Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Dear Slayer

Dear Slayer: I have been a serious Slayer fan since 1988. I have seen you in concert several times. Your music is deeply meaningful to me and has been a source of comfort and defiance of atrocity and authoritarianism in its many forms for almost 30 years. I do not understand how on one hand Tom Araya can sing 'Angel Of Death', a fierce condemnation of Nazi Human Experimentation conducted by Josef Mengele night after night and then on the other hand make light humor out of Vice President Mike Pence's support of conversion therapy efforts to torture LBGTQIA people into straightness. As the LBGTQIA population of the United States faces an unprecedented assault on civil liberties and basic freedoms that most other Americans take for granted, directed from the highest levels of government, including President Trump, Vice President Pence, Federal and State Legislative Branches, State and Municipal governments, etc, Tom Araya's inability to see that the plight of those millions (including LGBTQIA) who suffered and died under a Nazi Regime is directly paralleled today under proposed executive order and legislation which can and will be signed into law by Donald Trump and mirrored in states and municipalities. Many loved ones, family members, as well as myself, will be targeted under these laws. All of these years I have believed in my heart and felt in my heart that Slayer were on the side of those who suffered under the exercise of force wielded by the worst of humanity. Your recent statements have made me question this. Are you really then on the side of Mengele, either positively or just through indifference? I won't stop listening to your albums but now there will always be this hesitation for me. Love, nathaxn

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