Oh there's my soapbox. Let me just get on up there...
I can't tell you how happy I am to see the "It Gets Better" campaign in full swing. The bullying against children based on their sexual orientation or because they're 'different' has finally reached crisis status in the eyes of N. America. Several kids have killed themselves because their schoolmates and peers were making their lives hell. Now that kids are dying, the world is responding. And you can bet I'm pretty disgusted that it took suicide to get peoples' attention.
In a world that boasts itself of modernity, looking forward, progressing, evolving (ok maybe not in Kansas), and learning from the past, we really are backwards in so many respects. Ok women got the vote, non-caucasians can sit where they want on the bus, it is now 'developmentally delayed' as opposed to 'retarded'. But how is it that a woman can marry the Berlin Wall, another can marry a dolphin, but two people of the same gender can't get married? What threat does this exactly pose on heterosexual people? Are they afraid that the world will 'turn gay'? Does it simply go against THEIR personal beliefs? How arrogant! See, this is why I hate most people...they think their own way is the only way. And if they say that the bible forbids it, to that I say Go. Fuck. Yourself. You can't base every rule, every theory, every law on a book that was written 1600 years ago by people who had their own agenda and used the book to further their own cause.
If you have children of your own, think about this. Your son or daughter goes to school, the other kids in their class snicker, point, whisper to each other and alienate them during class. The bell rings. At recess they corner the child, poke fun, maybe even get violent. And the child doesn't understand what they did or why the others are being this way. You love your child and you want to give him or her the best life possible but others are making their life hell because of who they are. And no matter how much reassurance that you give, your child is always going to doubt it because they know firsthand how cruel children can be. Oh it makes me sick. Kids shouldn't have that kind of stress.
And if you think that your kid isn't watching and learning when you're sitting there laughing at the designers on the house & home channel, commenting on how faggy they are, or hearing your jokes every time kd lang is on the station playing while you do your shopping, you're wrong. They hear you. They pick it up. They see that you don't approve of something and they take it with them. And don't you dare laugh it off and say "I'm not homophobic. I have gay friends." Well you're not much of a friend, are you? Stop the prejudice before it starts because it could be another little boy or girl taking their lives because of the snark you instilled in your own.
Thank you for reading, whoever you might be.
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Mind if I join you up there on your soapbox?
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of the It Gets Better project and I really wish I would've had something like that when I was being bullied in school. Even though this is mostly aimed at the LGBT community the message applies to all the freaks and geeks who had to eat shit sandwiches every day because we weren't part of the cool kids.
It does get better BUT my problem here is that victims of bullies shouldn't have to tough it out and wait until it gets better. They shouldn't have to walk the school halls in fear of being beaten up. They shouldn't have to deal with the ignorant comments, insults and namecalling. No one should be abused simply because they happen to be different.
I completely agree with you that parents need to teach by example and make sure their kids understand that it's ok to be different and that bullies really suck.
Very much agreed. It breaks my heart seeing children going through any kind of stress. I was different too but luckily I sniffed out the other weirdos and we had our own pack to fight back.
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