Diversity Rules Magazine

3 Diversity Rules Magazine November 2015 David-Elijah Nah- mod is a film crit- ic and reporter in San Francisco. His articles ap- pear regularly in The Bay Area Reporter and SF Weekly. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter. David developed Post Traumatic Syndrome Disor- der (PTSD) after surviving gay conversion therapy as a child and has found that many in the LGBT community suffer from severe, often untreated emotional disorders due to the extreme anti-gay traumas they endured. This column chronicles his journey. Harry Truman served as the 33rd US President, sitting in the Oval Office from 1945-1953. e Buck Stops Here was Truman's motto--he meant that responsibil- ity for what went on the the country at that time went no further than his desk--as the man at the very top of the United States food chain, President Truman ac- cepted full responsibility for everything that happened to the American people. For many years after, e Buck Stops Here became a popular catch-phrase, and a standard which people hoped they could live up to. "You are responsible for everything you do," Gilbert Baker, the designer of the iconic rainbow flag, told me in an interview several years ago. To that end, Baker ended his practice of marching in Pride Parades as a scantily clad Jesus with pink skin when he realized that anti-gay religious groups had been photograph- ing him. Groups like e Moral Majority and e 700 Club used those pictures in order to campaign against gay rights. Baker decided that the community's need for equality laws to be passed was more impor- tant than his right to be the center of attention. He accepted responsibility for his actions. e Buck Stops Here concept barely exists in today's world. We've been watching the GOP implode on it- self. GOP presidential candidates continue to defend the NRA, make racist remarks about immigrants, and attack Planned Parenthood. Conservative , far right religious leaders have yet to stop insisting that floods, earthquakes and killer bees are God's punishment for gay marriage. Polls show that expressing these views has all but destroyed the GOP's chances of taking back the White House, yet Republican candidates continue to spout these inflammatory, offensive and laughable views. e GOP has become a party in turmoil, where no one accepts responsibility for their words or deeds. But if we're to be honest with ourselves, then we must admit that the LGBT activist community isn't much better. In a recent edition of this column, I interviewed Rev. Megan Rohrer, a transgender church pastor in San Francisco who needed police assistance after receiving threats of violence from within the LGBT sphere. I understood how the Pastor felt all too well: in 2010 I needed police intervention after a series of gay bloggers inflamed anti-gay and anti-Semitic hate against me for a cheap laugh--I was told that being gay justifies such conduct and that I was an "anti-gay bigot" for not sup- porting this kind of behavior. I was subjected to so much hate from within the LGBT community that I nearly committed suicide. Gay activists laughed. What happened to Rev. Rohrer and I are not isolated incidents--just Chicago area resident Carl Szulczynski. Now married to his husband with whom he raised two children, Szulcynski had to contend with nationally known gay activists ridiculing his past as a homeless, bisexual identified teen. He introduced me to Kyle, a young gay man with a speech impediment. Gay ac- tivists had made fun of Kyle's voice on a radio chat show. Nahmod - Con't on page 6 If You Could Read My Mind A PTSD Memoir: The Buck Stops Here By David-Elijah Nahmod

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