RIP Carrie ❤
Tag: r.i.p
(From Carrie Fisher’s Wishful Drinking.)
So…. take it away, obit writers. You have one job.
George Michael’s life was constantly trailed by homophobic media that painted him as a sexual deviant and a drug addicted train wreck “corrupted” by the gay lifestyle. In reality, George Michael was an artist who, for a large portion of his life, was forced to hide his sexuality and live a lie in a pre-millennium society that emotionally punished anybody whose orientation challenged heteronormative expectations. Let us not forget the paths paved by people like George Michael: those who bravely came out during a time when closet doors were locked from the outside.
He was maybe more famous for the at-the-time-edgy controversy he sought once he started his solo career, but this is the George Michael people my age knew best…
Today marks the 26th anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacre, in Montreal, Canada. A cowardly, misogynic act which left 14 promising women dead, simply because they were women:
Twenty-five-year-old Marc Lépine, armed with a Mini-14 rifle and a hunting knife, shot 28 people, killing 14 women, before committing suicide. He began his attack by entering a classroom at the university, where he separated the male and female students.
After claiming that he was “fighting feminism” and calling the women “a bunch of feminists,” he shot all nine women in the room, killing six. He then moved through corridors, the cafeteria, and another classroom, specifically targeting women to shoot. Overall, he killed fourteen women and injured ten other women and four men in just under 20 minutes before turning the gun on himself.[1][2]
His suicide note claimed political motives and blamed feminists for ruining his life. The note included a list of 19 Quebec women whom Lépine considered to be feminists and apparently wished to kill.[3]
After this despicable act, Canada adopted gun control measures. Since gun control measures were adopted there has not been another mass shooting killing more than 10 people in Canada. Since École Polytechnique there has only been 9 massacres in Canada; 9 in 26 years.
Please remember these women.
27 years ago today