Hate leads to killings

So, it has happened yet again. Five people were killed and 18 injured at a gay nightclub by a suspect who apparently had unimpeded access to two guns, one of which have only one purpose: to murder people efficiently.

The suspect’s target was very specific, not accidental. The likelihood is high that the ultimate trigger was the steady stream of toxic spew directed at gay people from far-right groups like the Proud Boys or from toxically religious politicians or politicized religionists intent on erasing gay people and pushing us back into the closet.

These same forces have repeatedly attacked gay people, forcing the bigotry hidden behind their purely theological concerns onto civil law. Once again it’s, “They are coming for your children!”

What irony. They — the hyper-conservative, hyper-religious and hyper-ignorant — are indeed coming: for your children, the vulnerable gay and trans kids, their parents and their families.

They continue the same rhetoric, free of facts, logic, experience, and worst of all, free of compassion. But not free of hate and violence that leads to the murder of the souls and bodies of innocent people.

They have blood on their hands.

Ben Janken, Oakland