ListenDid we not leave the dark ages?
The first priority of any civilized society should be to assure every child and youth a respectful, safe and compassionate climate of learning free of bullying, ridicule, and violence. But the alarming numbers of suicides of lesbian and gay young people who have been the victims of bullying bear witness that this is not our priority.
Growing up is difficult even when surrounded by loving and supportive family and friends. Imagine the loneliness and terror of a child struggling with issues of sexual identity forced to endure taunts and threats of violence from other students. Sadly, some are even ridiculed by their own family, the very people who should be helping them to be comfortable with who they are. Instead, they are made to feel as though they have a shameful and perverse disease.
Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has been a foe of anti-bullying legislation. She claims that attempting to stop bullying of gay students infringes on freedom of speech. Lately she steers away from questions about her anti-gay stance, telling reporters at one point that she wanted to discuss issues and not talk about “frivolous” things. Nine kids who were bullied for being gay killed themselves in Bachmann’s district over the past two years. Were their lives “frivolous"?
Am I blaming Bachmann personally for these deaths? Certainly not. But our children are dying because of the anti-gay culture she and others who share her homophobic views have created. When people like Bachmann make derogatory comments about gay people and support government sanctioned discrimination that treats them as something less than equal, they make it easier for the seeds of hate to take hold in the minds of those capable of violence.
According to FBI data, homosexuals are far more likely than any other minority group in the United to be victimized by violent hate crime. A hard core of small groups, most of them religiously motivated, continue to spread demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals. Southern Poverty Law Center lists 13 as hate groups, and their influence reaches far beyond what their size would suggest. Listings are based on their propagation of lies?claims about gay people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities.
Orange juice pitchwoman Anita Bryant kicked off the anti-gay movement more than 30 years ago when she founded Save Our Children, a group that alleged that gays and lesbians planned to “recruit” in schools. The religious right jumped on that bandwagon with both feet and is responsible for numerous myths about gays, including the claim that homosexuality is a choice.
Presbyterian minister Rev. Fritz Ritsch of Fort Worth has urged moderate pastors to challenge the theological bullies from their own bully pulpits. “Children are dying. We need to speak up. If not now, when?”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has compared the plight of gays to that of black people, “… black people are being blamed and made to suffer for something we could do nothing about, our very skin. It is the same with sexual orientation. It is a given. We are all of us part of God’s family, yet all over the world lesbians, gays and bisexual and transgendered people are persecuted. We treat them as pariahs….We blame them for what they are.”
Clyde Ussery
15 November 2011
http://crossville-chronicle.com/opinion/x67364190/WE-THE-PEOPLE-Did-we-not-leave-the-dark-ages
