Why Pink Pistols or GwG

[StonerStudent]

I get asked that question by other Pro gun people all the time. The question usally comes in this form, "why do you need to draw attention to your sexually on a gun board"....."Why doesn't LGBT folks just join the NRA and keep their sexually to themselves"?

Do any of you get this, and what are your opinions?

[Transonic]

No, 'cause it's not an issue with my sexuallity ('cause I'm mostly-sraight,) it's an issue of "why the hell are you so weird?" with the few people who know. But that's not the point of this discussion.

I see you guys and girls getting asked this and I think that it's important to have an organization like PPs. It breaks the stereotype of GLBT = Democrat = antigun, which is a good thing. I think it also says, "Hey, we're gay. You think we're gonna lay down and cry because you don't like who we screw in our free time? To bad. We refuse to be victims. No more gay lynchings or beatings. From now on, we shoot back."

There's probably a better way to put that, but I'm tired right now. My point is, that's a point that needs to be made more often than it is. This board also gives us one convenient place to discuss sexuality and guns at the same time. There are forums where I can say "I shoot guns" and there are forums where I can say "I dress like a queen" but this gives me a place to say "I dress like a queen and accessorize with an SKS" and I can feel welcome. So thanks you guys.

[StonerStudent]

I see the Pink Pistols as a vehicle to bring the gospel of the 2nd Amend to the group that needs it the most. I'm not saying that the hetros don't need it as well. But most progun groups carter to the more right of the politcs end. And the left generally frowns on self defense in general, so the need is greater to get the message out. As far as GwG goes...its kind of a haven for the troops [like you] that have to deal with some of the anti LGBT people that hang out on the mainstream boards.

[Transonic]

Yeah, that too. Like, the left (GLBT and the like) need to realize that self-defense is a good thing and the violently-active extreem right wingers need to know that we're not gonna take their sh*t. Or something. I'm gonna go get some sleep now.

[StonerStudent]

Well I fiqure that the message will sink in with my brothers and sister in the "Family"one day. Just like educating the Hetros to what the LGBT is really all about [not what the antiLGBT groups tell them] The Pistols will teach the LGBT that their personal safety is always their own responsibly. And waitting around for Uncle Sugar to save them is a losing prospect.

[salukifan]

Yeah, that old argument of "Why don't you just join the NRA, who cares if you are gay?" is a frequently rehearsed one on most of the gun forums.

I think that there are 4 main purposes of Pink Pistols:

1. Increase the individual safety of GLBT folks. Increase individual safety by providing GLBT-friendly people and resources for people who want to learn how to protect themselves with firearms.
2. Increase collective safety by getting the word out to the public (including gay bashers) that we aren't necessarily the easy targets for violence that they see us as. If they can't tell who among us is carrying, everybody benefits from the halo effect of those of us who do own and carry firearms. People might argue that there is a similar benefit derive for all communities from anyone who carries but GLBT folks ARE specifically singled out and targeted for violence in a way that straight, well-off, white males seldom are.
3. Provide comradery of social shooting events and dialogue without the worry of, "What should I say when the guys at the range ask if my partner and I are related?" "Am I going to have to hear men call other men 'faggot' if they miss a target or have a hard time with recoil from a large caliber gun?" There are many, many very cool gun enthusiasts who are supportive or don't care but there are a few grade A homophobes too that can make your experience uncomfortable enough that it may discourage you from shooting or being involved in the RKBA movement.
4. Show the incredible diversity of the RKBA movement. It really throws off a lot of anti-gunner arguments when you have a group of GLBT people defying their unfair stereotypes of the white, redneck gun nuts. I am also Jewish and I think that like JPFO, Pink Pistols is nice because of the diversity issue and to show anti-gunners that guns can and do save lives.

Just my 2 cents...

[salukifan]

I just looked at my post and I explicitly referred to Pink Pistols but it's the same idea with Gays with Guns...

[Trisha]

There was a thorough demonstration that some of the folks on THR are still adamantly defending their right to remain in the dark ages (Matt Pane's post "I'll be at the GLBT Pride Festival this weekend" posted 25JUN05).

IMHO this goes back yet anon to the aparrently unresolvable dilemma for straight folk to truly understand who we are. Interestingly enough, light was shed on how such an incomprehension can exist when Susan recently told me that even after fourteen years together, she feels that at best, she may really understand about 60% of the mechanics and implications of my brain injury. She does her best to guess at the rest, but with my having no durable past to build a predictable personality upon, she's often at a loss. . .

To me, I'm normal. Brain injury, karotype 46, lesbian, natural blonde - I'm normal. I can only marginally cognicize normal people's behaviors, but I've attained some capacity to frame out many predictable behaviors.

The inverse seems to be straight folks' problem with us - attenuated exponentially when it comes to firearms/self defense.

Why PP & this forum? We know too much about the myriad faces and guises of death. Death of the imagination, death of spontaneous laughter, death of friendship, death of blood family, death of community, death of voice, and on into the totality that sees us truly dead and buried. Silence = death.

We have made astonishing progress, in all our diversity, in just a generation - much, no doubt, due to comensurate advances in technology. In barely a decade we can touch so many kindred in cyberspace that, seeing my 50th birthday almost here, it touches the fantastical, the surreal, the wonderous.

We used to be so cruelly alone, so isolated. . .

The networking builds community and family that is a demonstration of the truth in the living anology of rain on the face of one dying, lost in a seeming endless desert, broken at last by thirst and merciless heat. We learn hope! We find our feet and give breath to our voice - and we are answered!

A dear girl who's just coming of legal age called me two days ago, her voice trembling with excitement! She'd just proposed to her girlfriend of two years - and she said yes! They're both cast out of their blood families, are working and continuing successfully with school, they are gym rats who love to study martial arts every chance they get - and they have no idea of what the world was just 40 years ago (beyond what they read, and their questions are framed by sober eyes that hold clear resolve), the death that would've eagerly hunted them with adamant and unchallenged social approval!

When I could still function in the overwhelmingly difficult social environment of a convention, I was fascinated by the reactions I'd receive for being well groomed and wearing the equivalent of modest business attire - and a Pride Pin on my lapel. Gun shows, likewise.

Why were Susan and I even admitted inside? Because ouyr community has a face now, evolving, struggling to grow to be sure -

But we're not invisible, alone, and in the closet any more.

And 'they' know it.

[StonerStudent]

Actually Trisha....I just read that thread by Max Payne and all in all I think it went pretty well. See the way I look at it is people like Marshall generally shoot themsleives in the foot [pun intended] and hurt "their side" more than rally people. The question I would have asked Marshall [if thread wasn't locked] would be......Would he/she keep supporting the NRA if they showed open support for the Pink Pistols?

[salukifan]

Yeah, no kidding about Marshall screwing up.
Somehow asserting that you aren't a bigot sounds a little ridiculous when you casually mention that you also think interracial marriage is wrong...
Someone forget to tell Marshall that while denying GLBT people rights is still considered a legitimate political decision/religious duty by a lot of people, denying racial minorities rights is seen as a little beyond the pale.

[StonerStudent]

salukifan said:

Yeah, no kidding about Marshall screwing up.
Somehow asserting that you aren't a bigot sounds a little ridiculous when you casually mention that you also think interracial marriage is wrong...
Someone forget to tell Marshall that while denying GLBT people rights is still considered a legitimate political decision/religious duty by a lot of people, denying racial minorities rights is seen as a little beyond the pale.

If you give them enuff rope........

[Trisha]

I wasn't intending to single out individuals per se - I gave the reference as what I perceive as a more or less typical (and convenient, I admit) baseline of the underlying problem (with loads of diversity within the example) within the self defense/2A community that seems to all but shout a requirement for PP and GwG.

Another way of looking at it - do we need Log Cabin Republicans - or should we all just blend in discretely into the RNC?

;D



Maybe it comes from living in the mountians, but I smile whenever people want me to blend in, you know?

[StonerStudent]

Well every board as it's Marshall's....I have a few "buddies" on arfcom that pop up every once in awhile.

As far as this board goes.....I want everybody...give me your Liberals, LGBT,Str8, Democrats, Republicans,Christians, Muslims,Wiccans etc......you just have to be polite and open minded. We don't have a religion or politics forums because IMO they would turn ugly.