Soldiers, Fags, and Funerals: United We Stand

Last year, the president signed into law a set of restrictions on protests aimed at military funerals. He did so primarily because of Fred Phelps, the virulently homophobic Kansas preacher. In doing so, Bush once again signaled his lack of respect, both for Gays and for fallen soldiers.

Phelps, and the Westsboro Baptist Church in Kansas that he rules with an iron fist, is obsessed with Gay people. A ruthless media whore with a messiah/martyr complex, Phelps pickets all kinds of funerals just so he can get his picture and his "God Hates Fags" message on the media.

Initially, Phelps only protested the funerals of homosexuals. For most of America, including the government, this was OK. I heard this over and over again from homophobic conservative Christians: "He has the right to his opinion."

Many Straight Americans don't really care about Phelps saying that God hates fags. Enough of them believe it as well, and they secretly chuckle at his antics. Phelps is only acting on the same mean-spirited impulses that Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter feed on and then regularly regurgitate as hard-nosed truths.

But protesting only the funerals of Gays got Phelps attention in the Gay press and little else. The callous indifference of the American public to LGBTQ people's public defamation during such an inappropriate time as a funeral didn't give Phelps the shock value that he craved.

Fag Enablers

There was no significant public outcry against Phelps, not until he diversified and started associating non-Gay deceased with Gays by calling them "fag enablers." He and his extended family began protesting any funeral, any disaster that received media attention. His targets included miners, Amish schoolchildren, and Coretta Scott King.

Let us look more closely at this dynamic. Phelps initially played on the homophobia of Americans who agreed with him in private. But bashing only Gays eventually lost its punch, so he switched tactics and began linking Straight people with Gays as equally Hell-bound in a nation that was not homophobic enough for him.

Success! Many Straight Americans reacted quite strongly against anyone associating their Dearly Departed with Queers. Our president remained silent, probably because, at some level, he still agreed with Phelps that America was too liberal with regards to LGBTQ rights.

It was homophobia, not any sympathy for Gays, that got Phelps and his people the attention they so desperately wanted. In no time at all, the Phelps clan was receiving death threats and getting beaten in public, much like the Gay people they were damning, which makes perfect sense.

Rednecks of every ethnicity and race don't quibble much over word finesse. "Fag enabler" is just as insulting as "fag" in the ears of homophobes.

"You calling my dead father/mother/brother/sister/wife/husband a fag enabler? Them's fighting words! I'm gonna kick your ass!" These words are music to the ears of Fred Phelps. I bet he looks forward to the day that one of his family is killed for their shenanigans. It would justify everything he does.

The difference between Phelps-bashing and fag-bashing is that, when the Phelps faithful get their asses kicked, it's for God. They get Heavenly rewards for every cut and bruise they suffer as they speak out against the sodomization of America.

But it wasn't enough for Phelps to insult just any old Straight dead. What he needed to do was to really push America's fear of faggotry to ever more dizzying depths. And he found the right button to push when he attacked our deceased soldiers.

Push, push in the Bush

That was too much, even for Bush, the man who blithely sends troops into harm's way every day, who ignores their pleas for shorter deployments, and scoffs at his country's growing rejection of the war in Iraq. Freedom isn't free, we are told, and for the US military, this statement is painfully true. The ones who have to pay the price in blood are given no voice and no choice. Generals Pace, Casey, and Petraeus are sad proof that, if Bush wants the opinion of soldiers, he'll give it to them.

Even as he is systemically undermining the military's efficiency, stamina, and sense of purpose, Bush blasts others for not supporting our troops. Just to make sure we don't get distracted by the harsh realities of war, our president forbids us images of our own as they come home in coffins (I guess you could call this the closeting of military dead), and refuses to honor any of the dead by attending their funerals, a first for US presidents.

It is no wonder that George Bush draws the line when somebody uses the words "soldier" and "fag" together at military funerals. It attracts unwanted attention to dead soldiers.

But Bush would never openly condemn the practice of protesting Gay funerals. He does not want to be seen as a fag enabler, even with something as obscene as desecrating a person's funeral.

This is also why Bush brings up his opposition to Gay marriage whenever he feels threatened on other issues. The mere mention of our people, marriage, and defending the sacred rights of homophobes increases his approval rating. Even Edwards, Obama, and Clinton kowtow to this principle.

And, apparently, Bush believes his ratings will improve even further if he is on record saying that a dead soldier is worth more than a dead fag. It floors me that, as he denies services to living soldiers, he champions of the rights of dead ones.

Perhaps it's all part of Bush's strategy of praising soldiers in general, neglecting them when they're stressed, overworked, and underpaid, and then hiding them when they're sick, wounded, and dead. We occasionally see Bush with hundreds of healthy soldiers around him. They all smile, just as they've been ordered to do. Military personnel with all their wits and limbs intact make a great background for a photo-op. Off-camera, they are living and expendable offerings, expected to sacrifice their lives on the Altar of Bush's Ego.

Try this out: Every time Bush mentions the word "freedom" in a speech, replace it with "my absolute authority."

Since it's only the healthy, functional victims that the president cares for us to see, the press has one hell of a time trying to get into VA hospitals to talk with the wounded and the maimed. The neglect of these same hospitals was not accidental; the current administration refused to see them, their problems, their suffering. Wounded and maimed soldiers are not good for morale; they look terrible on Fox News.

It's only been recently that our traumatized soldiers have received adequate attention, and that was only after a series of scandals that made them visible. Our president was forced to see them, and he will look at them only as long as he has to before he brings up Gay marriage again to get America back on track.

The Few, The Proud, The Semper Fi Fags

So it is no wonder that Bush doesn't want Phelps protesting military funerals. It draws our attention to them.

As insulting as Phelps has been to the LGBTQ community, he has perversely done us a favor by calling attention to the callous disregard that many Americans have shown towards us, a disregard echoed in the actions of too many politicians who have portrayed us, our families, and our desire for equality as contradictory to the image of the brave (and theoretically Straight) soldiers dying overseas for our supposed freedom.

Phelps brought Gays and soldiers together by means of twisted logic that is nowhere near as harmful to military personnel as the policies of the Bush Administration. Everyone knows that Phelps is a kook. But I still hear people defending the double-talk coming from the White House as if it is somehow patriotic.

This will continue until our Armed Forces realize that the LGBTQ community is a potentially important ally. The attempted closeting and erasure of war wounded and dead is a dynamic that we as Gay folk are deeply familiar. We are used to people wishing that we were invisible.

As long as military personnel insist on seeing themselves distinct from us, we will be unable to help them out of the terrible trap that they are in.

A recent court case awarded millions of dollars to the family of deceased Marine Matthew Snyder after the Phelps clan protested his funeral.

What the Prosecution found particularly offensive was a sign that said "Semper Fi Fags," associating Marines with Gays and, of course, Gay sex.

Albert Snyder, Matthew Snyder's father, claimed that the protest made him physically ill. He made it a point during the trial to say that his dead son was not Gay, as if this made a difference. Sounds like Albert might have felt that Phelps's right to free speech might be justified if his son were indeed a Semper Fi Fag.

I have to wonder: is that what made Albert Snyder physically ill, the thought that his son might be Gay? Or was it the thought that Marines might be Gay?

Well, Mr. Snyder, let me put your mind at ease. There are indeed Semper Fi Fags. As a man who is proud to be both Gay and a Marine, I'm sure that Phelps would consider me one of them.

Besides, there is a long-standing tradition in my beloved Corps of Straight Marines acting pretty faggy with each other when the spirit hits them. Just watch Jarhead, quite possibly the most homoerotic film ever produced, which made the First Gulf War look like a Semper Fi Circuit Party! Marines are not afraid to associate themselves with Gay sex if it will get a laugh or scandalize onlookers. Those of us who have been in the service know that the scenes in Jarhead that reflect this tendency are not so far-fetched.

If people who are sick of Phelps' dog-and-pony show had any sense, they'd be saying that, so far as Phelps is concerned, all US military personnel are Gay. Nothing, not lawsuits, beatings, or assassination, would de-fang him as quickly.

If the purpose of US soldiers in Iraq is truly to protect the freedoms that we as Americans theoretically enjoy, then Matthew Snyder died for my rights (limited as they may be in the US) as an openly Gay man.

My way of saying "Thank You" to Matthew Snyder and all of our fallen soldiers is to say, "Yes indeed, I would gladly consider you an honorary member of my beautiful LGBTQ tribe. You are hereby granted the proud title of Fag Enabler!"

Think of how many fuses Phelps would blow if Albert Snyder did this.