Continuing amounts of crap and bigotry

We’ve seen the monumental awfulness of the UN not being able to condemn the random murder of GBLTQ people – we also get to see the World Bank deciding to endorse and fund… Ex Gay Therapy Yes, in a world wide recession the World Bank has time and funds to funnel resources into ex-gay – no, I’m not calling it therapy, I refuse. The systematic destruction of the souls of gay people.

2 female high school students in Oklahoma are being prevented from graduating because they are a couple. You’ve got to give a special prize to this quote “It is the policy of the Mid-Del Public School District not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age in its programs, services, and activities,” because all it does is highlight they have not anti-GBLTQ discrimination policy.

Apple seems to be censoring the word “gay”

In the UK we have a Christian homophobic couple who are fighting for their right to foster children – and traumatise them if they happen to be gay can you imagine what it’s like to be a gay foster child – likely already having had some awful experiences – being placed with this couple?

Also in the UK christian doctor has been fighting what she calls is discrimination against her. See, she’s supposed to vote on whether couples can adopt or not – only she demands to sit out or vote against allowing gay couples to adopt – for being gay Doctor, you’re not being discriminated against because of your religion – you’re being fired because you not only refuse to do your job, but your prejudice and refusal to look past it makes you UNABLE to do your job. Oh, she doesn’t feel she’s homophobic. Well she totally can’t be then, right? *eye roll*

She is not the only christian wailing how the big bad gays are oppressing them. Leading Anglican bishops are also upset at those nasty nasty gay rights laws preventing them being persecuting bigots won’t someone PLEASE think of the bigots?!

And the Catholics have to get in on some of that action – Cardinal Biffi believes homosexuals are going to be persecuting christians Let me find my violin. It may take a while, it’s damn damn small.

And on the subject of the Catholic church, well they’re always providing a chapter or 2 in the eternal list of hatred, don’t they? A catholic church in Minnesota deleted pro-gay op-eds in their student newspaper in response to the vile anti-gay dvd the catholic church sent out

The head of the Catholic church in Belgium says AIDS is justice for gay people Because all AIDS victims are gay and all gay men are AIDS victims?

Christian Pastor Joel Osteen goes on The View (gods I am hating that show) to spread some homophobia about the place

Croatian football is under threat! A desperate and horrific threat will tear down the very pillars of the sport! THE GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYS! Croatian football president says there is no place for gays in football see, only “normal people” play football. Football official Zdravko Mamic doesn’t want the gays either – gays do ballet, not football it seems (allow me a moment to giggle uncontrollably at the idea of me ballet dancing)

Football is also under threat in the US, where a teen was banned from playing because he was wearing PINK SHOES I… yeah. I have no words. Especially since they were a gift and linked to breat cancer awareness – not all things pink are gay *eye roll*

I have been painfully relishing the action various forces have been taking to try and give some hope and support for GBLTQ youth. Our hands are often tied and there’s certainly no magic bullet – but doing something to help, some reaching out would have meant so much to me back in the day.

Tory councillor Chris Windows disagrees. in fact, he thinks Sir Ian McKellan visiting schools is “disturbing.” Mr. Windows, if Sir Ian McKellan arrived at schools buck naked riding a horse bareback waving a very large sword, I would not find it remotely as disturbing as you and your ilk.

In another stunning display of compassion for our hurting youth – Focus on the family, the christian hate organisation continues to loathe the Day of Silence decency, they would not even see it with a telescope.

I wish they were alone. Some straight students have decided the best way to respond to “Spirit Day” is to wear ’straight pride’ t-shirts. With bonus Bible quotes that threaten death to GBLTQ people

In Wisconsin a female student was punched and called an anti-gay slur for wearing a “legalise gay” t-shirt

In Colorado a student had to fight to be able to wear her “immoral” pro-gay t-shirt is there any wonder our kids have problems?

A taxi driver in Nova Scotia, Canada, informed his lesbian passenger by announcing that all gays should be shot – including her

In Ontorio, a public Library balks at gay publications on the shelves

A Mexican gay couple are treated like several kinds of shit in a Canadian immigration detention centre where they are claiming asylum

A trans woman in New Jersey has lost her job and her home due to the transphobia of her boss and landlord

And of course there’s always the violence…

Polish gay rights activist Robert Biedroń was arrested and beaten by police and the arrest was… dubious to say the least

In London 4 men stabbed a man 12 times because they believed he was gay

In DC, a man was beaten by a man screaming anti-gay slurs

In San Diego a man was beaten and his attackers screamed homophobic slurs… not a hate crime apparently if this isn’t a hate crime then… what would count?

In Colorado a man was beaten by a gang yelling anti-gay slurs
And in the “is this supposed to be good news” section?

The Mormon church has declared that gays aren’t inherently bad and evil. We don’t need ex-gay therapy – we just need to be celibate! YAAAAAAAAAAAY, they’ve reached the same level of acceptance as the Catholic church. Excuse me if I don’t jump for joy.

The Gibraltar supreme court is talking about equalising the age of consent. Yay progress? I know yes it’s progress, but srsly? I wish I could say they’re alone but they’re not. Guernsey only equalised the age of consent in March. That’s March this year. The Isle of Mann equalised in 2006, Jersey in 2007. I’m not going to celebrate that it took until halkf way through the first decade of the 21st^tcentury before British dependencies decided to do something this amazingly basic

Back into the snake pit

Against all better instincts, I am driven to comment again. I keep jumping back into this snake pit though I know it is only making things worse. But, again, once I know about these things and think about them I can’t make them leave my head until I’ve spoken – and not even then. My anger’s driving, not my common sense.

“Not only gay people get bullied”
“Not only gays have a high suicide rate”
“Not only gay…”

“We’re all talking about the gays but…”

Shut up. Seriously. I have had it up to here with all of these supposed “allies” who are so HORRIFIED that the lens is on gay people. I am sick to the back teeth of these people who are so damn eager to declare how supportive they are, but just can’t resist lashing out at us in passing.

If you want to talk about the suicide rate in another community or how bullying hurt you or how bullying is horrendous for another marginalised body or for all kids or anyone – DO IT. By all means – run with it, leap with it – scream it from the mountains and sing it out. But why the hell do you have to lash out at us?

It’s not even remotely necessary, it’s sickening to watch and it makes me violently ill to be reminded that so many self-proclaimed allies have so little tolerance or patience if the topic is not about them for 5 damn minutes. It sickens me that these so-called allies just cannot stand the lens on us for any length of time – that it gets too much for them to stand and they simply have to react and lash out.
Are you seriously screaming that a marginalised body that is so often ignored and demonised in the media is getting too much attention?

Are you seriously saying that an issue that has been so ignored for so long – or did you miss the innumerable rants around that no, there isn’t a suicide epidemic, there’s just people finally freaking notice – is now getting too much attention?

Or how about the other track we’re getting now?

Because yeah, there’s a sequel to the “how dare you spend so much time looking at all these dead gays!” Keep up, denying the homophobia in homophobic bullying is the new attack!

“Just because the kid was beaten and bullied by people screaming homophobic slurs doesn’t mean it was homophobic!!!”

“When kids call their victim a ‘fag’ it’s not homophobic!”

“Anti-gay slurs aren’t anti-gay slurs!”

Thank you again oh straightness for telling us what is and isn’t homophobic. Thank you for yet again revealing how utterly desperate the het-lead world is to bury us as much as humanly possible. Thank you AGAIN for showing how outrageous it is to point out homophobic hate.

Seriously – someone is attacked and driven to suicide by people using homophobic slurs, mocking their sexuality or assumed sexuality et al – but no, it’s not homophobia. Oh no.

Talk about bullying. Talk about other marginalised bodies. Talk about suicide. Raise attention, yell from the roof tops, but stop getting your poor straight focus all ruffled because ZOMG THE GAYS are getting attention.

Because, y’know what? This is necessary
And I say that as someone who is going to have to leave the country or go into the back end of beyond to avoid the internet, the news and all media in a desperate attempt to preserve my own mental health before the attention on it breaks me.

It is NECESSARY. Because it is a vast problem for us that also have issues that are unique to us or more apparently to us or more closely linked to us than other communities – not that they don’t have their own issues and specific issues as well – but that is why when we discuss ANY issue we need to also discuss how it affects marginalised bodies.
Because, y’know what? We’re still considered unclean for consumption. Because when debating gay characters in children’s shows not only highlights there complete absence – but brings out no end of haters yelling about Ernie from Sesame street and some damn Teletubby, for crying out loud. Where we’re actually seeing that eternally annoying song “Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree” censored because it includes the word “gay.”

We actually sang that song in our primary school. I had a an evil demon of a teacher who despised all things childish (gods alone know why she became a teacher) and had a truly ridiculous obsession with making kids sing songs in parts – and we sang that damn Kookaburra song for hours. And whenever the ignorant and silly children – as children are wont to be – giggled because ZOMG it said GAY! – I remember that teacher stopping everything to treat us to a long lecture about how “gay” used to mean “happy and carefree” and that the words has been “debased” and “corrupted” by associating it with other “disgusting” and “unseemly” things. Every damn time we sang that song we’d get the “gay is nasty” lecture along with it. And we’re STILL censoring it today.

Because our presence is so offensive and BEING offended by our presence is so acceptable that the damned Advertising Standards Agency has banned an advert depicting gay men dressed as priests. It’s UPHOLDING Catholic homophobia as moral and good – and SUPPORTING the idea that our depiction is just too awful to be allowed. Because homophobia is again and again raised up as RIGHT and GOOD and moral and if you ever try to combat that you get defenders of religions screaming from all corners, stomping on our corpses to mouth the weakest defences and derails (gods forbid it ever be ADDRESSED! Oh no, that would be so hard to the poor religions while they stomp on us).

Or how about the SCHOOL BOARD member who wants “fags” dead in terms that are so virulent and repellent I simply cannot repeat them, who WANTS us to commit suicide And of course it’s religious based – so of course it’s MORAL and defensible, right? And this is a member of a school board. Gods protect those GBLTQ kids he may have influence and power over – because the schools aren’t going to – and they’ve sent an amazing message as to how much their damn lives are worth. How about reinforcing that by PUNISHING teachers who try to combat homophobia in the classroom

How about the repeated claims now from the hate brigade that the reason we’re dying is because we’re gay! That’s right – it’s only natural that we would kill ourselves because we’re so disgusting – and yet these orgs are funded and powerful and supported and respected!

Or how about the epic shit our kids go through in the foster system At a time when they’re at their most vulnerable, heteronormative society comes in to dish out an extra kicking. But there’s too much attention right? We’re talking too much about it! We’re focusing too much on the gay issues! (Hey, you know what’s extra fun? Most of these complainers are American and in the US it was GBLT history month when much of the attention happened – so they’re outraged that so much attention has been given to anti-gay bullying during the history month).

We need this to be acknowledged. We need this to be watched. We need this to CHANGE. So put away all your damn silencing techniques, stop trying to shame the gays to silence. I’m sorry if your straight patience has been exhausted, but this is needed.

I thought the reports of suicides would be what broke me along with the seemingly endless familial pressure. I skittered around the ever growing numbers. I even avoided the hate attacks, the killings, the arsons (yes there’s been some of all which I have skittered around. I don’t have links to them, I can’t read them at the moment. I can’t risk them, but there have been hate attacks and arsons in Canada, New Jersey, London – and these are just the ones I got from skimming headlines before deleting them) but what may push over the edge it seems are straight “progressives” getting so pissed at the attempts to do something to save out lives.

And yes, I’ve jumped into the snake pit again. And yes I shouldn’t have done. And yes, I’ve had to call Beloved to come rescue me because I can’t trust myself to drive

And yes, I’m a fool. My anger rules my good sense.