christopher s.

see note for reviewers.

january 22^nd,

around 8:30 pm,

in carrollton, georgia---

christopher staples, a 43 year old disabled man,

who is thought of as a brother by

his neighbors in the appalachian

foothills---

who has lived with his family in the area for 31 years---

just finished a cigarette while was watching television,

when a large rock bearing a note came crashing through his

window.

 

written on the back of a sheet of math homework,

the note bore this message:

 

“We know you’re gay. 

 And God hates gays.

You won’t be raping anybody in the county and

God’s going to make sure that you burn in hell...

My daddy will make sure you burn in hell.”

 

he subsequently called the sheriff’s department

and investigators arrived on the scene, attaining the

note---

mr. staples went to sleep.

 

sometime later,

charcoal liter fluid was used to start a fire in

mr. staples home---

it was to fill the access holes where water pipes

entered the kitchen &

from there the fire spread throughout his

house---

had he not awoke to the melting of the comforter under

which he was sleeping,

he too would have been incinerated,

joining the likes of the thick black smoke

which was filling house.

 

staples escaped the attempt to burn him alive

by what most believe to be a christian hate group---

he now has had to change every aspect of his life,

living now in an undisclosed location, no doubt,

paranoid & afraid

as anyone would be after such an ordeal.

 

staples, an openly gay man,

is liked by many in his community & the

captain of the carroll county sheriff’s department

could not believe what had happened---

“I can’t believe anyone would have such hatred in

their heart as to do somebody like that, especially

when they don’t even know him.  They don’t know

him,”

Capt. Shane Taylor remarked when stating

that in 16 years

he hadn’t come across anything like this

hate crime.

 

and so now,

in the 21^st century

as so many in the united states have finally begun to

raise their fist in the air in support of

same-sex marriage & the end of discrimination towards

the homosexual population in general,

georgia,

a state whose historical terror campaign of

lynching, cross burning & atrocity done to

african-americans by the ku klux klan as well as

other christian hate groups

is well known to the world over,

stands in the way of prosecuting those individuals who

tried to burn mr. staples to death in

january.

 

being one of five remaining states

which has no laws protecting the LGBTQ community,

georgia,

will be a difficult place to find any semblance of

justice

when it comes to the attempt on staples’ life---

at best,

the act could be prosecuted as a hate crime,

by using the federally mandated

mathew shepard act,

however,

one shouldn’t hold their breath.

 

in 2009, the FBI reported that

14 hate crimes a day

were committed against the

gay & lesbian population in the

US---

mr. staples is lucky to be alive

& the fact that georgia & 4 other states

still do not have laws protecting their own

citizens,

regardless of their sexual orientation,

is a special kind of horror

that you can only find in a country that

was stolen through genocide,

built with slaves dragged from other countries

& whose population has remained

unequal

since its beginning---

and it still continues to be. 

Author's Note

“It is distressing to me that we live in an age in which we still must fight to protect our civil rights as Americans, in which a hate crime perpetrated against someone based their sexual orientation can go unpunished, and in which discrimination is being written into our laws.”

-Democratic Congressman, John Conyers