I was taking notes during the most recent debates to try and piece together an essay when my ears started burning as Donald Trump, in an effort to slander the Clinton Foundation, said

“These are people that push gays off businesses – off buildings. These are people that kill women and treat women horribly. And yet, you take their money.”

Clinton's response was something that would strike a nerve so deep it has taken me a week to confront the reality of it. SHE LAUGHED! She laughed at the mention of gays being executed in Iraq.

Yes, this does happen at the hands of the Islamic State. I wanted to do some research to find specifics about the history of this barbaric punishment and just how prevalent it is. An internet search of "gays off rooftops" yielded enough information for a rather lengthy essay. The #1 Search Result? "Watch Hillary Laugh...." After looking at just two links I was already in tears. I'm afraid I don't have the stomach to research this topic. My actual point is I know of another state where citizens think it's religiously acceptable to throw gays off buildings.

I'm referring to Tennessee. Once the home of me and simultaneously the 1982 Worlds Fair. As a lead up to the fair's grand opening the city was bespeckled with solid white background billboards reading in bold black letters "THE WORLD'S FAIR". For a total cost of $32.09 my friends and I bought black spray paint cans and modified several of the billboards by adding the letters "UN" before the word FAIR.

The 1982 World's Fair suffered from two specifical flaws:

1) The SunSphere (the official monument) is now listed in the Guinness Book as the shortest monument ever for a World Fair. Even more humiliating with it being penis shaped.

2) The official monument was built in a valley so you couldn't see it until you got close to it.

The site was left abandoned after the fair ended leaving only a restaurant and a wig factory. Yes, a wig factory, which was immortalized in a "Simpson's" episode in which Bart and friends take a joy ride to the World's Fair (long after it closed). You’re welcome to visit if you want to see 16,000 boxes of unsold wigs.

But here begins the sad and weepy part of the story. That wig factory was the building my friend Martin (not his real name) was thrown from. Martin is still alive today (just wanted to get that out of the way real quick). What was his crime? Incredible fashion sense and a hairstyle way ahead of it's time. Four men saw Martin on his way home from a gay bar and jumped him and beat him. They carried him to the 5th floor of the wig building and tossed him out the window. The men were never apprehend, or even sought out for that matter.

Martin was in the hospital for the next 9 months healing from bone fractures from skull to heel and most every other bone in between. After being dismissed from the hospital he has never been the same. He has lost some of his long term memory and he just has to believe me when I tell him of fun times we had in the past. He sometimes has a hard time remembering simple words he used just moments ago. One important thing he didn't lose was his wonderful kind and forgiving spirit.

So when I see Donald Trump acting like our religious nutjobs are any more civilized than those within the Islamic State I want to wretch. When I see Hillary Clinton laughing about it as if it's some kind of nothing burger I want to punch a wall.

And this kind of ignorance of our own hidden brutality against LGBTQ people here at home is not limited to presidential candidates. When lesbian soccer player Megan Rapinoe kneels during the national anthem in a quest to raise awareness about the racial divide in our country and people like Tomi Lahren respond with

You look at that flag and you hear that anthem, and it disgusts you, huh? Because the United States of America doesn’t respect your liberties as a gay person? Hey Megan, do you know what they do to women and gay people in many countries around the world? They stone them and throw them off buildings!

I want to hang my head in shame.

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/09/tomi-lahren-lesbian-soccer-pro-should-be...

There was no search for Martin's assailants. It wasn't a high priority. Both Martin and I agree the police seemed secretly proud of what those four men did and were able to get away with. Martin miraculously survived. So many other's haven't. My timeline spans Martin, to Matthew Shepherd to the Pulse Nightclub Massacre. I've seen a lot of murder.

And from this point on every time I see Clinton I will hear that laugh. How on earth does she keep finding ways to make me hate her more.