On the surface, "Hate Crime" may seem like a movie about violence rooted in religious bigotry, but underneath it’s a poorly disguised argument for vigilantism. The writer and director, Tommy Stovall, uses the same extremism and rigid stereotyping his film purports to rebel against.
When half of a young gay couple is viciously beaten and eventually dies, suspicion falls on the new neighbor, a fundamentalist preacher’s son with a brush cut, a permanently clenched jaw and a nice line in homophobic curses. Stacking the deck unnecessarily, Mr. Stovall dresses him in tight, white T-shirts accessorized with beer cans, gives him a Southern accent and a criminal record, then lights him like Robert Mitchum in "The Night of the Hunter." And just in case we’re still not clear where our sympathies lie, the gay couple is seen purchasing wedding rings and discussing adoption.
I can’t tell from this review whether this movie is any good or not…only that this reviewer thinks that violence against a gay couple by a religious nutcase is a ridiculous concept for a movie. Oh…and that showing a gay couple buying wedding rings and talking about adopting is a over the top. Oh come on…I’m supposed to believe this…?
With a little more subtlety — and a lot less predictability — the movie might have played more like a thoughtful drama and less like an outrageous exercise in wish fulfillment.
A jailhouse visit between accused murderer Benjamin Matthew Williams and his parents in which Williams compares himself to Jesus Christ and jokes, ”Oh, the devil made me do it,” came into more vivid focus Wednesday when a transcript of the tape was released.
The tape itself was entered into evidence Tuesday at a preliminary hearing for Williams, 31, and his brother, James Tyler Williams, 29, who are accused in the slayings of a Happy Valley gay couple found July 1.
…
Sally Williams also asks her son if, as reported, he was heavily armed when arrested.
”Yeah,” he replies, also acknowledging that he wore a bulletproof vest.
Then Sally Williams, apparently worried that her son might be suicidal, urges him to ”stick it out, however hard it is. Don’t take the easy way out. Don’t.”
”We put five dollars in the commissary for each of you,” interjects Matthew Williams’ father in one of only two remarks on the transcript attributed to him.
The elder Williams also asked what time the brothers would be arraigned.
”They, they’re not doing the death penalty a whole lot here anymore, are they?” Matthew Williams asks. ”Are we looking at 20, 40 years or something? Then I don’t expect to serve that, though.”
His mother assures him ”the Lord can do miracles, he has.”
But then she tells him that after the detectives’ searches ”they had a tablet you took to the church and they had some of the notes you, that you said, was going to get blamed on you.
”Well, someone ratted, um, I, I don’t know, were there other people involved?” she asks. ”I don’t want to, don’t ans–, this is monitored … Um. I don’t, I don’t think you did what they say you did.”
”What do they say I did?” asks Matthew Williams.
”They say you took out two homos,” she responds.
”Huh. Why wouldn’t you think I’d do that?” Matthew Williams returns.
”Not under those circumstances,” his mother says. ”And Tyler, also?”
”I think they have pretty good evidence,” her son says. ”So I, I don’t know what an attorney could do for you other than take your money.”
His mother suggests an attorney might help with a plea bargain.
”Plea bargaining for what?” Matthew Williams says laughing, adding, ”Oh, the devil made me do it. Yeah.”
A little later in the visit Sally Williams worries about Tyler Williams, his sore knee, diet problems and hypoglycemia.
And she seems to chastise her older son.
”I knew the Lord was going to humble you and I’ve been praying for you for a long time,” she said. ”Some of the things you believe are wrong. … I’m sorry that I have failed you.”
But Matthew Williams suggests that God may have put him where he is because he can use the witness chair as a kind of pulpit and ”a lot of people will hear.”
”Basically, basically, um, society now calls what’s bad good and they call what I’ve done as bad and I want just, just to tell them, you know, if you love me, keep my commandments,” Matthew Williams tells his parents, adding that he has ”followed a higher law …
”I have to obey God’s law rather than man’s law.”
His mother warns that ”a lot of people will hear it with their ears, but not with your understanding.”
Matthew Williams then suggests that ”they” might think he’s insane and ”that might be to our advantage.”
”That will be a good thing,” his mother agrees.
Matthew Williams also says, though he ”didn’t want to do this,” he thought ”that I was supposed to.”
Then he explains that there are ”a lot of parallels between this and a lot of other incidents in the Old Testament.” But he went on to refer to the New Testament.
”I mean, they threw, they threw our Lord and Savior in jail. They, they accused him of things that, that he did that were not wrong, but they said they were wrong, you know, and he was punished for things,” the transcript reads.
Via Alicublog, Ms Instapundit herself comes out swinging for the ex-gay movement…but in the Instapundit way, which is to make gutter crawling bigotry seem downright liberal and progressive, all the while denying that you even agree with…well…anything.
Her beef seems to be that the APA is calling NARTH a worthless bunch of pseudo scientific quacks.
Not only did the APA deny CE (Continuing Education) credit to professionals attending the annual NARTH conference in November, stating that "The program content is not consistent with APA policy" but the APA is attempting to declare therapy to modify sexual orientation unethical
Well…duh. When the fucking science says that ex-gay therapy not only doesn’t work, it is likely to result in long term damage to a patient’s mental health, and can even lead to suicide, then…yeah…it’s unethical to keep doing it lady. What part of "first do no harm" are you having trouble parsing?
And where you really see the agenda here, is that same pusillanimous equivocation that her husband resorts to, whenever he wants to promote the politics of hate without looking like he’s a hatemonger himself…
Personally, I’m skeptical about turning gay people straight…
Like fuck you are lady. A motherfucking cinder block can tell what’s wrong with this, let alone a goddamned doctor of psychology:
But shouldn’t the client be the one to choose, not the APA? The APA has decided that the answer is no.
Are you really a doctor lady, or do you just play one on the Internet? I suppose if someone wants to go on a diet of canned beans and ice cream as a way to cure their left handedness that’s their business…but…yeah…for a doctor to tell them being left handed is a sickness they can cure with canned beans and ice cream would be unethical you drooling fuckwad. That’s the point, and…yes…you fucking know that’s the point!
Dig the way she’s calling it "therapy to modify sexual orientation" as opposed to ex-gay therapy or reparative therapy, as its usually called. This is how we make the essential ugliness of anti-gay hate seem innocuous. It’s not ex-gay therapy, it’s therapy to modify sexual orientation. And a lobotomy is therapy to modify the functioning of the brain.
Christ almighty…who do these jackasses think they’re fooling with this Oh I have nothing against the gays I just think that the people who hate their guts have a valid point claptrap…?
Stand Up For The Pariahs And You’ll Be Treated Like One Too Boy…
A straight seventeen year old high school senior has been expelled from his school for showing his video project to his class. It was about a gay high school romance …
Brandon Flyte, a student at West Linn High School in West Linn, Oregon, was recently expelled for airing a video project he had been assigned in class which includes a same-sex "snuggle" scene. The film, Brokeback High, is a "gay love story" based on themes from Brokeback Mountain, but set in a modern day high school. The shot above was the one that got him expelled.
Flyte writes on his website: "One has to wonder if any of this would’ve happened had the two characters snuggling in my film been male and female. We’re led to believe that diversity is encouraged in schools, but when a 17 year-old straight kid makes a serious gay love story and is expelled for it, it just begs the question of exactly what kind of policy was the administration following?"
Well…let’s see…a quick lookup of the high school web site leads you to a main page with this text very prominently displayed for all to see:
It is the policy of the West Linn/Wilsonville Board of Education and School District that there will be no discrimination or harassment on the grounds of race, color, sex, marital status, religion, national origin, age or disability in any educational programs, activities or employment.
Notice what’s missing…? The school administration wasn’t just sending a message to the gay students, but to the straight ones too. Stand up for the pariahs and you’ll be treated like one… Now that this kid’s plight is getting some internet attention, wait for the school to ban him from his graduation too, in retaliation. I sincerely hope it doesn’t happen, but adults who kick kids around like this for supporting for their gay peers have no conscience.
[Update…] According to Pam’s House Blend, after much local media attention the school has relented and are letting the kid attend classes again. Good.
There’s some discussion in the Pam’s House Blend post about how conservative that particular part of Oregon is. That’s not especially surprising. What is, is this little detail they dug up, from the School District (as opposed to the school’s) policies:
The district shall promote non-discrimination and an environment free of harassment based on an individual’s race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, parental or marital status or age or because of the race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, parental or marital status or age of any other persons with whom the individual associates.
Which is, in one obvious case, more embracing then the one displayed prominently on the schools’ own web site. I assume the district policies outrank the school’s, but you have to wonder if that one omission was deliberate nonetheless.
After a complaint to the Human Rights Commission, New Zealand’s biggest fertility service, Fertility Associates, has decided to accept sperm from gay men – previously barred because of a supposed higher HIV risk. Responding to the move, Canterbury University associate professor of genetics Frank Sin called for potential recipients of sperm from gay donors to be told that "the gay gene(s)" could be passed on to the child.
Dr Sin told The Dominion Post that it was "not daydreaming" to suggest that sexual orientation could be inherited. Animal models had clearly shown the existence of a gene that controlled sexual behaviour, he said. Though there was nothing so conclusive in human studies, there was strong evidence – particularly from twin studies – of a significant genetic component.
Environment also played a role, Dr Sin said. Though he had nothing against homosexuality, Dr Sin said people had the right to know the trait could be passed on.
Notice however, that he’s not saying that anyone with gay relatives in their bloodline should also have their sperm so labeled. My parents were both straight, as are the parents of most gay children…and yet they produced a gay son. So who does this guy think he’s fooling? Perhaps he’s got nothing against homosexuality, but he’s clearly got a problem with homosexuals.
In his discussions with students Mr. Panse mentioned several options for advancing their figure drawing skills; the local community college, a nearby frame shop that sponsors art classes, and the prestigious New York Academy of Art. He also described pre-college figure drawing programs at several other New York City art schools, and a highly successful art college prep program called the Mill Street Loft.
…
Specifically, Mr. Panse was charged with making “comments that students could construe as being of a sexual or personal nature…or using [his] position as a teacher to put students into any situation reasonably likely to make them feel uncomfortable because of the injection of sexuality into…the substance of [his] comments”.
One parent complained and the shit hit the fan. Oh for chrissakes…it’s a goddamned art class! What’s it going to be next…they demand art museums put fig leaves on all the nude sculptures and paintings before anyone under 18 years old will be allowed to enter?
Nudity. Flesh. Skin. You know what this is all about? It isn’t sex. Over in the Netherlands, they’re talking about showing images of gay couples kissing to new immigrants as a way of testing whether they’ll adapt to the open and tolerant culture over there. But they don’t even have to do that. Just show them Michalangelo’s David (or better still, Donatello’s David and his Narcissus), Rodin’s "The Kiss", Picasso’s "Blue Nude", Lord Leighton’s "The Fisherman", Anne Swynnerton’s "Cupid and Psyche", Chavannes "The Little Fisherman" and just to make things fun, Broc’s "The Death of Hyacinth" and if they get red faced just tell them to take the next boat back home. It’s not that they hate gays, it’s not even, that they hate sex. The fundamentalist radicals hate the human species, and nothing makes that plainer then the way they react to the sight of the human body itself. It’s not that nudity is obscene, it’s that taking an awed appreciation for and pride in our physical selves is horrifying to them. It’s not sex they think is dirty, it’s the human race they think is dirty.
Whilst browsing the comments on this post over at Washington Monthly (via a link from Atrios), regarding Bush Administration saber rattling on Iran’s nuclear program, I come across clues that there’s another catch-phrase making the wingnut rounds…
Your BDS is showing. If you don’t like Congress not asserting it’s powers over the President in war-time, elect a Dem majority. Otherwise, please kindly have a nice cup of STFU.
…
When an American city is smoking, radioactive ruin, I will trot out the 100,000 BDS posts from 2003-2006 to show how liberals brought on the appeasement conditions that allowed it to happen. I will prominently display your posts the most and in largest font!
…
1. BDS
2. America-hatred
3. Israel-hatred
Scratch a leftist and you’ll find all three. Rational thought, uh no.
Somebody finally asks…
Is “BDS” some new acronym being traded amongst the semi-literate online wingnuts, these days?
To which our little wingnut responds…
BDS is Bush Derangement Syndrome which 99.999% of liberals suffer from. It’s totally irrational hatred of George W. Bush which clouds all rational thought.
And speaking of rational thought…this is what he posted later. Remember, this is a thread about Bush administration saber rattling over Iran’s nuclear program…
I will agree that trying to impose our values on those religious idiots(Shia and Sunni) in Iraq is not going to work in the short-term. I’m for all out civil war, let a few million be killed and then we’ll side with the winner.
Bush Derangement Syndrome: Characterized by genocidal and sociopathic impulses, gross inability to determine right from wrong or distinguish between true and false. Caused by prolonged uncritical and unconditional support of the Bush Administration…
This blog is powered by WordPress and is hosted at Winters Web Works, who also did some custom design work (Thanks!). Some embedded content was created with the help of The Gimp. I proof with Google Chrome on either Windows, Linux or MacOS depending on which machine I happen to be running at the time.
