<div dir="ltr">I'm confused by this article. What does the Orlando incident have to do with heterosexual tolerance of homosexuals in Moscow? The crime in Florida was clearly carried out by another homosexual and as such bears no reflection on the mainstream citizens of that area. To the contrary, the outpouring of grief and desires to be of assistance to the victims and their loved ones belies any sort of expression of hate. The incident in Orlando was a tragedy to be sure but in no way could it be considered an expression of the heterosexual communities lack of acceptance for their fellow Floridians.<div><br></div><div>g<br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 4:28 AM, Moscow Cares <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:moscowcares@moscow.com" target="_blank">moscowcares@moscow.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><div><span></span></div><div><div><span></span></div><div><div>The Moscow City Council (May 14, 2013)</div><div><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/soundbites/CC_051413_Familyunits.mp3" target="_blank">http://www.tomandrodna.com/soundbites/CC_051413_Familyunits.mp3</a></div><div><br></div><div>Courtesy of today's (June 17, 2017) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.</div><div><br></div><div>---------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div><h1 style="font-size:30px;outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;font-weight:400;font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:34px"><span style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;color:rgb(204,0,0);line-height:38px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Palouse area mostly accepting, but not immune to hate</span></h1><p style="font-size:18px;outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:10px 0px 10px 20px;line-height:24px;color:rgb(153,153,153);background-image:url(http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dnews.com/content/tncms/live/components/core_base_library/resources/images/dingbat.gif);font-family:Arial,sans-serif;background-position:0% 50%;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">Members of the LGBT community shed light on their experiences in Pullman, Moscow</p><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Some members of the LGBT communities in Moscow and Pullman say they have been subject to hate and threats and even lost friends because of their orientation and gender presentation here on the Palouse, but they say the area is mostly safe and accepting.</span></p><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">They say they've been followed, picketed, threatened and sometimes they have to think twice about holding a partner's hand in public. Some have hid their sexuality to avoid losing a job.</span></p><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Most, however, say it is only a small number of people who don't accept them on the Palouse.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">In the wake of the past weekend's shooting that left 49 dead at the Pulse Orlando Night Club & Ultra Lounge, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., local members of the LGBT community say they won't live their lives in fear.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">"I'm not afraid of something like that happening here," said Katie Noble, a lesbian and violence prevention educator at Washington State University.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Gordon Mellot, 33, has performed at drag shows in Moscow and Pullman for the past 13 years.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">"Moscow is a pretty safe community but there are always two or three people hiding in the shadows that you have to be aware of," Mellot said.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">While the Palouse is overall inclusive, Kathy Sprague, a Moscow native who has organized drag shows in Moscow and Pullman for more than 20 years, has experienced some of the worst it has to offer.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">She said she received death threats after running for Moscow City Council in 1993. One message left on her answering machine she still distinctly remembers: "Die you f-----g dykes." She also said her friend William Hendrick, who was gay, was murdered in Moscow in 1999 because of his sexual orientation. The case has not been solved.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Sprague, 51, said she was also a friend of Steve Nelson, a former University of Idaho student and employee who responded to an online ad for sex in southern Idaho in early May and was beaten and robbed by four men. He died from his injuries.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">"There is no denying Steve Nelson's murder was a hate crime. Every day someone is gay bashed - sometimes it goes as far as it did with Steve and they die," she said. "We can't live in fear - we live knowing that it might be us next. You might as well ask every woman in this country if she fears being raped, it's always in the back of our mind."</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Sprague said she still remembers an incident in 1994 after anti-gay legislation was proposed in Idaho. She said members of Christ Church and its pastor, Doug Wilson, showed up outside a gay dance and displayed anti-gay signs, one of which read, "AIDS Inoculation Center."</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">"I was younger and not as secure in my identity," she said. "And anyone who will attack a community while they're down is showing their true colors and it certainly isn't being a good Christian."</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Sprague said tragedies like that in Orlando make many in the LGBTQIA community relive previous attacks.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">"This is what we live with in the back of our minds every single day," she said.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Brandon Dudley, 29, of Pullman, said he feels safe in Pullman as a gay man, but high school was a different story. Dudley said he was bullied every day at Pullman High School, to the point he considered suicide once. That led to him to dropping out.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">He later re-enrolled, but he didn't stay long.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">"I was assigned to give a speech on gay marriage. I told (the teacher) I didn't feel comfortable and she told me I had no choice," he said. "The class erupted with students calling me a faggot ... that was my last day at PHS."</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">He said he now receives more flack for being African-American than a homosexual.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">For Noble, 32, it wasn't until a few years ago that she started working at Washington State University and was able to come out and be open with her sexuality at work. She said her previous Pullman employer had told her "gay people should be lobotomized and shouldn't have the same rights as other people."</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">"He said it's a mental illness or defect that should be fixed," Noble said. "It wasn't a fun experience working for someone who didn't accept me for who I was. There are definitely situations you have to gauge how publicly you want to be about your sexuality."</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Mellot said he's been followed and had his neighbors throw beer bottles at him and call him names, but such instances are rare.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">"They've chased me down saying I don't belong here, 'there's no place in Moscow for people like you,' and they're sick of us 'trying to take over the community,' " he said. "They don't happen often, but when they do they resonate hard with me. Moscow is a safe place - when it does happen it's so out of the norm."</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Dudley said he was considering studying pre-law in Orlando.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">"I would have been there at this time, I could have been at that club," he said. "Those are my friends - that could have been me."</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Noble doesn't have any Orlando ties, but he hopes those killed were loved.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">"I feel fortunate that I have a biological family that loves me and supports me. There are so many people in the LGBTQ community that don't have that. That's why I feel so much sadness and sorrow for 49 people I never met," she said, crying on the phone. "I know how difficult it can be to be afraid of who you are, and not be able to express that. I hope they were loved, and they knew that.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">"For every violent person there are 40 that are not violent. All it takes for us to use our voice - that's how the numbers change and violence happens less often."</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Sprague had a similar message.</span></p></div><div style="outline:0px;margin:0px;padding:0px;float:none!important"><p style="outline:0px;margin:10px 0px 0px;padding:0px;line-height:24px;background-image:none;float:none!important"><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">"When you hear someone say, 'that's so gay,' call them on it. 'You throw like a girl,' it's all tied together. Rape culture, misogyny, they're all heads to the same hydra," Sprague said. "We need to treat everyone with kindness and respect, and call our peers on it when they are not doing that."</span></p></div></div><div><br></div><div>---------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div>"Just Two Men Who Do-Si-Do"</div><div><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/Songs/Marriage/Do_Si_Do.mp3" target="_blank">http://www.tomandrodna.com/Songs/Marriage/Do_Si_Do.mp3</a></div><div><br></div><div>"Gay Girls Make Great Moms"</div><div><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/Songs/Marriage/Gay_Girls_Make_Great_Moms.mp3" target="_blank">http://www.tomandrodna.com/Songs/Marriage/Gay_Girls_Make_Great_Moms.mp3</a></div><div><br><div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)" target="_blank"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">  </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Tom "Free to be you and me" Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div>  </div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br>=======================================================<br>
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