Early in my career I had the opportunity to briefly live and work in Tunisia, a North African country where Islam is the official state religion, highly influenced by colonial France and a large Western European tourism industry. I had come out months earlier – pride parade marcher, lesbian bar sponsored softball team and all - but remained closeted among my Tunisian and multinational peers. My first obstacle was what I considered “business and cultural survival” - to assimilate into the work culture; learn French as quickly as possible; tolerate the verbal harassment and bullying inspired by my Japanese ancestry every day while on public transportation or walking through the streets of Tunis; and manage gender “classism” as a woman in a man’s world.
I did not have the emotional and mental bandwidth to address the firestorm and potential verbal and physical harassment that would come with being open about my sexual orientation. I didn’t even try - cultural assimilation was just barely bearable without adding “gay” to the mix of things that made me stand out. Tunisia was, and still is, one of the many Muslim countries where being gay is illegal. And, most importantly, I at that time I was still closeted to my family.
The act and behavior of Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, is horrific and shocking. Interestingly, the media has honed in on his life journey. Mateen was bullied in grade school for being different, he threatened classmates with gun violence as early as the 5th grade, those who knew him felt that he struggled with his sexual orientation as an adult and lived double lives, and he physically abused his first wife who felt that “he was not a stable person”. His life experiences and behavior were symptoms of larger social, cultural and regulatory issues that cannot be ignored:
Bullying
Bullying, particularly among school-aged children, against those who look/speak/eat/see/hear/dress differently needs to be addressed systemically to supplement the programmatic work of campaigns and nonprofits. Civics and humanities classes need to be reinstated and textbooks rewritten from K to 12th grade (and not only in specialized university courses) to correctly educate our next generation of civil servants, journalists, activists, and business leaders. The diverse viewpoints of both history and current issues need to be rightfully representative of the underrepresented populations, non-traditional families, and from a perspective of indigenous peoples.
Gun Control Laws
The lack of gun control laws in the U.S. is appalling to say the least. I grew up with guns in my family, occasionally shot high powered weapons as a youth, and my teenage brother cherished a rifle given to him as a birthday gift. However, guns should never be in the hands of convicted felons, violent criminals, those on FBI watch lists, or the mentally unstable. Further, civilians have no need to carry the same weapons as our military.
Mental Health Laws
America’s mental health system and service provider support needs substantial investment, as well as political, administrative, and corporate willpower. Further, the stigma of seeking professional help for mental health issues exacerbates an already heated issue, particularly among many first and second generation communities. It’s a long-road to shifting culture but financial investments in the mental health system need not follow capitalism.
Culture of Violence
America’s culture of violence - domestic violence, gun violence, violence against women, black on black violence, race-religious-gender non-conforming minority violence - is perpetuated by bullying and lack of gun control. But there is a much bigger cultural issue: activism is very issue or community specific. What happens when the LGBTQ community comes together to drive change for religious minorities or applies its organizing power to fight powerful gun lobbies? Transformational change.
Our country’s political environment is ripe for inspiring violence and extremism. With the advancement of rights and protections of the LGBTQ community, we will continue to see reactions from groups that feel a loss of power and an irrational, misplaced anger because they feel as if they have – or are - “less than.”
As my life and career journeys unfold, I’m inspired to contribute my resources to prevent these acts of violence and hate from compounding into bigger geo-political conflicts. I think about the immigration of Japanese in America in the early 1900s, the ensuring political climate of fear and anger against immigrants and the growth of anti-Japanese sentiments during the Second World War. Never again should we allow a group of people with a softer voice or less political clout be incarcerated. My relatives who were born in the United States were uprooted from their homes, schools and churches at a moment’s notice and inserted in makeshift prison camps for years because of their race. Today, 70 years later, the survivors continue to feel the effects of displaced childhoods, including long-term health issues from lacking medical care and the environmental conditions of the camps.
We are at a tipping point in a crucial election year, following nearly 200 mass shootings in the U.S. so far in 2016, a continued migrant crisis, shifting power among global allies and shocking voter outcomes. I’m inspired to become more educated on root causes of the horrors of Orlando and to do something about it.
Being a bystander is complacency. Indifference is contributing to atrocity.
Gwen Migita is the Vice President Corporate Citizenship & Sustainability for Caesars Entertainment, former board member of The LGBTQ Center and Board of Governor for the Human Rights Campaign in the Las Vegas community. She currently sits on the advisory board of Sustainable Brands, corporate advisory board of the World Resources Institute, advisory board of Seattle University’s Center for Environmental Justice and Sustainability, and is a Trustee of Green Chips in Southern Nevada. She also sits on Hillary Clinton for President’s Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders National Council. Views are her own and not that of her employer, personal or professional affiliations.
