Three-ring circus: Murder, Outrage, and the future

Birmingham’s religious community responds to the death of Billy Jack Gaither.

The murder of Billy Jack Gaither was immediately suspicious, according to David White, Birmingham Coordinator of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of Alabama. Members of GALAA called the police and suggested the Hate aspect of this crime. But the police remained quiet about the potential hate motive of the crime, to protect the ongoing investigation. In their Feb 28 meeting, GALAA voted to hold off on public announcements for seven days. The very next day, the first suspect was arrested. When the second was aprehended and confessed, the hate element of the murder became public.

Sensitized to hate crimes against the gay community, the media flocked to Sylacauga. But White, who has been active for more than ten years in gay politics, feels the media has been right on in it’s response to this killing. The media reports have been sensational but positive.

Most of the positive reaction to this tragedy was the highly visible activities of the pastor of the Metropolitan community church, Marge Ragona. "I have no one to thank but Rick Journey of Fox 6 News," says Ragona. "He was the first one to call me, and he put us on the air." This began a media circus the likes of which the gay community, let alone Birmingham, has rarely seen. From 20/20 and Dateline NBC to the New York Times, the small town of Sylacauga, Birmingham and the gay community found themselves in a uncomfortable spotlight.

The Covenant MCC, in Woodlawn, was transformed into a media response center. Kelly Knochel, a National Gay and Lesbian Task Force representative, in town to help organize events for Equality Begins at Home, was drafted to answer phones. "There was no way we could have handled that ourselves." Says Ragona,

Not content with mere commentary, Rev. Ragona, with TV cameras in tow, traveled to Peckerwood Creek and the site of the killing. Tim Holder, Rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Woodlawn and another Episcopal lay person, joined Ragona in a "fearful place, where a life had been taken."

Father Holder under took this pilgrimage, "to meet where evil had occurred in a timely manner and state that such evil will not conquer."

Holder blessed the murder site with water from the church baptismal font. Holder believes the blessing, and the baptismal vows all Episcopalians take, tie the community and all of mankind together. Paraphrasing Martin Luther King, Holder stated that there is no love without justice. Truth and justice are linked, and Father Holder says we must call hate crimes what they are, making no excuses.

The churches must be accountable. Because, in his eyes, the people responsible for this death are not those solely charged. Society, which permits such hate, is also responsible. Holder is concerned at the lack of outrage from other Birmingham clergy.

"What troubles the conscience of the others?" Holder wonders "If we are not to minister with and to the stranger, then why are we here?" His accountability is to himself, to the baptized, to everyone.
Singling out one person or group with hate, he believes, not only lessens the person but is participation in evil. Holder is passionate about his faith, his duty to fight hate. He says in this Easter season, we must celebrate our faith, but it is also a time of serious responsibility.

The most visible form of that accountability was the packed vigil held for Gaither on March 12, 1999 at the Covenant Metropolitan Community Church in Woodlawn. While the press estimated the crowd at just over 200, Ragona and her church members gave out 500 vigil candles.

In a two-hour service, members of clergy from Alabama churches spoke of their outrage at the hate crime committed in Coosa County. They spoke of the loss his family faced, and the turmoil and fear that the murder has raised in it’s wake. Representatives of the Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist and Lutheran denominations spoke in rare unity about the value of gay and lesbian people and the need for hate crimes legislation. Cries of "Amen!" and "Tell the truth!" punctuated a ceremony both solemn and energizing.

Ragona said the gathering "surpassed her wildest dreams." The clergy represented at the vigil were people with whom Ragona has a collegial and working relationship. Not a single person she asked refused the invitation, though some had schedule conflicts and sent representatives.

Karen Matteson, leader of the Unitarian Church in Homewood, spoke about her own fear for her lesbian daughter, awakened by the hate crime. In an interview last week, She said her daughter is a grown woman, an activist in her own right, and can take care of herself. But "the killing had raised the specter of a fear harbored from the time her daughter came out at age 18." She was heartened by the response in support of the vigil, and the lack of support for Fred Phelps.

When asked what she tells the Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, which meets at her church, about the killing, she said "It’s a painful reminder of the dangers all gay people face. Parents of gays and lesbians have a lot of fear; AIDS, descrimination, and this crime adds to it." Much crime against the gay community, she believes, goes unreported.

Ragona echoed this sentiment "I think [these crimes] have been going on for a long time. There’s just a whole series of things that have happened since I’ve been a leader in the gay community – but here’s the difference, it wasn’t reported."

Others were also present to protest the hate crime. Lane and Rachel Estes, along with their infant daughter, came to the vigil to show that there are people in the straight community outraged. Estes, Vice President of the Crestwood South Neighborhood Association, came to support his neighborhood and the community. He hopes that just as we look back at the discrimination of the 60’s with shock, we’ll someday look back at gay hate crimes and wonder "What were we thinking?"

David Lewis, a firey baptist minister from Dora, Alabama, was a little angrier about the crime and the city’s response to it. Lewis arrived at the vigil and found that no other Black ministers from the Birmingham area were present. His unrehearsed sermon at first shocked, and then energized the crowd. He took aim at the Black Churches of Birmingham, "Where are they?" he asked. In the 60’s these same churches had raged against the silence of the white congregations on civil rights issues, but have remained silent on the issue of gay hate crimes.

"The black community is more homophobic than the white community," he said, in an interview after the vigil, Baptist dogma, based on literal biblical interpretation, means most black clergy view homosexuality as morally wrong. And since the Southern Baptist churches and their clergy, play such a central role in the black community, this attitude is perpetuated at all levels. "There’s also the perception that gays are only a tiny percentage of the black community, which is dead wrong."

Reverend Ragona, shares this view. In the past, She has tried to reach out to the black churches, with no effect. In this instance, she didn’t even try to contact them. There are many, she feels, within the black community who remain terribly closeted.

And the closet, black or white, disturbs Ragona. In her eyes, it was the closet that killed both Gaither and Matthew Shepard. "I think that the people who get killed are not the out and open people. The people who get killed are scared, because invariably, they don’t make their relationships with someone who is equally out and open, which those of us who are out usually do." You have to watch out for Mr. Goodbar, says Ragona, "I think that people also mislead you … They lead people on; people who wind up in dangerous situations."

That danger, all the clergy I spoke with say, comes from hate. And their response is to encourage all of us to fight for hate crimes legislation. House Bill 14 is designed to do that, and the clergy I spoke to promise to put it to their congregations. David White feels this is the first positive piece of legislation for the Alabama gay community in years. "It is important that the Governor, the state Senate, and House of Representatives hear form every one of us."