That movie made me incredibly sad.
Things need to change.
I’ve never been bashed. The fact that I’m 6’ and have weighed well over 250 lbs since I was 17 might have something to do with that. But I’ve had friends and more-than-friends bashed, and while I’m sure my rage had nothing on theirs, it can be all-consuming for a rather long period of time.
I’ve posted before about my friend who was beaten last summer by a group of teenagers. Well, the police still haven’t managed to charge anyone, although they know at least two of the people who did it. This is, sadly, typical.
This thread is why the “Post-Gay” movement makes my blood boil. Of course the privileged class of mega-urban gays don’t have any problems with discrimination! They’re moneyed and influential in the very few gay-positive areas in this country! And they can’t see that anyone else might have problems, because it’s not their problem. Everything’s coming up roses for them…why should the gay teen in Podunk, Iowa, have any problems either, then? Pfah.
Can we get an AMEN!?
AMEN.
Goddamn assimilationists.
Uh … evil.
Strictly het cat chiming in here with a simple; “Gays are still being bashed to death here in homosexual friendly San Francisco.”
No judgements being passed on the relative levels of pure evil that this represents, only hoping that y’all know it’s the effing same everywhere. The day this changes will be a dawning for all good people everywhere.
True. My apologies to everyone who contributed their painful experiences to this thread. The Post-Gay rant was a hijack of a V.I.T. (Very Important Thread), and discussion on it should really be done elsewhere, lest this one get bogged down into a whimpering death.
Sorry to work backwards through this thread.
Saw “Boys Don’t Cry.”
Made me effing angry for weeks. All of you really don’t want me reading this entire thread. I’d type sh!t that would melt most monitor screens. Any and all of you have my deepest sympathies. I’m left handed and have already gotten enough crap over being different that will last me the rest of my life. I wouldn’t wish to imagine how it is for someone who goes against the entire grain of society.
With Love,
Zenster
This thread never dies because someone will always come and revive it. Good thing though.
Just read this entire thread today. Blood… boiling…
I told a friend about this thread, and he said that some of y’all must be making some of these stories up. Well, I can’t really prove him wrong, but if even half of you are telling the truth, then the situation is still horrifying. My condolencenses to all who have been victim to ignorance, hatred, and ass-holery. I have always been upset at the USA for still not having legalized gay marriages, just on the sheer principle of it (homosexuality being outlawed = christian-influenced law-making). I don’t know any gay people who have come out, so this thread that highlights the shit that some gays have to go through has really been an eye-opener.
I only wish that someone who cared had been there to help out in some of these stories.
In any case, you have made a staunch gay rights defender out of me; the next time I even hear “faggot” used in an insulting tone, I may just get a little crazy.
As I’m sure a lot of people would do if they heard “nigger” used in such a way.
Your friend is simply wrong. I for one didn’t make up what happened to me. I still have the scars to prove it too. Most of the others I have read here sound like stories various friends have told me when the issue comes up.
Damn. It took me several days to make it through this thread - I’m still twitching from the sympathy pains. 
I’m only bi, and I’ve been verbally harrassed for it, but never physically harmed. (I have been physically harmed for my religion, but that’s a different matter, and never that badly.) But I try to be a part of the GLBT community here, and to support everyone who has been victimized. It’s a long, slow struggle. Even here, in the most freak-friendly part of town, it still happens a couple of times a year.
No, it’s a sad thing. I wish no one would ever have another gaybashing story to tell EVER. But in the meantime, yes, we can’t let anyone forget.
Esprix
I just now found this thread and sat, dumbstruck, reading the entire thing in one setting. I’m horrified, outraged, repulsed and sadden at what gay people go through daily just to try to live normally, like everyone else has the right to. And as has already been stated, each of you are the truest definition of a hero that I’ve ever encountered. Your courage and strength is truly amazing. I can’t imagine facing such horrors and idiocy constantly, but remaining true. I hope your collective spirits never break and someday (soon, hopefully) you’ll all be rewarded with the anonymity that the rest of the free world is afforded continually. Until then, I pray the rest of us will have the convictions to attempt to fight too and be united as your brothers and sisters.
FTR, I’m straight, but I’ve heard enough verbal gay-bashing to last a lifetime. Most disturbingly, it’s from people who have been friendly with gays, in some capacity or other. Besides the usual insults and taunts, the most heinous of them include…
“If they try to turn my kid into some fag, I’ll kill 'em.”
“I’d rather be incestuous with one of my own kids than queer.”
And telling these stupid fcks just how ignorant they are doesn’t do a damn bit of good because they feel they have righteous indignation on their side. Yeah, right. However, I’m printing out this whole thread to interject into any conversation where this sht takes place. To at least prove that some of their most lame arguments (like “choosing” to be gay or that gays aren’t harassed) are more ridiculous than they even realize, in light of the REAL day-to-day evidence. It’ll make me feel a little less soiled by association anyway. God, I hate the general underlying attitude of where I live. :::sigh:::
Regardless, I know it won’t matter overall. But then it’ll be obvious (to me, anyway) that it’s willful ignorance versus not knowing. That way, I’ll understand what it is needed to fight against.
I thank each of you for sharing. I’m humbled. Godspeed.
This thread should be required reading for anyone considering a career in religion or politics.
And for those who would prefer some brighter insights into being queer, you can go to this thread.
Esprix
Windwalker your friend is using the same excuse I have heard a thousand times from people who do not want to know the truth when it is ugly or shameful. It is oppressive and part of the problem. Calling victims liars further victimises them.
And I wish to all that is holy that my contribution to this thread was not the truth, albeit heavily sanitised for my sanity and the readers of the thread.
Not even for that. Just required reading. Period.
I’ve spent the last two hours reading this thread. I won’t be able to talk calmly about it for a while.
Do two wrongs make a right? If you believe that homosexuality is a sin than does that make killing no longer a sin? Does that make HATING no longer a sin? People that use religion to back their gay-bashing dendencies are the most despicable, blind, loathful, disgusting pieces of trash I can name!
The other sad thing about it is that many MANY times these gay bashers have homosexual feelings themselves, and use that to fuel their anger and rage, while the whole time they are the worst examples of hypocrites I can think of!
I am straight and will always be so, and sometimes it disturbs me to hear my family-in-law discuss homosexuality, because they often have the attitude that because they don’t agree with it, people that do believe in it are somehow lesser people. If you cannot open your mind, and try to see things from someone elses point of view, than when you find yourself in a position where you need someone else to see things from your point of view, you might just find that they are as blinded to your feelings as you were to the feelings of someone you didn’t try to relate to before.
I believe that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God. I believe that we are all God’s children and that he loves us all equally and without measure. When I see a gay couple, knowing that God loves them both just as much as he loves me, and that he loves all of us so intensely and with such a pure love that we cannot even comprehend it, how could I possibly feel hatred towards them? I hope you all will understand me and give me liberty to say that I believe that I can disagree with someone’s lifestyle and not want that lifestyle for myself or my children, without hating them or feeling ill will towards them. And when I say that I don’t want that lifestyle for my children, I don’t intend to beat them up or try to brainwash them into being anti-gay, only that I will try to teach them as I have been taught and let them govern themselves.
The saddest part of all of this is that it all begins with hate, which in turns begins with ignorence, which I think I can safely say usually begins with closemindedness, and how do you teach someone with a closed mind? sigh This really is a very sad subject, but I just wanted to throw out a religious viewpoint on this that takes a different look at it than the “god hates gays” approach that far too many people seem to fall into.
I know that God loves all of us, and I am sorry if some of you don’t appreciate my religious views but I appreciate your allowing me to express them all the same.
Thanks again for hearing what I have to say.
Mark
No problem, Mark. Not sure if it was appropriate for this particular thread, but there it is.
Esprix