Triggering: It's time to stop the hate!

[CubanitaChica]

Tyler Clementi was my friend since kindergarten. He was always a quiet kid and we had a lot of fun times hanging out together. He was an amazing violinist and he unicycled. He always wore a stopwatch - that was his trade mark - and we would time our principal's speeches in elementary school becuase they seemed to go on forever!

That being said - Tyler Clementi's issue was not a matter of being proud of who he was. His was not ready to be open to his family as most gay teens arent. He was beign forced out in an inappropriate manner and that was not fair to him or anyone else. I agree that there are other ways out than suicide, but when you are in that state, suicide can feel like the only option. I do not blame him for doing what he did, he wasn't in a good situation, help was available but he was too devastated to see the love people have for him. I had just seen Tyler a week before I left for college and a month before he passed away - I know this kid so well and I still think about him daily.

I have a shirt that says exactly what I feel "Don't B H8 on the homos" My friends laugh at it and think it is funny, but most don't realize that it is a serious subject for me and should be for everyone. Bullying is not okay no matter what excuse you try to make for it. No one should be made to feel like something is wrong with them when they are perfectly fine the way they are. People say that being gay is wrong and a sin and G-d will hate you for it - but if we are all created in G-d's image, then G-d's image is to have some people be gay. We don't have to love everyone, but we need to tolerate and accept each other's differences. What would this world be without some diversity?

[Boxy]

I completely agree!
Peoples' ignorance really holds them back...

<3 Boxy

[Sythan]

It is because of the Deaths of those teens last year that I opened up about being Gay. Surprisingly, all of my friends took it well and I have encountered no discrimination. I know that not to be the fact for everyone.

I am now the Activities Director for the Granada High School Gay-Straight Alliance, and I have taken up the fight so Tylers, Asher Browns, Seth Walsh, and the other Teens who tragically ended their own lives, there deaths would not be in vain.

[Guile]

God created man in his image, not a man.

There is a big difference there, and what it means is that the overall human species may be in his image, but one individual can still be an oddity.

[Double X]

Originally Posted by Guile

God created man in his image, not a man.

There is a big difference there, and what it means is that the overall human species may be in his image, but one individual can still be an oddity.

You are using a subjective belief to make an objective statement...convincing...

[SummerTiger]

Hi,

Everyone has the right to be part of society, and to act on their beliefs (like sexual orientation) to the fullest extent, so long as they do not encroach on another group's rights. I never understood why the heterosexual part of society feels so threatened by the gays. Many people think homosexuals need to be 'controlled' in some way, or that kids should be conditioned to be heterosexual. Opinions like these suggest that homosexuality is a disease, and that it needs to be treated like other physical and mental illnesses, a view that completely misses the truth -- that our sexual orientation is part of who we are. It is a gift, just like our language, our friends, and our family are all gifts in our life. We should be thankful for all those aspects of our lives that make us unique, and make us valuable to others, who may learn something new from us.

Society thrives on categorization, the split between the 'normal' and the 'other', which makes certain groups in society stigmatized. In this case, the gays are the feared 'other'. But they are just human beings, like everyone else, so how can we be justified in viewing them any differently?

-Tiger

[Alyssa]

It's hard for me to believe such horrible things happen. I live in a place where it's trendy for girls to be bisexual. There is still a lot of a lot of negativity towards man-on-man coupling though. Whatever hate there is we need to stop it for sure =).

Labels and categorization isn't a bad thing. It's people who choose to view labels and use them in a negative way. Labels which are used only for the sake of being negative should be dropped obviously. I would much rather not have to give a round about description of everything. It's much easier to just say "I'm bisexual" or "I'm transgender" and being able to smile about it.

Words like "faggot" are completely useless and only exist for the purpose of spreading hate. Those should be discarded completely. I am 100% against hate... but being against labels in general is a bit ridiculous.

I find people nowadays are trying so hard to be different. To be somehow different than everyone else. They want to exist outside of labels. But being different isn't inherently good. Thinking so is going from one extreme to another. That is being different is inherently bad.

We should all just learn to be ourselves. Whether that is different or fitting the general crowd. As long as we're existing peacefully in society it doesn't matter what label you fall under. Don't be destructive to society and don't spread hate.

I don't why this is so difficult for people to understand.

[JKmadu619]

My grandmother (Whom my family no longer talks to, because on a variety of other things she was also ignorant) was open about her hatred of gays. She called herself a christian, claiming she hated these "abominations". And that was her excuse. She believed gays were made that way to show us to correct the sin, and correct the gays. Yet gays have been around forever (Ever heard of Casanova? A guy from way back when? He was a gay famous for "Loving" a variety of women, why? Because none of them satisfied his sexual desire. His journal revealled that he found men attractive, but chose to keep is secret, like many gays of the time. This proves gays are not the "Modern Epitomy of Sin" as my grandmother labelled them.)

I'm also a Christian (Non-practicing. God cares, if a pray from home or from a church.) and yet I don't "Hate" gays. See, some people are afraid of different people. My grandmother used christainity as an excuse, but instead spat in our God's face. If God truly hates gays, pherhaps he is not worth our time.

I don't hate gays, to be honest I find it unsettling that other guys could see me sexually attractive, in the same way I find other religions unsettling. It is not my thing, it's different than my norm, but that does not mean I have anything against these different people as humans. Humans in charge will fear the unknown. Blacks, women, outer space, you name it we've hated and feared it.

Yet this does not mean we must embrace the unknown, but we must accept it. This is why people hate gays, they feel that by accepting we are embracing, or even gasp, encouraging it, which many people fear. Being gay is not contagious, it is not something that developes. You cannot encourage a child to become gay, you can only make them open about admitting it. Because it is not a social norm, people will fear it until they become too old to fight in, in which case the new generation comes in, and hopefully they are more open minded about the whole situation.

- Justin

[ChelseaSmile]

I completely agree.
Why should you be hated for who you love or are attractive too?
People should be more open-minded.
Just because your homosexual doesn't mean theres something wrong with you.
It doesn't even mean that your not normal, because no one can really define normal?
Support Love<3