Watching Congress’ “interrogations” today about AIG’s $165 million employee bonuses, I had a good time. It’s fun to see giants of excess, the over-compensated, over-hyped, get taken down. But then it struck me that all this pandering and stoking of the public rage is so utterly misplaced.Â
In 2007, (last year’s statistics haven’t come out yet,) there were 1,460 hate crime offenses based on sexual-orientation bias. Last year, in California our right to marry was stolen from us. In state after state bans on gay marriage were contemplated and approved, bans on gay adoption succeeded, HIV rates among gay men soared, job-loss due to anti-gay discrimination continued, gay couples died apart due to antiquated laws defining what constitutes a family.
$165 million in undeserved bonuses may seem criminal, but pales in comparison to the daily injustices visited upon the gay community. Where is our rage over these real crimes?