Not Alone

[scarlett71177]

I’ve been watching the stories about the persecution of gay people with an absolute ache deep in my heart. In addition to the six who recently committed suicide because of the pressure, pain, and persecution, three men were tortured, sodomized, and lit on fire in New York City recently. In addition to those men, nearly 14,000 people in the

Comments

[lady_bracknell]

Word.

Have you seen the It Gets Better project on You Tube? Dan Savage started it - it's basically grown-ups making vids about how awful their life was at high school and what they've done since and that... it got better. The one he made with his husband about how they were both bullied and now they have a family and things they never thought they would is really touching. There's some great stuff on there and I like that it's immediate. I think it's one of the redeeming things about the Internet - we can be here for each other, even if we'll never meet and are on opposite sides of the world.

[scarlett71177]

YES. I think that's an amazing resource and source of support. Like To Write Love On Her Arms, it spreads so much hope and awareness. Tim Gunn's video was so honest and inspiring. I was really emotional after seeing it. There's so many good organizations out there too. I wish they'd all band together and have a million person march or something. It would make a HUGE impact.

Do stories like this surface overseas too?

[lady_bracknell]

They do. I guess we're pretty lucky in that we have people like Stephen Fry who have a direct line to lots of people without waiting for the mainstream media - and there's another comedian Russell Howard who does a show called Good News where he shares inspirational news stories from around the world. One of the benefits of being a smaller country - things tend to spread pretty fast here.

[scarlett71177]

things tend to spread pretty fast here.

Very true. I think there's a better idea of 'neighbor' too. You can see how it affects the people around you. Our two coasts have all the action, and everywhere in the middle is just sorta... there. I would wager it's tough for some people to fathom such a different life elsewhere.

(Man, I hope that makes sense.)

[lady_bracknell]

It makes perfect sense. Where I grew up there's a large gay district that's pretty integrated with the arty/theatre/alt district, so even if your family were raging homophobes (as mine are) you could see people just sort of... living their lives. I can imagine that if you don't have that it's really hard to imagine a life that's not just isolation and loneliness. And we have areas in this country where it's very rural and cut off and others where it's just not the done thing to be anything other than conformist - I had a friend whose parents lived on an army base, and he used to try and dress straight when he went home so his parents wouldn't get flack after he left :(. I think that's why any project that basically says 'that thing you're going through? You're not alone' are so important.

[scarlett71177]

just sort of... living their lives.

What? Gay people are normal and have lives and work?

This is exactly what more people need.

Yes, I do imagine everywhere has a very rural population who just... doesn't know/see people going about their lives and believe the stereotypes, no matter what the cause (depressed people are depressed by choice and all overweight people eat like hogs too, right?)

Yay for great projects TRYING to reach out. I wish schools would point kids in those directions without waiting to be asked by a kid already in desperate need.

[scarlett71177]

I forgot. I think one of the best things for my parents was meeting Pat's openly gay uncle and learning he was *gasp* normal. He and my dad could talk about video games and lawn maintenence, and he and my mom could talk about the garden and the latest movie. Until then I think they had NO clue.