Hate Crimes Directed at Homosexuals

This is in response to Rusty Kennedy’s commentary, “Why Hate Crimes Against Gays Should Be Everybody’s Nightmare” (May 28).

Just let me state that I am in full agreement with Kennedy’s comments. Gays and lesbians must be able to live their lives without fear of persecution.

The only problem I had was with the quote he used by Pastor Martin Nicmuller. The quote, although sending a very strong and powerful message, is not historically accurate. A more historically accurate statement would be:

In Germany they came first for the mentally ill, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t mentally ill.

Then they came for the gays, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t gay.

Then they came for the gypsies, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a gypsy.

Etc., etc . . .

We often think only about the fact that 6 million Jews were killed; we often ignore the fact that an additional 5 million gays, lesbians, gypsies, and mentally ill were also murdered.

Unlike the Jews, who will not let us forget their Holocaust, gays and lesbians rarely discuss or teach the atrocities that were committed against them during the dark days of Hitler’s reign.

Could it be that our complacency about our holocaust has allowed the seeds of another holocaust to befall us--the holocaust of AIDS?

The Jews learned their lesson. The gay and lesbian community is now learning its lesson. We too are now saying: “Never forget. Never again.”

GARY B. RODRIGUE

Irvine