Atwood, Kansas: website pulled because of vote on gay marriage

[Mabus]

Check out the Atwood, Kansas website. The site was designed by Daniel, a hometown boy, who happens to be gay. When the town voted to ban gay marriage April 5, Daniel took down the site he built for them and posted this instead.

Way to go Daniel! (and I apologize for going over the four paragraphs, the rest of the text is so wonderful I wish I could repost it in its entirety.)


Text from website:

Welcome to the the City of Atwood, Kansas.

An open letter to the Citizens of Atwood.

I sincerely apologize that I cannot represent Atwood anymore. I am completely disappointed and heartbroken (for lack of a better word) at the actions of my hometown, a community that always says how much it cares for others.

You know when I first created AtwoodKansas.com I did so because of my desire to do everything I could to save my hometown from dying like so many other Midwestern towns.

Even though when I grew up there, I was not treated very well, I still had a love for my hometown that only grew stronger as I grew up. Living in a metro area with 7 million people really makes you understand what the word "home" means.

I hear a lot of stereotypical things said about Kansas when people find out where I am from, and every time I stick up for my "home" because I knew that the people making those remarks didn't really know anything about Kansas. They had no idea that Kansas is not “so flat that when your dog runs away you can see him for 3 days”, they certainly did not know what it is like to experience sweet smell of alfalfa in the summer or what it’s like to run into the middle of a dust before it disappears. The majority think of Kansans as Redneck farmers who are racist, bigoted, un-educated, and "slow". I would tell them otherwise.

However, the Citizens of Atwood certainly lived up to a few of those stereotypes this past week! Way to go!

I've never kept it a secret that I'm gay, so it makes me wonder if Atwood would have accepted my gift that made Atwood the 8th city in Kansas to have a world class website and the 5th newspaper in the state to have a website, knowing that the person who made it was gay? Or would they just let the town wither and die to make spite themselves and feel holy?

I did not have a choice to be gay. How do I know it was not a choice for me? Simple, because I knew by the time I was 5. So unless a 5 year old knows that he wants to be ostracized, singled out, hated, threatened, and condemned just for being different, there is no way it is a choice. Those of you who went to school with me throughout Elementary and Junior High knew also because you would call me "fag" or "gay wad" and a few of you would even beat me up regularly until I out grew you.

rest at http://www.ljworld.com/specials/atwoodkansas.html

[Ian David]

1. Wow. Does this guy need us to send him money for something?

If he has a cause he's promoting, I'd like to donate to it.

[Mabus]

2. There's the Topeka Equal Justice Coalition that could use some help

Their website is http://www.topekaejc.org/ and a fellow DU'er was just elected to the Coalition's board (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=153x1381)

Other than that, you might want to check the bottom of the article I posted. There's a way to e-mail him. I'm sure he'd like to hear from you.

[MuseRider]

3. Why thank you!

We can always use money. Except for a message about our city wide success the site has not been updated in quite a while but there is a place for donations. Mabus, a hug for you :hug:

[Mabus]

4. We're all in this together

We all live in Kansas and we work best in our own yards.

I've been having my time taken up lately by people I would rather not be dealing with. I may take you up on the ride offer. I'll PM when things calm down.

[MuseRider]

5. I would enjoy that!

Please let me know, I could probably use a navigator. :)

[hfojvt]

6. wow Atwood is way out west

I really hope he changes his mind and puts the website back up. After all, Atwood could have voted 100% against the amendment and it still would have won. Atwood is not responsible for the way the state voted.

[Slyder]

7. Atwood got what it deserved

Atwood voted v-e-r-y overwhelmingly for the amendment. Daniel never said he was upset about how the state voted, but how the town voted. This is not a game. This is war. The Republicans have declared war on gays. We queers will not be all nicey-nice. This amendment has real consequences, and it is about time the straight community woke up to this fact. Bringing down the website is just one more unintended consequence the amendment's supporters didn't think about, and a tiny bit of retribution it is. Just as all German Nazi Party members were complicit in the Holocaust, all Republicans and all persons who voted for the amendment are complicit in its consequences. And, yes, there are Republicans who would put us queers in death camps if they could. Pardon my heat, but I am not sure you understand how serious this is.

[hfojvt]

8. an eye for an eye leaves the whole world _______?

So now it is war, and because of their drive-by shooting we are going to go shoot up their neighborhood which will surely end the violence.
Retribution is not a consequence, it is a choice. If fire is fought with fire, then the whole world burns.
You seem to go straight from this amendment to imagined death camps. You say I do not realise how serious this is. I say you might need a little perspective. In terms of the struggle, we have come a long way since 1960. This is a big slide backwards, but it hardly rolls the clock back to even 1975, but neither are we going to jump to 2015 until the country is ready. Stay calm and be patient, and try to think of ways to win your enemies to your side rather than ways that you can hurt your enemies. (or maybe not so much your enemies, but the huge middle which can be persuaded or reasoned with)

[ComerPerro]

9. Check out www.atwoodkansas.com

"Our site is currently being redesigned"

Yeah.

Because you were a bunch of bigots, and you just got called on it.