The Violence Within

Gays and lesbians are no strangers to violence. Sometimes, that violence comes from outsiders who target the community. Sometimes, that violence comes from closeted gays who have so internalized their homophobia that they act out that rage on other gays. Often, gays and lesbians turn that hatred inside and damage their lives through substance abuse-or even suicide. And the final and most un-reported type of violence we face is domestic violence.

In this issue of Outlines, we have the second part of our series on violence and the gay community. Last week's interview with filmmaker Arthur Dong looked at men who killed gay men. Ironically, several of the killers had repressed homosexual desires.

When men attack gay men, they are often attacking something within themselves. What else could explain the "overkill," when an attacker uses multiple methods of attack-stabbing, shooting, strangling, and sometimes more? Women generally do not go around shooting, stabbing, strangling and otherwise attacking every man who whistles at them or who asks them for a date. But so often, there is a violent reaction from "straight" men when they are approached by gay men. This can range from being afraid of sharing a room on a submarine to stalking gay men in parks to find an easy target for robbery or even murder.

Society has created many monsters. Many of those monsters formed their violent behaviors as youths, often because they were subjected to sexual assaults. The cycle of violence continues, aided and abetted by intense internalized homophobia. Men rarely can admit to being attacked as children, and some, as a method of survival, become adults who use their power to attack "weaker" men.

In the most rare of cases, some of these people turn their anti-social behavior and self-hatred outward by using extreme violence. They have become some of this century's most notorious serial killers. One of the most common links between these well-known killers is a repressed sexuality. Whether it's The Butcher of Hanover or Jeffrey Dahmer, these men (and a very few women) are the worst-case scenario of a society which despises homosexuality-even in the 1990s.

We must start educating children at a very young age that homosexuality is equally as acceptable as heterosexuality. Gay youth must learn it's OK to be gay-and straight youth must learn that it's not OK to hate, attack or kill.

-Tracy Baim, Publisher

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