Perception vs. Reality

[fritterfae]

One of the things that has been missing from the discussion of the gay teen suicides is the motivations of the people who are doing this anti-gay harrassment (and I'm going to stop calling it bullying, because bullying is just a general meanness, this really is an issue of harrassment).  These boys, especially the youngest of them were harrassed

Comments

[crafting_change]

<3
so well put.

in my gender and sociology class we read a lot of narratives on how kids survived bullying over perceived sexual identity - an how some of this was tied to engendered expectations (boys being punished for being less boisterous, girls being punished for wanting to play sports) and as you said this end message of 'you do not belong' is so harmful.

[venturous1]

Well said. Thank you for this. It makes so much sense. These young people are still evolving, and the wicked cruelty of this kind of bullying hurts them in this growing place.

I'm 54 and didn't come out until my 30s. Being thoroughly bisexual certainly muddied the waters; being female meant my life was not all that at risk. I was such a sensitive young teen that such a heavy-handed message of "You Don't Belong" would likely have been unbearable for me.

I'm going to give this a signal boost to my journals, GLBT-freindly writers and artists.

[kinnerc]

Excellent!