christopher s.

january 22nd,
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 21st 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.