Don't Mess With The LGBT Community....

I only wish we could engage the LGBT community into fighting on the fronts of all of our issues of social injustice....

Someone just woke up the sleeping giant...the LGBT's of America. It's tragic that it had to happen the way it did in Orlando (49 slaughtered like dogs, countless wounded), but maybe now we can get something done. They were victimized by Islamic extremism AND the deadly and blurring impact of assault rifles....we just might now have our savior on a White Horse that we have been waiting for....we might finally get something done.

Just step back and look at what the Gay community has done to get social justice and equal rights over the last 30 years. It is downright breathtaking. A group that had been marginalized and dismissed as "freaks" for so many years was able to get federal funding for AIDS research. They demanded It! They stopped AIDS! This country is 70% Christian and yet our government stepped up to the plate to stop a disease that helps people that the Bible says are not getting to heaven. Astounding!....for many Americans at the time...it would be like child abusers getting the Federal government to fund research on a disease that only affected child abusers when they were abusing children. Amazing! And just a year ago the LGBT community was able to get equal protection nationwide for the right to same sex marriage. Do you think that was easy? About as easy as threading a camel through the eye of a needle, to use another Biblical quote.

The Gay community knows how to move the needle....I can only compare them to the Jewish community....don't mess with that demographic, either...you will end up in a body bag. These groups in particular, through years of being persecuted and marginalized and treated like second class citizens, have galvanized into formidable fighting forces. It's like in that movie from the 80's "Witness" where someone in the Amish community is in distress and they ring a bell and the whole Amish community stops what they are doing and rushes to the their aid.

I wish the LGBT community was ignited to fight for income equality, and increased minimum wage, and free college tuition as well....they are our "Special Forces", our Navy Seals....the best fighting force that we have. Pound for pound they have no equal.

In contrast, I sadly report that women are flailing...an army of paper mache. They have zero unity; they have no strength at all. You can exclude them from Congress, and our Board Rooms, pay them 77 cents on the dollar for equal work. You can abuse them, rape them (1 in 4 women will raped on college campuses). In some parts of the world you can mutilate them, force them to cover their faces, prevent them from traveling without a man, subjugate them to the status of pets, and in some countries studies have shown that you can even kill them without any real risk of punishment.

Yet, in this country there is a fringe group of people who coalesce over owning guns at the expense of everything...and who can control (buy) the hearts and minds of any politician with his hand out (that is virtually all of them), but our mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters....they sit at the back of the bus...sure we coddle them and spend money on them when we want to get them in bed, but otherwise, they take it lying down. Are we o.k. with that?

Imagine the list of celebrities, rock stars, actors, athletes, etc., who have been known to beat their girlfriends or wives....some even do it in elevators....even the beloved Jack Sparrow is a member of that club....it's a giant club. Lots of things take place behind the scenes...and most of them are denigrating to women.

In America I thought we were better than that.....Woman make up more than 50% of the population, they raise and nurture our children, and yet they have about as much political clout as the Beekeeper's Society. Woman should be calling the shots, protecting the sovereignty of their bodies, and insisting on zero tolerance for sexual assault and abuse....yet, year after year, the statistics are the same....1 in 4 are raped on college campuses (and colleges are allowed to shield the perpetrators). Can you imagine being raped on a college campus, reporting it to the authorities on campus and they tell you that "maybe it didn't happen the way you think", or "do you really think you should have been wearing that dress?". If 1 in 4 gay people were being raped or 1 in 4 Jews were being raped you can be sure that they would be showing up on the steps of Congress, and every courthouse in America, with torches. They would burn the place down until they got justice. They would put a stop to it in 6 months. Men would think twice before forcing themselves sexually on another human being. Right now, rape is so easy it should make everyone nauseous. There are many Bill Cosby's out there....you can count on it. There are many Jameis Winston's. Our society has not made it a serious offense to rape a woman.....and it is almost impossible to prove that it wasn't consensual if you know the woman. Yes, if you are an unshaven guy with socks that don't match, in an overcoat who jumps out of the bushes and assaults a woman behind a dumpster, you might get punished, but if you rape someone on a date or at a party you can always say "it was consensual". How convenient!

It's long time for women to take a page out of the LGBT playbook...sadly, you aren't going to get any help from men. You are on your own...and women like Kim Kardashian are not making it any easier. You may not get much done until she needs botox.

I have never seen a man carry the banner for women. I can't think of one. It's a conflict of interest, I guess. I didn't even see Barack Obama, our President, speak more than a couple of brief times about sexual assault on women in 7 years in White House...the most ubiquitous crime in America....he just didn't have it on his mind. He must have been thinking of more important things than the dignity and protection of women and girls. He said a couple words during the height of the Bill Cosby scandal...but they were just punctuation marks....nothing profound. Do you know how many more people will be affected by sexual violence than assault rifle violence....more people are killed by deer every year than by mass shootings, yet, according to the RAINN Institute (and many others) approximately 20% of women will experience a rape or an attempted rape. Think about that for a second. What if 20% of our sons were going to be sodomized in their lifetimes? We would stop to catch our breath at the thought of that. How can we be so dismissive towards girls and women....? Where is the outrage?

I was jogging through Central Park last week one night at around midnight. It was totally dark. I imagined for a minute what it would be like if I were a woman. I would feel completely vulnerable, as if I was walking through a jungle full of hungry lion and I had no weapons to protect me from an attack. Yet, as a man, I had no fear of having my pants pulled down and having someone invading my body and leaving me on the ground, bruised, assaulted, and bloodied.

Women, take this as a cue..you don't have to put up with living as second class citizens.....you don't have to live in fear of being raped when you go to that frat party or to that concert. You don't even need to knock yourself out to make yourself desirable to men...as Gloria Steinem said,

"A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle".

All you have to do is use the courageous example set by the LGBT community.....borrow their playbook. Show some dignity for yourself! Show solidarity, take control of your lives...insist on not being treated like an object. The choice is yours....you have a lot more power than you think you have ...just insist on it!