Dear Editor:

This year’s Oscars were a true eye-opening experience. Instead of being awed by the glamour of the award presentations, I was shocked by the ignorance, hatred, and bigotry of the patrons in a bar where I watched the ceremony, after spending the day hiking in Anza Borrego State Park. “If that f**cking faggot Brokeback Mountain wins, I am going to puke,” said a weathered cowboy to his female companion clad in a cowboy hat and tube-top. As Ang Lee won the award for best director for Brokeback Mountain, I cheered defiantly despite the exchange of aggressive glares between myself and that same cowboy. I feel that the fact that I was in better physical condition was the only reason he didn’t pick a fight. Later, when Hillary Swank presented Phillip Seymour Hoffman with the award for Best Actor in his portrayal of Truman Capote, a burly unkempt farmer’s wife with a large cross around her neck clapped her hands and said, “thank God Brokeback Mountain didn’t win”. Little did this woman know that Truman Capote, who was perhaps one of America’s greatest writers happened to be an effeminate homosexual. These unenlightened people were so quick to spew their hatred and venom for a movie they hadn’t the courage to see, while clapping for a movie they obviously hadn’t seen and knew nothing about.

As I left the bar, I asked my friend why when you leave large metropolitan areas and head inland, whether to red states or red Republican communities, so many people are so close-minded and hateful. As I looked at the pick-ups and gas-guzzling SUVs in parking-lot covered with “Praise Jesus” and “God Bless Bush” bumper-stickers, the answer to my question became obvious. I am a religious person who believes in the benefits of religion. However, clearly, in such backwoods places, religious fundamentalism rules supreme, just as religious fundamentalism is strictly adhered to by religious extremists in the Middle East. Replace the central part of the US with Afghanistan, replace the Taliban with America’s Religious Right, and replace the violence of suicide bombers with the violence of abortion clinic bombers; the similarities are undeniable.

Please Jesus, save me from your fundamentalist followers! These people will point to the Leviticus codes as a reason to hate and discriminate against gay people. Yet those same codes declare that the shrimp cocktail that the cowboy was eating, and the polyester-cotton blend sweatshirt that the farm wife was wearing are equally declared to be abominations. The question that I pose to these self-proclaimed Christians is: “What did Christ say about homosexuality?” The answer is, “nothing.” I wish Jesus could come to earth again and talk with these bigoted, homophobic people. Yet I am afraid that if Jesus came to a red state or a Republican neighborhood, his so-called followers would demand that he be nailed to the cross a second time for preaching peace rather than war, forgiveness rather than vengeance, being non-judgmental rather than bigoted, and fostering love rather than hate.

Bill Stanhope