there was no cancellation date. 

Philadelphia's seemingly intractable crisis of gun violence has gotten so bad -- particularly in poor, predominantly minority neighborhoods -- that Mayor John Street and regional leaders, including Cardinal Justin Rigali, held an unprecedented summit meeting at City Hall late last month. As of midnight Sunday, 238 people had been fatally shot, compared with 215 at the same time last year.

But HIV/AIDS hits the same neighborhoods. Originally the plague of young, middle-class, gay men, HIV/AIDS now predominantly afflicts the marginalized poor, especially African Americans. Blacks account for more HIV and AIDS diagnoses and deaths than any other racial or ethnic group in Philadelphia and nationally.

File this under WTF?  In a city where too many people die from gun violence AND AIDS, why would you associate the two ---- why surely African-American men might have a postive assocation with being the target of gun violence and immediately run down to the nearest HIV testing center!  And it certainly does wonders for the images of HIV positive people to be linked to gun violence. 

Mark McLaurin, founder of the New York State Black Gay Network, said that, to be effective, AIDS prevention campaigns must address underlying problems such as homophobia and substance abuse - and stop fear-mongering.

"I can't imagine the vetting process was well-grounded in this targeted community," he said of Philadelphia's ads. "Above and beyond the obvious issues of scapegoating and demonizing HIV-positive people, for a campaign to simulate gun violence in a city that has been ravaged by gun violence, I'm almost speechless."