The Bullycide & Same-Sex Marriage Apathy Connection

I got this note recently in a same sex yahoo group: "Plain and simple men should not marry men and women should not marry women. Another waste of time when we as gay people should be worried about more important issues right now. Gay marriage my ass! IT IS NOT IMPORTANT!" Sadly, this is the attitude of many in the gay communtity. This issue reminds me of a line from the musical Funny Girl, the track Sadie, Sadie: "...oh how that marriage license works, on chamber maids and hotel clerks..." Barbra Streisand's character believed (as did all women then) that being married was the ultimate, being married meant something, it carried a powerful punch, it opened doors. So I agree that we have issues to worry about other than marriage equality, or, as I like to say, just equality -- because its really not about that "simple wedding band". For as long as they can deny us this basic right of human existence, and justify it for whatever reasons, it sends the unspoken message that: ...its OKAY to look down upon gay Americans, its OKAY to deny us an apartment or medical treatment, it's OKAY to fire us from our jobs, and its OKAY to kick the shit out of kids on the playground who are only suspected of maybe, possibly, being gay one day. By saying we don't deserve the right to [ fill in the blank ] shouts to the world that we're different, we're "less than", and opens the floodgate to discriminate, abuse, and even kill. That's unacceptable. That's why this seemingly unimportant issue is so very important. Some gays say they don't want to get married. Cool. Neither do I. But that's also aside from the point. And to even think that we can't work for EQUALITY and at the same time tackle all those other issues effecting us is pretty silly. Like Obama said, we have to be able to handle more than one thing at a time. And while we bicker over whether we should fight for this or that right, people, children, are dying. This heartbreaking story of an 11 year old who was bullied and called "gay" so much that he hung himself is becoming all too common. "Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover hanged himself by tying an electrical cord around his neck that was fastened to a support beam in his home after enduring another day of being taunted at New Leadership Charter School." And yet, many of us STILL sit by while we are marginalized, and while our youth are tormented so that they hang themselves. It's truly sad what self-loathing homos will allow to be heaped upon their bowing and scraping heads. Thank God, I'll never be one of them. ~~ Visit XJW Net

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Comments

[ka-os]

Oh well said, sir. I, like you, have no interest in getting married. I don't believe in it or disbelieve in it, the whole notion is just not relevant to my existence. However, the principal that I could marry a boy if I damn well wanted to *IS* important. That's what these clowns who prance about crying "It's not relevant" don't get. Their whole attitude is, "I don't want to get married, so it isn't important."

The kind of people who reap the benefits of our soldier's labours, without ever lifting a manicured finger to help in the struggle.

As for that poor boy, it breaks me up. I was bullied pretty bad at school and teachers did precisely zilch, so it strikes a cord.

[Wil Lavender]

There was a time in my life that I wanted to--be married that is. But as time went on I realize that who I am as a person is more important then a band that will just show the world what I may be to them. Being married does not make you holy. If it did then I think the world would be in even worse shape then it is today. The problem is that faith is just that faith. Science is just that--science. Faith and the Bible becomes distorted just like the old game on the playground called telephone. As long as America stands the way it does. As long as people who are twisted in their own views are still in power around the world and have followers. There will be more people or groups that will be denied basic rights.

As for the boy who killed himself, it is very sad that it happened. But then again there are more that are like him that won't make the news tonight. For the school to offer to help is nice but it is a dollar too short. When we wait for something bad to happen in order for us to change are we still right in doing it or are we wrong? One life lost over this, is one life too many.

[TJ Lawrence]

I have been reading and listening to all the conversation about young boys committing suicide because of bullying. In most, if not all, these cases the children were harassed as being "gay" or other supposedly non-masculine behavior. Perhaps they had a thirst for knowledge and increased intelligence? I've heard all the reasons why kids bully, torment and otherwise drive these beautiful young boys to end their lives and there always seems to me to be something missing in the discussions. The national media won't touch it, certainly that whore of a "news" station Fox wont touch it but I will.

What is behind these suicides is not merely the bullying of the children although that was the final straw. What is behind it ALL are supposedly Christian Values that come from the parents of these kids who bully. These kids are taught from birth that anyone not fitting their narrow, despicable, faux God interpretation of what a Man or Boy should be is somehow worthy of ridicule, attack and expulsion from general society. Never mind that these kids may not be gay at all, but merely sensitive souls who do not follow the sports advocacy, male domination, ego trips that most young men are subjected to and expected to live up to. And even if they are budding gay people trying to find their way in this world which is from the beginning set against them does that mean in our "enlightened" society that they should be driven to the most stupidly adult act of all..suicide?

What I see here, and has been evidenced in ALL these cases is the taunt of being gay. Now, where did these other children who hardly know what a vagina or penis is get these anti-gay perceptions to the point that they use them to denigrate others who are not like them? I think we know.... from their rigid, anti-gay, anti-social parents. I can't say for sure as I have no direct evidence but I strongly suspect it comes from one of two places.

1. Hypocritical right wing fundamentalist religious zealots white and in our Black churches and....

2. From within our own black and Hispanic churches who preach hate against us every Sunday in the name of "God" while taking our money, buying palaces, raping our children and O..praising the Lord!

These kids are not killing themselves so we should stop calling it "suicide" and instead call it what it is...Societal Genocide... and a whole lot of us who sit back and say "how sad" are complicit in the deaths of these young, beautiful children.

[Taylor Siluwé]

** Standing Ovation! **

And you're right, that whore of a network FOX wouldn't touch it with someone else's pole. But then again, neither would the cool networks. Because to admit that 'religion' is behind this is to admit that its also the global poison infecting the planet.

[BuddahDesmond]

I agree with you and TJ Lawrence whole-heartedly. It is Societal Genocide and religion (or religious right wing zealotry) that is killing us and the planet. These negative beliefs are coming in from every angle and it seems the institutions who have the power to put it in check are unwilling to. We will continue to lose battle by being complacent. And the "enlightened" will continue to win by pushing their ignorant, bigoted, biased agenda.... It's so sad, so sad....