You have to be putting us on, this scene reminds you of the religeous right? Do you have a brain? This level of moral relativism that you guys push does nothing to promote your viewpoint among thinking americans and the idea that gays in America are subject to this kind of situation from anyone is ludicrous and takes away the attention from the real victims like these two and others who live under these oppressive governments. For anyone who believes that the US is somehow a bad place, look, and I mean really look at these photos and the understand that this would NEVER and I mean NEVER happen in the USA

Sorry, still don’t buy it. There is a HUGE difference between what happened in Iran and what goes on here. How many gays have been killed in the US with the complicity of the US Gov’t? None. F*cking none. Any inbred yahoo who takes it upon himself to kill a gay is vigorously hunted down and prosecuted by the state judicial system, and if the state doesn’t prosecute with prejudice, the federal government steps in and prosecutes on the basis of civil rights violations. Gay-bashing even falls into a special kind of crime, bias crime.
Do inbred morons exist here? Of course, this is a free and open society and nothing can be done about that. But to suggest that such yahooism is institutional, codified or condoned by the US goverment or people is just plain stupid. Get over your bad self.
Mack

Put the Hooterville Weekly Standard down, Jono… step away from it NOW.
Get on line and read some real media, the NY Times, The Washington Post, the LA Times, Time, Newsweek, MSNBC, Reuters, AP, UPI, CBS, the Guardian (UK), Le Monde…
Where DO you live? Woodstock, NY??? Read any of these sources listed above, and see if you don’t come away believing that we in Texas rove the streets in packs looking for poor, innocent mentally challenged minorities to execute.
Jeez…
By the way, it is the *people* of Texas that execute prisoners, not the Governor. We do have the right to vote the death penalty down at any time, and we haven’t done it yet.
In the words of Ron White (paraphrased)… “If you come to Texas and kill, we’ll kill you back. If you have to murder somebody, do yourself a favor and do it in California.”
Mack

If you want to expound on the experience of being gay, or your experiences with bias crime, right on. I’m not arguing that gays will continue to be attacked because they are gay, as will blacks, as will Mormon missionaries, as will Spics like me, and as will (name your favorite minority here). Maybe some will be instigated by the words of Rev. Phelps, maybe some racial attacks will be fueled by the preaching of Rev. Al Sharpton (already happened).
What I think is utter and complete nonsense is to draw equivalence between the state sanctioned and institutionalized antigay violence in Iran and the random attacks by individual yahoos and rabid looneys here. The bit about “sympathetic ear in Washington” is pure hyperbole and paranoid ravings. Do you have even the smallest idea of the major freaking changes to Constitutional and case law would have to be made to legalize or condone bias crimes?
That kid in Wyoming that got murdered, thay black guy that got drug behind a pick-up in Texas. You’ve heard of them, right? Do you know why you’ve heard of them? Because it could never happen here, that’s why. If those crimes were condoned by society, they never would have made the paper, except maybe for a blurb on the police blotter in the hometown paper. As it stands, anybody that commits such a heinous crime will be hunted down like a dog and prosecuted by the state judiciary, and if the state is not enthusiastic enough, they will be prosecuted by the feds for civil rights violations.
By minimizing the degree to which things have changed in the last fifty years, you are spitting in the eyes of every person who fought for those changes. Shame on you.
One last thing – you do realize that your statement that, “Fundamentalism (Christian, Hasidic or Muslim) is evil”, is in itself an ignorant, biased and prejudiced statement, right? If I gave you a nickle for every Hassidic Jew, Christian or Buddist Monk or Imam that you know as more than a passing acquintance, how much would I owe you? Fifty cents, or less? For you to sit there and pass judgement from your perch about people that you’ve never met and know nothing about, based on gross generalization that are hip with you and your “crew”… Isn’t this the same BS that you’re carping about? If you don’t want to see it, don’t be it.
Mack

…and by the way….what Iran did outrages me to no end…but a former poster was right…..that will never happen here.
The whole world needs to see how these scumbags run Iran.

I had completely forgotten that the State of Wyoming had executed that kid…

On the other hand, if you are saying that the US judicial system is an abject failure unless it can proactively prevent every half-wit yokel from acting out on his blind ignorant hatred, then: a.) how do you propose that the government devine what’s in the heart and minds of every single citizen and proactively stop bias crime (Vanilla Sky?), and b.) let’s zip back to reality for a second and tell me your feelings about the Patriot Act and John Ashcroft. Finally, compare and contrast your answers to “a” and “b” above.The fact that you even know about the Wyoming case only buttresses my previous argument. it was a heinous act, reasonable people nationwide were outraged, the case was vigorously prosecuted. Now how in the Sam Hill can you draw equivalance between the Matthew Shepherd case in the US and the official acts of the Iranian government?

I’ll say it again – what you seen in the photo could never, ever happen here.
Mack