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Open Letter to Elton John |
Dear Sir Elton, By agreeing to appear on stage as back-up singer to Eminem at the Grammys, you are spitting on the grave of Matthew Shepard, and every other hate-crime murder victim. It is an insult to every Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) person and every woman who has suffered violence. The Grammys rightly came under fire for nominating Eminem's Marshall Mathers LP as record of the year. They knew what they were doing when they nominated him - promoting a viciously misogynistic, homophobic man who calls women "bitches" and wishes Lesbians, Gays and Transgendered people were dead. It also doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out at least one reason why Eminem and/or the Grammys chose you to back him up at their February 21st event. They chose a prominent gay man as window-dressing to cover themselves from the charge that they're promoting anti-gay hate.
Would you have been there defending this quisling role in the name of "free speech"? I doubt it. Any who participated in that hate campaign against you did so out of choice or cowardice, and they were not bound by any lofty first amendment proscription to support the hate campaign, any more than you are now obliged to support Eminem. The honorable thing for you to do would be to break your agreement with Grammys, the networks and/or Eminem, actively assisting in the political marginalization of this homophobe, much as "Dr." Laura Schlessinger has successfully been publicly labeled as a bigot and thus is a much less dangerous person than she was a year ago. Hate speech encourages discrimination and brutality, and you are under no moral obligation to personally support it. Eminem's speech is not "free" to those of us and/or our families who have been brutalized, beaten, murdered, and raped. His hateful lyrics are dangerous to this community, especially our youth for whom Eminem's message promoting death can have a particularly devastating impact, whether in form of physical assaults by their peers or increased suicides. We don't care how popular he is. If you do this, despite your prior advocacy, activism and philanthropy, we will consider you a collaborator in our war against injustice. Do you really want to draw a line in the sand between you, and the community that has supported you? Are you prepared to continue to allow yourself to be used as a token in the service of anti-gay hate? Your choice is clear: resign from your commitment to appear with Eminem at the Grammys, or go down in history as a gay Uncle Tom who foolishly allowed himself to be used as a tool against "his own" people.
RobinTyler |
Robin Tyler 