Human Rights Commission Poem

Human Rights Commission Poem by Supernova-Exploding

In the words of Janine Benedet:

"There is something particularly significant about assaults that are motivated by discriminatory attitudes, because they really do target not just the victim, but an entire population.”

Slut. Fag. Dyke. Nigger. Halfbreed. Squaw.
Words as hot knives
Searing and carving
Artist Mary Coble tattoos them into her flesh
As well as the names of 438 queer people
Killed in hate crimes.
The words seep out in a script of blood
She makes prints
Puts them in galleries
A memoir to those who did not survive
The hate.
Her tattoos have no ink
The words appear only in blood
Eventually washed away
and later they heal.
But there remain
Scars of these words
All. Over. Her body.
You have to look close
As the legacy is almost invisible
But it is there.

In our own city
Racial tension runs high.
Our gay bar
is the only bar in the city
Where the doorperson writes down your ID
and then buzzes you in from behind a pane of glass
For safety reasons.

Stephen Colbert said,
"Now, I don't see colour
...people tell me I'm White
and I believe them
because police officers call me sir."

Here in our own city
We remember Neil Stonechild
And Colbert's comment doesn't seem so funny
Anymore.

Racial profiling
Has been directly linked to a happy trigger finger
Look at the records of police brutality
Here in our true, north, strong, and free
The colour of your skin
Can get you shot.

In my high school
My best friend had FAG screamed at him
All of every day
And the teachers did nothing
The principal did nothing
No One with authority
did anything.
His own father once said
"All gays should be lined up and shot."
You tell me
That this attitude
And the social acceptance
of this attitude
Has nothing to do
with the murderers of the 438 queer people
Whose names Mary Coble tattooed to her body
Thinking
That it's okay
To attack and kill a so-called fag, or tranny, or dyke.

Discrimination
and dehumanization
Go hand in fucking hand
with every kind of violence.
We have the Human Rights Commission for a reason
... to keep us alive.