Days of the Dead
I woke up thinking about my godfather, my cousin Butch. I didn't know him well, but he had a tough life. He was raised Catholic, but he was also gay. He tried to commit suicide and, in coming to see him in the hospital, his mother, brother and grandmother died in a car accident. That guilt haunted his entire life. When I met him as an adult, he had been living with a partner but was celibate because he wanted to see his grandmother in heaven when he died. He died in his 50s, obese and with tons of health problems. I can't help but wonder if his guilt and self-hatred ended up killing him.
Today, Radiolab did a story on Alan Turing. Turing was a brilliant mathematician who came up with the concepts that led to computers. He was also a hero - his working cracking the German Enigma code in WWII ended the war earlier than it would have otherwise, saving untold lives. He was also gay. He was arrested for it in the 1950s and subjected to quack science (estrogen injections) that were supposed to "cure" him. The injections and the publicity ruined his life and he committed suicide.
How many others have we lost because of homophobia? Matthew Shepard was murdered 15 years ago. Transwomen and transmen are beaten and brutalized and killed all the time. LBGTQ teens kill themselves. Other live lies their entire lives.
Gods and Goddesses, hear my prayer. Let us grow enough as a species for there to be no more dead from this stupidity. Let us stop judging and hating and killing because of gender or sexuality or race or any other thing that we think divides us.
Today, Radiolab did a story on Alan Turing. Turing was a brilliant mathematician who came up with the concepts that led to computers. He was also a hero - his working cracking the German Enigma code in WWII ended the war earlier than it would have otherwise, saving untold lives. He was also gay. He was arrested for it in the 1950s and subjected to quack science (estrogen injections) that were supposed to "cure" him. The injections and the publicity ruined his life and he committed suicide.
How many others have we lost because of homophobia? Matthew Shepard was murdered 15 years ago. Transwomen and transmen are beaten and brutalized and killed all the time. LBGTQ teens kill themselves. Other live lies their entire lives.
Gods and Goddesses, hear my prayer. Let us grow enough as a species for there to be no more dead from this stupidity. Let us stop judging and hating and killing because of gender or sexuality or race or any other thing that we think divides us.