When was the last time you heard of a Christian
teen taking his/her life because he was being bullied by gay peers?
It just doesn’t stop, this religious
vile, this inflammatory and offensive rhetoric against homosexuality is coming
from the pulpit of homophobic religious organizations, from political
right-wing groups and worst of all from politicians – mostly Republicans and
even contenders for the GOP Presidential nomination for President…It is
unconscionable and sickening.
We hear of a
teen taking his life on an almost daily basis now. The latest, was the early hours of New Year's Day, Jeffrey
hanged himself in the front entrance to his family's home in a tony Granite Bay
neighborhood. He was 18 years old.
Paul
Kitagaki Jr. / pkitagaki@sacbee.com
Steve
and Pati Fehr, flanked by their sons Ryan, left, and Tyler, give a blessing to
Jeffrey Fehr at his funeral Mass at St. Joseph Marello Catholic Church in
Granite Bay earlier this month. "He could never fully believe how
wonderful he was … how many people loved him," his father said.
Read more here:
However we would be lucky if those
pictured above were the only homophobes spewing hatred and causing humanity and
gays in particular a great deal of pain and misery. We have the likes of Anita
Bryant who singlehandedly conducted an anti-gay campaign in South Florida in
the 70’s. As a result, the Miami and surrounding areas became one of the most
homophobic areas of the country. Gay bars began to close one by one to where
only half a dozen exist today. The bitch is still alive and living in Oklahoma doing
what she does best: Vomiting vile and hatred against homosexuals in the name of
Christianity.
Then we have Pope Pope Benedict XVI, who
was complicit in the cover up of pedophilia conducted by priests and who
continues to malign homosexuality.
And the list is
endless…Pat Robertson insists that some major catastrophes are a direct
punishment inflicted to us for our acceptance and tolerance of homosexuality…he
even says that it was God himself who told him so. (It is not known if the
conversation took place in person or by phone or perhaps it was by e-mail)
He holds the
absolute truth and all who try to change his view are simply some form of
maliciousness trying to lead them astray. It is the devil, don’t you know, and
homosexuals are the work of the devil. Ms. Marcus Bachmann has called gay people “barbarians [who] need to be
disciplined.”
Of course, other religions and other cultures also hold such disdain for homosexuality as are the Orthodox Jews and the Iranian Muslims who through their leader Mahmoud Ahmedinajad
has uttered in front of the United Nations
that Iran has no homosexuals.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/15/4188596/granite-bay-teen-who-committed.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy
Please watch this video from Lambda Legal:
Don in
Northern Virginia so aptly expressed it in
“The Homophobe Club of 2012 boasts a
membership of GOP contenders for their party's presidential nominee. Up to the
Iowa caucus on January 3, 2012, the above faces represented the leading
candidates for this specific honor. What strikes me as strange is that it appears that the sole
qualification for this position is an endless litany of gay-bashing and antigay
slogans. At times, I am beginning to wonder that if we, the queer community,
all of a sudden packed our bags and emigrated abroad, exactly what would any of
these candidates have left to discuss? Would they be left speechless and simply
shut up? Would the GOP platform collapse for lack of support?” (picture is at the heading of this post)
Anti-Gay
Bullying Suicides: Who's Really To Blame?
by
David Badash *·
“The media has been awash in news of
recent teen suicides, teens literally bullied to death. Much of the mainstream
press is reporting there were five or six teen suicides in the back-to-school
month of September, all the result of anti-gay bullying. Sadly, that number is
much higher. After reports from my readers, and after much research on local
news sites, it is clear there were at least ten male teen suicides across the country
in the month of September alone. There are reports that almost all of these
teens -- many who had either come out as gay or were perceived as gay -- were
bullied, and most if not all of the bullying was anti-gay bullying.
But let's be honest. What enables and maintains this culture
of hate are groups like the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) which
exists to tell America that gays and lesbians aren't good enough for marriage.
Or groups like Focus on the Family (FOF) which exists to tell America that gays
and lesbians aren't good enough for anything, and even has a
"pro-bullying" website, "True Tolerance," dedicated to teaching parents how to
rid their schools of anti-bullying programs.”
David Badash
continues to explain: “These are but two hate groups, groups whose
real missions are neither to "protect" marriage, nor to
"focus" on the family.
The Southern Poverty Law Center five
years ago listed "a dozen of today's most influential anti-gay groups,"
including several they today classify as hate groups: American Vision, Family
Research Institute, and the Traditional Values Coalition. Others, like the
Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, the Minnesota Family Council, and
the Alliance Defense Fund should qualify as well.
Anti-gay groups, from the National
Organization for Marriage and Focus on the Family, to the Family Research
Institute, and the Traditional Values Coalition, to local churches and other
houses of worship which preach intolerance and hatred against the LGBTQ
community, regularly inject hatred, oppression, and fear into America's
families”
*David
Badash is a writer and civil rights activist who covers politics in general
and gay rights in particular. He is the founder of The New Civil Rights
Movement.
One of the biggest contributors to
this homophobia is the erroneous concept that these Christianists hold that
homosexuality is a choice, not that you are born with it. The radical and religious right and groups like the
Minnesota Family Council (MFC) would have you believe that is because these
youngsters have made poor choices or are defective, that "they’ve embraced an unhealthy sexual identity and lifestyle."
In point of fact, the pain that drives these young people to suicide is not
caused by being different, it is caused by others who tell them they are
"different," and treat them as different.
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