I first learned about the Holocaust in school.  The Japanese invasion of China more deeply impacted my parents, and they held a deep animosity towards Japan; they never mentioned the Holocaust though I’m sure that they were aware of it.  Hearing the details with both scale and severity of the Holocaust remains something that I can scarcely wrap my head around.  However, the callous treatment of the victims amplified the sheer scale of the devastation.  You see pictures of bones piled up to the ceiling of those rooms.  I heard stories of soldiers pulling gold fillings off the skulls in order to pocket a little money.  Similarly, they ransacked the luggage of the dead for any valuables.  The heartless way by which they treated human life, without any iota of dignity, was horrifying.

Of course, these horrific crimes weren’t limited to the Jews in Germany.  They included many other groups that did not align with the Nazi Germany ideology.  Soldiers used badges like pink triangles to distinguish between groups.  Every single detail sends me into despair.  Including the fact that they conducted science experiments on these people.  I have a friend whose mother survived the Holocaust; the idea that either he or his family may simply not exist because they’re part of the wrong group is one that I can’t comprehend.

I believe it was years after those lessons when I learned the term genocide.  Furthermore, I learned that instances like this are not as rare as we might imagine.  I have a friend who talks about the Armenian genocide; while I’d like to learn about it, I’ve shamefully yet to set time aside for it.  The one thing that I have done, is that I stopped mocking Kim Kardasian who is a great advocate for that community. 

Losing your culture

I’m multicultural.  I grew up straddled among a number of communities.  I speak three languages and studied three more.  However, speaking a language is like using a muscle, and as such it atrophies.  Even in Fort Lauderdale, there were few Spanish speaking students in high school and none that spoke Cantonese.  Integrating as quickly and seamlessly as possible to what everyone else did became the most effective way to avoid unwanted attention.  Sometimes it seemed as if ‘flying under the radar’ was a matter of survival.  At different points in my life, I grew closer to some cultures.

I spoke Cantonese with my parents.  My father passed when I was nine; my mother passed away sixteen years ago.  I left Florida fifteen years before she passed away, but I talked to her on the phone regularly.  However, as I spoke with her, I would forget terms that were familiar years before.  I’m sure that my diction progressively suffered.  Our chats always delighted her, and she never complained about my ability to speak the language.

About a year ago, I encountered this article about forgetting my first language.  Melancholically, it reflected me.  My struggles never got to the degree where I used a translation app on my phone like they did for Jenny Liao.  Though even articulating that makes it seem as if I’m passing judgement on her; I’m not.  The best way to describe it is that we both fell asleep on a float at the beach, while it drifted into open sea.  We’re simply at different places in that quiet drift towards the open water.

Losing your culture is its own form of death.  It’s not explicit, and they don’t hand out certificates upon that transition in the way that they do with corporal death.

Genocide without killing people

When we hear the word ‘genocide’, most of us will think about the Holocaust.  This is natural; it is difficult to ignore physical evidence of death from the Holocaust.  However, if we examine the word genocide, it also speaks to the destruction of a cultural group.  If we understand that losing your language is a form of cultural death, is the willful, intentional destruction of a culture similarly another form of genocide?  To put it crassly, can we even call it that if there’s no corpse?

As it happens this also qualifies as a form of genocide.  Examples include the Indigenous boarding schools both here in the US and Canada.  Children were separated from their parents and were actively punished for any attempts to retain their culture.  In many cases, they children were inadvertently killed, but the primary goal was to squelch the culture.  These children forgetting the language and cultural rituals was precisely the point; the occasional corpse was simply collateral damage.

Can we collectively agree the systematic destruction of any group, even one with which you disagree, is wrong?  Whether it happens to be physical death or cultural death?  In the age of free speech and freedom of expression, is there not enough room for everyone to peacefully coexist?

I mean I’ll give you an inch for self-preservation (another group that is trying to kill you), but otherwise… just tell them to cut that out (and there are laws against that).

The active genocide movement

What defines a cultural group?  Do they need to identify with each other and congregate?  Maybe they periodically celebrate together, I suppose like an annual Pride parade?  You can easily make the case that the LGBTQ+ community is a cultural group.

Hence the deliberate and systematic destruction of that group qualifies as genocide.  Much like the Indigenous boarding schools, it doesn’t matter if the destruction happens to be physical or cultural.  Whether you happen to disagree with the group is inconsequential.  I’m sure that both Nazi Germany and the US government had rationalizations for targeting Jews and Indigenous children respectively, but they in no way justify what they did.

If you believe that there should be no gay or trans people in a perfect world and willfully work towards that end, then you’re advocating for genocide.  No, it doesn’t matter if you think it’s a sin.

What qualifies as deliberate and systematic destruction of this community?

• Conversion therapy – trying to convince people that they’re not members of the community.
• Marginalizing the community – proposing and passing “don’t say gay” laws that shame people in that community.
• Intentionally withholding help – For instance, Texas removed access to youth LGBTQ+ suicide hotline.  Wrap your head around that one, Texas believes that your child is better off dead than gay or trans.

If this characterization causes you to take pause, then I personally invite you to evaluate each interaction you have with members of the community.

If you are undeterred, then understand that it’s still genocide, even if the term doesn’t sit well with you.