ToMmers — Times of Malta commenters — tend to spew their bullshit opinions all over the newsletter’s articles with no second thought. This time Amy, the gay-rights movement and the (what they call) “Gay Agenda” are the targets.

TRIGGER WARNING: Homophobia & Victim Blaming. Also: white, cis-males grumbling about how their privilege is being challenged.

Note: ToMmers are what I’m going to be calling Times of Malta (ToM) commenters for short. When I use the word I am referring to the vast majority of ToM commenters and it can be substituted with “idiot”, “stupid douchebag” and “Maltese Gahan” with absolutely no loss of meaning.

On January 13th, 2011 in Hamrun two brothers (17 and 19 years old) attacked two lesbians (one 16 years old, the other unknown) who were making out in a public park at around 19:30. The Times of Malta (surprisingly enough) reported the article here. At first the boys were not to be prosecuted because Malta does not have laws that qualify homophobia under hate crime, but after some pressure from the media and the gay rights movement, the police finally took action against the boys (one of which is an adult, if you consider ‘age’ as the right measurement of adulthood).

The victim has been using the alias ‘Amy’. Below is a photo of her face after the incident happened.

They called them “twisted” and the girls retaliated and shouted back at the boys. Suddenly, the younger boy allegedly turned up in the square. He hit Amy’s girlfriend and pushed her to the ground. When Amy intervened, the 19-year-old boy picked her up and punched her in the eye. “He grabbed my breasts then head-butted my nose and threw me onto the ground, grabbed my hair and pulled me across the ground,” Amy had told The Sunday Times. – timesofmalta.com

A call to action

So the Times has published a new article today (February 13th, 2011). I’ll highlight the best parts below, in case some of you have the attention span of a goldfish and are unable to fully read the article on your own.

Over the past month there were several condemnations, a protest and political pledges to strengthen laws protecting gay people from hate crimes. The latter development followed a second incident that came to light on February 6 when an Arriva bus driver was sacked for assaulting two women in what the transport company said seemed to be a homophobic act. This was backed by a 2008 study, carried out by the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality, showing that eight per cent of gay people had been attacked in the previous two years and half of these said it happened more than once. Two-thirds were young women. – timesofmalta.com

So it is clear here that there is a problem with homophobia in this country and something needs to be done to stop it. Including homophobic attacks as part of hate-crime law would surely be a step towards a better society, a society that accepts others the way they are regardless of their gender and sexual preference.

This is what I thought reading the latest ToM article. Great, the government is being pressured into taking action. Too bad two lesbian girls had to be hurt in order for this issue to reach the media but at least their pain is not in vain. Then I scrolled downwards towards the comments section and I was bombarded by ToMmers giving their (clearly, highly educated) opinion on the matter. Many were in favour of such a legislation passing to protect gay people. Then came the true ToMmer comments.

ToMmers being ToMmers

Reading the ToMmers’ comments usually feels like I’m trying to walk knee-deep in shit. So forgive me if this is not an extensive list of shit that ToMmers managed to spew all over that article; I only gathered the most prevalent arguments (read: bullshit masked as opinion masked as fact) and ran the fuck out of there.

#5 – “But… what about me?!”

I started off with a mild one here but the same sentiment was echoed all over the comments section. What if I, being a white, catholic and heterosexual person (basically all of the three segments of Malta that are not prejudiced against and that enjoy the greatest privilege) were attacked because of one of these factors? Would I still enjoy the same amount of media attention?

Are you fucking kidding me, Ms Galea? (From now on I will call you ‘Doris’ because it suits you.) Doris, did you ever turn on the TV and flip to the news (maybe in between reruns of Deceduti)? Every news segment you see there has a 99% chance of being about a white, catholic, heterosexual person! That is the world that you are living in! Everything around you is built for you and you’re wondering if you would get the same media attention? How about you stop trying to hog the spotlight for a minute and concentrate on the real problems here?

And then, out of fucking nowhere, I find another post from Doris which had been submitted two minutes earlier.

Ah, wait a second. So you’re ok with the media attention if this was done with sexist intentions but not ok if this was done out of homophobia. No wait, I’m confused now. So what you’re saying is that it’s ok to have all the media attention if it happened to a person who is in the same societal set as you? Everyone else can go fuck themselves? Gotcha. Fuck you, Doris. NEXT!

#4 – “They disgust me and the kids”

Translation “I cannot understand how many are defending the victims and no-one’s condemning them for the obscenities that they said on the bus. All I know is that I don’t think it’s right that gay people kiss especially in front of minors. They even disgust us adults; I can’t imagine what it does to children. The real victims aren’t gay people but those people that get addicted and whoever has a brain should understand what I’m saying – – – — -” – Carmel Muscat

Dear Mr. Muscat, let me explain something to you. When a person is on the receiving end of a crime (for example, some random girl being attacked by a boy and a man because her sexual preference does not align with that of the majority) that person becomes known as the victim. The victim of a crime is usually the person who has suffered loss – physical pain, trauma, loss of possessions and so on. In this case the victim is Amy, and if you have no idea why she is being protected and why her case is being defended by the masses then it’s time for you to get your head out of your ass and realize we’re no longer living in 1941.

Also, are you seriously saying that gay people kissing in front of you disgust you? You know what’s even more disgusting? Two girls being beaten up in the park, and another one being beaten up by a bus driver because they’re gay. That’s what’s fucking disgusting. And don’t you dare bring the children into this to try to protect your own century-old mentality.

And finally, what’s that at the end of your comment? Fucking morse code?

#3 – “But… what about me?!” [Extended Edition]

Mr E Schembri. I’ll call you Mr S. Let’s cut to the chase here. I’ll assume from the way you talk that you’re a white, catholic, straight male and you obviously think that all these minorities (read: fuck you) that you belong to should be protected by the government even more than they are protected, right? Like Doris. Yes? Good. Let’s start then.

You are constantly verbally abused and mocked because you’re Catholic. Let’s stop here. The vast majority of your co-workers (unless you’re two guys in a company and the only other guy is an Atheist) are probably Catholics. So what’s your problem? You’re probably even allowed to go to mass every first Friday of each month and you still get paid for the hour. If you report this to your superiors you could probably get the other guy fired. Next.

Should a peaceful protest be organized? Every fucking FESTA is a not-so-peaceful protest. Every church in the country is a symbol of your religion. Your religion has deep roots running underneath the government, playing him like a puppet. What else do you need?! Also, hardcore atheists. Yes. Let me know when we start killing people in the name of our Go– wait, we don’t have one. If we kill someone we go to jail. Kill someone in the name of God, and you’re His fighter! Congratulations and here’s your one way ticket to heaven.

The Gay movement is victimizing themselves. Really, Mr S? That’s what you think is happening here? These girls didn’t get beaten, did they? They fell and tried to blame it on straight men. Because they hate men! Yes, that’s it! You’re a fucking genius, Mr S!

What a marvellous, perfect example of a ToMmer!

#2 – “What about individual rights?”

I really don’t even know what to say about this one. He’s managed to include, all at once, a summary of the two events that happened (Hamrun and the Arriva clusterfuck), called what’s happening a revolution, predicted that minority rights and a legislation that includes homophobia as a hate-crime would be detrimental to his individual rights, and made a political statement. All in one comment. I’m.. I’m lost for words.

It must sound so much like a well written symphony of shit to other ToMmers. Thank god ToM don’t have a voting system. These guys would be at the very top.

#1 – “Gay. Agenda.”

This is the fucking motherload of ToMmer comments. Mario here pulls out a complete package of homophobia and stupidity with a mix of flawed logic. I thought Mr A Spiteri’s comment was a masterpiece but this blows Spiteri’s comment out into fucking orbit. Let’s analyze this great work of shitness.

First we have a misinterpretation of the law. Right off the bat, false statement. “Violence against homosexuals is already illegal.” Well, no it isn’t. Violence of any sort is wrong, and sometimes illegal, but punching someone in the face is not illegal. Punching someone in the face because he’s black now that’s illegal because it is classified as a hate crime, an attack based on discrimination because of skin colour. Violence against someone because he or she is gay, though, is not yet classified as a hate crime, and that’s what these people are fighting for.

Moving on. Yes, it’s an ‘excuse’ (so to speak) to outlaw criticism of homosexuality. Damn fucking right it should be outlawed. Who are you to tell people what’s good and what isn’t? What is ‘normal’ and what’s not when it comes to a consensual relationship with someone else?

“So as to implement the Gay Agenda.”

W-what?

What Agenda? What exactly is this ‘Gay Agenda’? Because I have yet to hear of such an agenda. My god.. they’re trying to be respected by the society they live in. They’re trying to pass laws that would protect them from being beaten up to death by some asshole who has some deep seated hatred towards gay people like you do, Mr Pace. You’re one of those that think gay people want to turn the rest of humanity gay, aren’t you?

-_-

To conclude: “It’s a well thought strategy.”? Really? First of all it’s “thought out”. Second of all, yes, it’s a great plan to push an Agenda that doesn’t exist. Push it where anyway? Into the government? Like, is this some book of laws that they want to trick the government into accepting thus allowing them to walk freely down the street wearing ass-less chaps and dyeing their hair purple?

Sigh…

You never cease to amaze me ToMmers. I would just like to thank those people who are actually decent enough to know that victims are not to blame here and that turning it into some sort of “but what about the majorities?! they’re hurt too!” bullshit argument only hurts more and more people.

And to the rest of the ToMmers, the real ToMmers..