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 .‘.._,-_-

 

Going to .lail to'Fight Oppressio

Bv PALMER LEGARE

 

n December 6, I was released from

FMC Devens federal prison, after serv-

 ing a 90-day sentence for nonviolent

;protest against a terrorist training camp. It was

imy experience growing up gay that opened my

~ yes to the School of Americas (SOA), one of
the world’s oldest and most effective terrorist
training camps, located in Ft. Benning, Georgia.

Before I began to accept my sexuality
during my sophomore year in high school, I
had believed the homophobic myths that were I
propagated by the people around me. Not that I
understood what the word gay meant or knew
anyone who was “out,” but I heard that it was
somehow connected to AIDS and pedophilia, .
and I was quite comfortable using the word
“faggot” as an insult.

My journey to accepting my sexuality
was as shocking as it was enlightening. I found
out that homosexuality wasn’t what people said
it was, so where did these oppressive anti-gay
beliefs come from? I became the victim of daily
verbal harassment and occasional physical
assaults. Yet I knew the perpetrators were mere-
ly following a socialization that I had once
believed in, and I started to wonder what other
falsehoods I was still supporting.

I began speaking out against homo-
phobia. As my eyes opened, I realized the crip-
pling effects of individual and institutional
racism, bias against people with mental illness,
and other forms of oppression.

A friend accidentally helped me real-
ize that I was spending a lot oftime and energy
spreading a very narrow message: “Look at me,
I’m a reasonably attractive, masculine, white
guy who’s a four-sport athlete. Gays can be
normal, too!"

In effect I was merely arguing for
them to accept gay men and perhaps lesbians
who didn’t have any other “minority” charac-
teristics. As a white male with access to a col-
lege education and reasonable economic oppor-
tunity, I am far more privileged than most peo-
ple on earth. despite some ofthe difficulties I
have had from being gay.

I had been trying to tear down
oppressive homophobic attitudes and behaviors.
but was unintentionally relying on and support-
ing oppressive hierarchies that supported me.

I had known that a lot of people were
poor, though I would never have guessed that

  

60,000 people die each day of hunger and relat-
ed diseases. Most importantly, I had been
fooled into believing that this was a natural
phenomenon that had nothing to do with me.
People in Africa and Latin America had always
been poor, I thought, unaware that they had
once been members of societies far more
advanced than any in Western Europe.

In order for this type of inequality to
exist, three things were necessary: the people
on top had to use their influence to remain on
top, the people on the bottom needed to be
intentionally and maliciously held down, and
the people in the middle simply needed to stay
quiet. '

So when I realized that I was one of
the people in the middle who had to be quiet ‘in
order for the suffering to continue, I knew I had
to speak up.

Then I found out about the SOA,
which is now officially called the Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation
(WHISC). The SOA has been located in Ft.
Benning, Georgia since it was kicked out of
Panama in 1984. At the time, a major newspa-
per in Panama dubbed it the “School of
Assassins.”

Nearly 60,000 Latin American mili-
tary personnel have graduated from this School.

> Its original purpose was to train Latin American

soldiers in “counterinsurgency" warfare to fight
Communist guerrillas. When the Cold War
ended, the institute’s purpose was to train sol-
diers in counter-narcotics. Since 9/1 I, the Army
has said that the SOA now has something to do
with the war on terrorism.

The well-documented fact is that the
SOA itself is a terrorist training camp. It trains
Latin American military personnel in terrorist
warfare against civilians in order to keep in
power highly unpopular governments that sup-
port US military and corporate interests.

This heavy accusation comes with
heavy proof. In I996 the Pentagon was forced
to release training manuals used at the school.
These manuals advocate using false imprison-
ment, torture and assassination of citizens who
"make accusations that the govemment is not
meeting the basic needs ofthe people.”

Numerous graduates of the SOA have
gone on to become dictators. including Manuel
Noriega of Panama and Juan Velasco Alvarado
of Peru. Lower-level SOA graduates have been
involved in some of the worst atrocities in Latin

America over the past 50 years, including the
El Mozote massacre of 500 civilians and the
assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero.

' Hundreds of thousands of
Guatemalans died at the orders-of SOA trainees
in the decades-long civil war started after the
CIA overthrew President Jacobo Arbenz in
1954. While, the war was officially ended by
the 1996 Peace Accords, the government has
not followed through on many of the promises

' it made.

This war, supported by the US and
led in part by graduates of the SOA, continues
to have a terrorizing impact in Guatemala.
Every person I talked to in Guatemala
expressed dissatisfaction with the current gov-
ernment. But they have lived through times
when people demanded change, and the result
was terrorism.

Ft. Benning. Beginning with the first protest in
1996, thousands of individuals have risked
arrest and walked onto the base. About 100
people have spent over 50 yearsin prison for
doing so.
0' Until 2001, only people who were

crossing the line for the second or third year
were chosen for prosecution. This time the
protest was barely two months after 9/ I I,-and
we all knew the risks of crossing were greater.
About 90 people crossed onto the base property,
fewer than usual.

I felt that the tragedy of 9/ I I was
even more ofa reason to cross the line. Now
was the time to, as George Bush put it,~“close
all terrorist training camps.” More importantly,
it was an essential time to tell the government
that we opposed all terrorism, even if it was
done or supported by the US.

I didn’t think that I would be prose-
cuted for this action, but in April I found out
that I was one of the 37 people chosen for pros-
ecution. [After a brief pro-forma trial] I entered ‘
prison on September 10, and spent all of '
September II in the “hole” [a punishment cell]
because there were no beds at the prison camp I
was going to.

Spending three months in prison was
not a whole lot of fun. I had to leave school, a » 1
good job, my friends and family, and enter the
inhumane prison system. But there is no com-
parison between this relatively minor sacrifice _
and the reality I was protesting: the extreme ’ I
suffering caused by graduates of the SOA. .‘

Prison was an amazing experience for
me. I didn’t take advantage of it as much as I
should have, personally or poli_tically. But by
being in prison,3I='leam‘ed a lotaboutwhat -free‘-‘
dom is. Would I have been more free if the ‘
harsh treatment given to SOA protesters had
silenced me into consent? Would I have been
more free if I worked only against homophobia,
while relying on much larger systems of
oppression to support .my daily material com-
fort?

I have also gained much greater
knowledge ofthe reality of life for millions of
people whose talents are being wasted in our a
nation — which has the highest incarceration
rate on earth. I met many good people whoare
victims more oftheir color and class than what
may have been a single poor choice. ;

I am frequently frustrated with my 

I would never have guessed that
60,000 people die each day of hunger.
I had been fooled into believing it had

a nothing to do with me.

The SOA is run by our

(somewhat) elected government with our tax
dollars. Are we interested in ending oppression,
or do we just want to be oppressors ourselves
by being quiet about all oppressions but our
own? We can’t work against homophobia in
isolation, all the while consenting and financial-
ly supporting the terrorist activities of our gov-
ernment.

For me, part of this struggle included
risking arrest. I went to the annual protest to
close the SOA in November of 2001. I partici-
pated in the very moving funeral procession
Sunday morning, where thousands of people
call out “presente” in response to the reading of
names of individuals who are known to have
been murdered by graduates of the SOA.

The SOA Watch, an organization
committed to using nonviolent tactics to close
the SOA, organized this protest (for more infor-
mation visit www.soaw.org), and had received a
permit to hold this protest up to the entrance to

own lack of vision and commitment to the

struggle for peace and justice, and that of oth-

ers. But isn’t broadening our efforts beyond
anti-homophobia an obvious step? How can we I '
speak out against homophobia while carelessly
using products that result from extreme
exploitation, such as much oil, cell phones,

clothes and computers?

Let’s not fool ourselves. We could
have easily been duped into being homophobic,
or at least extremely ignorant on the topic, had
we not been GLBT ourselves or had close con-
tacts with people who wers openly so. Instead.
many of us have been duped into supporting a
brutal, oppressive and terrorist US foreign poli-
cy. If we want our fight against homophobia to
truly be a struggle against oppression, let’s
broaden our efforts. V

Palmer Legare founded a Gay-Straight Alliance
at Cabot lligli School and is on his way to
Guatemala.