Mormon Church Relaxes Some Anti-Gay Policies

In what ought to be a lesson to the Roman Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention, the Mormon Church is relaxing one of its anti-gay policies that victimized the children of LGBT headed families and barred the children from baptism in the Church.  In conjunction with the Mormon Church's decision to not oppose an LGBT non-discrimination law in Utah, it shows some effort to reconcile Church doctrine with modernity and likely also is a reaction to Utah's sky high teen suicide rate.  A piece in The Atlantic looks at the development.  Meanwhile, Roman Catholic schools continue to throw out children of gays or refuse them enrollment, punishing children for who their parents are.  Here are article highlights:

Tom Christofferson was in the shower on Thursday morning when he missed a phone call with huge implications for the lives of LGBTQ Mormons and their families.

Christofferson is gay. His brother, Todd Christofferson, is a member of the highest body of authority in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Todd was calling Tom to let him know that the LDS Church was about to roll back a controversial 2015 policy that automatically labeled Mormons in same-sex marriages apostates and barred their minor children from being baptized—a rite required for membership in the LDS Church and seen as necessary for eternal salvation. Under the new policy, same-sex marriages are still considered a “serious transgression,” according to a Church announcement, but not definitively apostasy. The children of LGBTQ couples can now be baptized.

The presence of LGBTQ Mormons is an undeniable reality in the LDS Church. The Church acknowledged the widespread pain caused by the former policy: “While we cannot change the Lord’s doctrine, we want our members and our policies to be considerate of those struggling with the challenges of mortality,” said Dallin Oaks, one of two counselors to the president of the LDS Church, in a statement.  

Married LGBTQ Mormons are no longer automatically labeled apostates, and they are put on slightly more even footing with straight couples: “Immoral conduct in heterosexual or homosexual relationships will be treated in the same way,” Oaks wrote in the announcement. Children living with these couples can be baptized, as long as parents know that they will be taught that LGBTQ relationships are wrong.

For many current and former Mormons, however, the consequences of the 2015 policy cannot be undone. Their relationships—with the Church, with their families, and with God—have been irreparably damaged.

LDS leaders consider both the 2015 policy and Thursday’s new policy to be matters of revelation, even though one effectively reverses the other.

But as this new announcement demonstrates, Church leaders clearly heard the objections from LDS community members. In a living faith tradition like Mormonism, relationships—between neighbors, relatives, or, say, a gay Mormon and his brother in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles—have the power to shape the context of revelation.

Even with this new policy change, LGBTQ Mormons occupy a fraught space in LDS life. Those in same-sex relationships, or who have gone through a gender transition, live with the knowledge that their choices are condemned by Church teachings. And for LGBTQ believers, the theological consequences of their sexuality and identity are serious: Mormons teach that families can be bound together for eternity, and LGBTQ families are not included in that vision.

On a practical level, the 2015 policy cut many LGBTQ families off from participation in LDS communities. Parents couldn’t stay even loosely connected to the Church through their children, and some felt that it was cruel for the Church to ostracize kids because of their parents’ choices and identities.

“There was a lot of suffering caused by the policy, and it’s going to be hard for a lot of hearts to heal from that,” says Gustav-Wrathall. Like others, he draws a connection between the policies of the LDS Church and the high rate of suicide among LGBTQ teens in Utah, while acknowledging that it’s impossible to know the cause of most suicides. “What parents must be feeling,” he said, is: “Would my child still be here with me if this policy hadn’t happened?”

Bullying, School Shootings and the Right

Bullying is a huge problem for LGBT youth both inside and outside of the nation's schools, but the problem extends far beyond just LGBT youth. And as a piece in Salon reports, bullying ties directly to the alarming rise of school shootings. As does the growing economic and social viciousness supported by conservative elements in society and, of course, the Republican Party where the poor, the immigrant, the gay, and all those deemed as the "other" are viewed as discardable and unworthy of the rights of citizenship. What makes this picture all the more disgusting is the way in which far right Christians want a free pass to denigrate and bully anyone who doesn't conform to their religious/world view. Here are some article highlights,

As the details of this week’s Chardon, Ohio, school shooting emerged, they seemed eerily familiar. . . . Once again, the alleged shooter, T.J. Lane, a 17-year-old fellow student, was described as a “loner” with a “troubled” family history. And, once again, other students described him as the victim of “bullying.” And so Chardon joins the long list of violent school incidents with a connection to America’s rampant bullying problem.

According to Jessie Klein, the author of the new book “The Bully Society,” it’s a problem that’s only getting worse. In her excellent examination of the school bullying epidemic, Klein, an assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice at Adelphi University, takes a broad approach to the subject. She first lays out the scope of the problem, before explaining how kids’ changing attitudes towards masculinity, the birth of child-targeted consumerism and the erosion of our compassionate society have all helped to create a culture in which children are increasingly feeling overwhelmed and helpless, and, in some cases, prone to violence. Most provocatively, she ties the rise of bullying behavior to America’s economic move to the right.

Between 1979 and 1988 there were 27 school shootings. From 1989 to 1998 there were 55 and then they continued to increase from 1999 to 2008 to 66, so there were 148 shootings in the three decades from 1979 to 2008. What’s most disturbing is that in the three years since 2008 there have been 43 shootings, and that’s almost two-thirds of the number of shootings that occurred in the preceding decade.

I started studying the school shootings when I first heard about a school shooting in 1997. I was really struck by why he said he committed the shooting. He talked about how he had been picked on, and called gay, and harassed for being fat.

We have an increasingly high depression rate, anxiety has increased among children. There are so many different ways that the children are acting out their despair — suicides, self cutting, substance abuse — and so much of it relates to school bullying. So, what I try to show in the book is that school shootings are the most horrific response to school bullying but they’re not the only response at all, and mostly they magnify what’s happening at schools. You know, most of the kids who committed shootings really wanted to tell the world that they were so miserable and they were treated so badly and this is what they felt forced to do.

When school shootings occur people like to say, “Oh that person was a psychopath.” And it’s a way of personalizing the issue and not taking responsibility as a society. As Durkheim, a classic sociologist, said in his seminal work called “Suicide,” when you see the same thing happening over and over and over again, you can’t keep blaming the individual. You have to look at the social environment and say, why is this happening over and over again?

These kids really were willing to do anything to increase their respect in the school. They’d been so harassed and so degraded. It was such a miserable experience that they thought if they picked up guns they would finally feel powerful and gain some respect. And I think that is a very sad statement in our society that kids get that message: To get respect they need to be dominate and aggressive and violent.

[W]hat I show in the book is that masculine values of aggression, violence, dominance are not specific to men. Girls and women are increasingly pressured to demonstrate those values as well.

[W]hat’s fascinating is that social isolation has increased. It’s tripled since the ’80s, and depression and anxiety statistics are extremely high. These are, I think, indicators of what’s going on in our society more generally.

There are many people who do believe that the more you help people, the less they will work, the more lazy they will become. . . . society has gotten more and more harsh in that way and I think people feel strongly in our country that that’s the way to get ahead. We’re the only country in the industrial world that doesn’t have a paid leave for women who have children, whereas other countries in Europe go out of their way to make sure there’s a long paternity leave.

[P]eople here believe that if you make money you’ll get support but if you don’t make money, you’re pretty much on your own. And I think that’s what kids in schools feel. A lot of the school shooters said, “The principal wasn’t doing anything, the guidance counselors weren’t doing anything, so I had to take things into my own hands.” And that’s pretty much the message that people get, whether you’re an adult or a kid.

The cultural dialogue around school shootings seems to have shifted in the last decade and a half. When Columbine happened, video games and violent movies were really being blamed. This doesn’t really seem to be the case anymore. It’s more about bullying.

We’re going through this election cycle in which, once again, welfare recipients are being demonized, and the GOP primary has become a race to out right-wing Mitt Romney. . . . Right now kids are trained to be heartless and pursue success at any cost.

I suspect that it's not lost on teens and youths that the least compassionate and most bullying prone are conservative Christians who, in my view, are well on their way towards killing the Christian brand all together.

Lady Gaga Launches 'Born This Way' Foundation

Yesterday at Harvard University Lady Gaga and her mother Cynthia Germanotta launched their Born This Way Foundation. The launch event included a panel with Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and Neil Patrick Harris' partner and actor David Burtka. One of the stated goals of the Foundation is to fight bullying - something that will no doubt have the Christianists foaming at the mouth since they want to have free license to denigrate and abuse LGBT individuals and others whom they hate and despise. I applaud Lady Gaga's and her mother's efforts to stop insidious bullying. What's striking is that while the far right malign her endlessly, Lady Gaga practices the true Gospel message of love for others far better than the self-congratulatory, sanctimonious professional Christians and many. many pastors in pulpits. Here are some highlights from the Boston Globe's coverage:

When Lady Gaga stepped on stage at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre yesterday to launch her youth foundation, it was hardly a typical appearance for the pop star who has built her reputation with over-the-top theatrics.

She didn’t hatch from an egg, or appear in a dress made of raw steaks. Instead the 25-year-old Gaga wore a subdued full-length black dress and spoke to a polite audience of students, academics, and educational specialists about the Born This Way Foundation, a nonprofit charity whose mission is to “foster a more accepting society, where differences are embraced and individuality is celebrated.’’

The official rollout of the foundation was held at Harvard because the university’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and its Graduate School of Education are offering assistance to the fledgling organization.

Gaga - who was joined by Oprah Winfrey, spiritual leader Deepak Chopra, and Kathleen Sebelius, the US Health and Human Services secretary - is counting on her supersize persona, which has already had a major influence on pop culture, to help encourage and fund the foundation’s programs.

“The goal of the Born This Way Foundation is to challenge meanness and cruelty by inspiring young people to create a support system in their respective communities,’’ she said. “This is about changing . . . the school environment, and not putting the power in the hands of the teachers or the government.’’

The foundation is planning a nationwide bus tour, which it says will teach teens about getting involved in civic groups and allow them to connect with mentors. The “Born Brave Bus’’ will also follow the route of Gaga’s next North American tour.

While yesterday’s Harvard launch was no Lady Gaga concert, hundreds of fans gathered outside in the afternoon snow for a glimpse of the singer.

The star power behind the group immediately makes it one of the nation’s highest-profile efforts against bullying, which has been gaining more attention from education specialists, policy makers, and politicians. Some recent suicides tied to bullying, including the death of Phoebe Prince in South Hadley in 2010, have led to new laws meant to combat such behavior. According to the Berkman Center, 48 states have enacted some form of legislation that requires schools to form bullying policies.

But Gaga said laws won’t make bullying disappear. “There is no federal law that can change these problems,’’ she said. “The only way to solve the problem is to change the environment.’’

In recent years, Gaga has been outspoken on various social and political issues. She campaigned against the military’s now-abandoned “don’t ask, don’t tell’’ policy, which allowed gays and lesbians to serve as long as they hid their sexual orientation. She has also advocated in favor of laws allowing gay marriage.

No matter what message she wants to promote, Gaga can wield an enormous virtual bullhorn to attract attention: She has almost 20 million Twitter followers and 48 million Facebook fans.

Quote of the Day - An Anti-Immigrant Bigot's View on a Teen Suicide

Some time ago I wrote about the sad suicide death of Joaquin Luna (pictured at right) who was only 18 years old. Luna was the child of illegal immigrants and feared that he'd be deported and never achieve his dreams. Today a comment was left on the blog by a "Jack Reylan" that in my opinion shows the moral sickness of the far right in this country. While I tried to better identify the author of the comment, I was met with a circular set of links that never allowed me to clearly identify the author. I did find a number of knuckle dragging comments attributed to the same individual on a number of blogs. I did not publish the comment outright because I did not want to be thought to subscribe to the sickness of the comment. However, it is important in my view that people see the truly ugly face and mindset of the far right in this country. Here's the comment left in connection with the tragic suicide death of an 18 year old:

I will not deny that foreign students can be bright, but faculty exaggerate their brilliance because foreign students are servile in doing work and favors for faculty and not demanding that professors actually earn their tuition keep. Moreover, faculty like that foreign students are either afraid, complicit or morally ambivalent about the immoral behavior of professors. In many cases they are more likely to share the professors' anti-Americanism than American students.

Actually, I had to correct a couple of spelling errors in the comment. I guess that's typical of the bigoted and ignorant far right elements in this country. What truly strikes me the most - and disgusts me the most - is the utter inability of the comment author to see any shred of shared humanity with Joaquin Luna or any other illegal immigrants or their children. If anyone is a threat to America, it's not Luna and those like him who seek to achieve the American Dream, but rather it's the "Jack Reylan's" in this country. Reylan - or whatever his/her real name may be - make me truly ashamed to be an American. And, if there is a God and a Hell, I suspect that it's folks like "Reylan" who have reserved seats.

Undocumented Student Kills Himself Over Fears of Deportation

I've noted many times before that I am no longer a Republican because the Party has become something truly ugly. Likewise, I increasingly want nothing to do with being called a Christian because the conservative Christians who make up much of the most hated filled element of the GOP base make a mockery of the Gospel message and act in a manner diametrically opposed to the message of Christ as set forth in the New Testament Gospels. The latest blood on the hands of the GOP and its Christianist allies belongs to 18 year old Joaquin Luna, a senior in high school who had dreamed of going to college. Faced with fears of deportation - a favorite treatment of of conservatives for those in the USA illegally, often not because of their own deeds - Luna committed suicide. True, not all Republicans and not all conservative Christians bear direct responsibility for this tragedy. But, as argued before on this blog, bad things happen when good people do nothing to stop evil. And sadly, the vast majority of Republicans and Christians - the good Christians if you will - are sitting silently on their hands while evil deeds are done in the name of conservatism and/or Christianity. CNN has details on Joaquin Luna's sad suicide. Here are some highlights:

Joaquin Luna was only 18. The senior at Juarez Lincoln High School in Mission, Texas, dreamed of going to college. But since he was in the country illegally, that was nearly impossible.

Luna was quickly losing hope of ever going to college, his family says. The Friday after Thanksgiving, Luna put on a suit, kissed his family members, went into the bathroom and shot himself in the head, according to family members.

"He didn't see no other way or no other option," his brother Diyra Mendoza told CNN affiliate KGBT.

Mendoza says the letters his brother left behind reveal his fears about being in the country illegally. He also was frustrated because the DREAM Act - an initiative that would legalize young immigrants who have been in the country for more than five years if they attend college or serve in the military - never passed.

It's estimated that the DREAM Act would benefit about 2 million young people. It failed by five votes in the Senate last December. A new push by Democrats in Congress this year also didn't go far.

Republican lawmakers call the bill "blanket amnesty" and have strongly opposed it. . . . . The DREAM Act was also a hot-potato issue in the November 22 CNN debate of Republican presidential candidates. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich spoke in favor of the DREAM Act. "I don't see any reason to punish somebody who came here at 3 years of age, but who wants to serve the United States of America," Gingrich said.

Mitt Romney agreed with Gingrich saying the he "would staple a green card to the diploma of anybody who's got a degree of math, science, master's degree, Ph.D. We want those brains in our country."

But Michele Bachmann denounced it, warning the measure would "offer taxpayer-subsidized benefits to illegal aliens. We need to move away from magnets not offer more."

I certainly hope God - if there is one - judges Bachmann and those like her as she has callously judged and condemned others. This constant refusal to recognize the common humanity of others based on race, religion, national origin - and, yes, sexual orientation - literally sickens me. Why doesn't the GOP admit reality and become an affiliate of the KKK and Neo-Nazi groups? The views of the GOP base towards those who are "other" are nearly identical to these obvious hate groups.

New Study: Teen Suicides Higher in Conservative Areas

A new study that has tracked teen suicides - both by gay teens and those not identified as LGBT - and has documented that suicide rates are higher in conservative areas with low levels of Democrats. So now, in addition to being tied to slow or dying state and local economies, political conservatism/"Christianist religious beliefs also correlate with a higher death rate by suicide among teens of all sexual orientations. Can it be because of the constant negative, hate oriented world view and mistreatment of others who are deemed "other" that mark both political conservatives and far right religious believers? Obviously, it would seem so. This is truly yet another indictment of the toxic nature of both social phenomenons. Once again conservatism is proven to not make for a welcoming society. Instead, judging and denigrating others is the norm. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot on the study findings:
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Suicide attempts by gay teens - and even straight kids - are more common in politically conservative areas where schools don't have programs supporting gay rights, a study involving nearly 32,000 high school students found.
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Those factors raised the odds and were a substantial influence on suicide attempts even when known risk contributors like depression and being bullied were considered, said study author Mark Hatzenbuehler, a Columbia University psychologist and researcher.
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His study found a higher rate of suicide attempts even among kids who weren't bullied or depressed when they lived in counties less supportive of gays and with relatively few Democrats. A high proportion of Democrats was a measure used as a proxy for a more liberal environment.
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"Is it surprising? No. Is it important? Yes," said Dr. Robert Blum of Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health.
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e="times new roman">The study relied on teens' self-reporting suicide attempts within the previous year. Roughly 20 percent of gay, lesbian and bisexual teens said they had made an attempt, versus 4 percent of straight kids.
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The study's social index rated counties on five measures: prevalence of same-sex couples; registered Democratic voters; liberal views; schools with gay-straight alliances; schools with policies against bullying gay students; and schools with anti-discrimination policies that included sexual orientation.
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Gay, lesbian and bisexual teens living in counties with the lowest social index scores were 20 percent more likely to have attempted suicide than gays in counties with the highest index scores. Overall, about 25 percent of gay teens in low-scoring counties had attempted suicide, versus 20 percent of gay teens in high-scoring counties.
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Among straight teens, suicide attempts were 9 percent more common in low-scoring [conservative]counties
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So they next time you hear a far right conservative yammering about being a "loving Christian," know that such is probably not the case and that the individual may well have blood on his/her hands.

Office of Civil Rights to Investigate Anti-Gay Bullying in York County Schools.

I have written about the tragic suicide of Christian Taylor several times in the past both here on this blog and on The Bilerico Project. Among other things, Christian was called "gay," "faggot," and "queer." Unfortunately, the York County School division did nothing to stop the bullying that ultimately caused Christian Taylor to take his own life last Memorial weekend. Worse yet, in my opinion, both the school division and the county appear to be endeavoring to intimidate Christian's mother, Alise Williams, and his siblings in retaliation for a state court lawsuit that Alise Williams filed against various school officials, including the school principal and an assistant principal. Sadly, it's all too typical of senior school bureaucrats who think they are above the law to seek to intimidate and retaliate against who dare to stand up to them.
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Fortunately this sad story is taking new positive twists in two ways. First, the U.S. Army is transferring the Williams family away from this area. and the clutches of the York County schools. Second, the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights has advised Alise Williams that it has decided to investigate the school division based on her complaint concerning the bullying and abuse inflicted on Christian and the retaliation that continues to go on against Christian's family.
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Opening an investigation does not guarantee a decision in favor of Christian's mother and family. However, it is a promising start and could lead to the issuance of a right to sue letter granting Alise Williams to sue the school division and others in federal court. The last such case I was involved in was some years ago in Virginia Beach. In that case the party bringing suit was ultimately vindicated and among other things won personal monetary judgments in her favor. One can only hope that the same will hold true in this instance.

Anti-Bullying: More Lip Service from Obama?

The Obamas held a conference on anti-bullying at the White House on March 10, 2011, and said many of the "right things." As MetroWeekly reports, however, Barack Obama has yet to endorse or champion two pending bills - the Safe Schools Improvement Act ("SSIA") and the Student Non-Discrimination Act ("SNDA") - now pending in Congress. The SSIA would amend the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act to include bullying- and harassment-prevention programs, including ones based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The SNDA, modeled after Title IX, would add sexual orientation and gender identity to federal education nondiscrimination law. Unfortunately, it's a pattern all too familiar to many who sought a leader in Obama and instead found a follower. As long as protections based on sexual orientation are missing from the federal laws, the message is quietly sent that such discrimination and bullying is in fact OK. Here are some highlights from the MetroWeekly article:
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On March 10, the White House held a conference dedicated to discussing bullying prevention and sharing ideas and strategies for combating the crisis. Despite the setting, the two pieces of federal legislation specifically crafted with that aim were not mentioned by the multiple senior administration officials, including President Barack Obama, who spoke at the event.
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[B]ut the focus was remarkably local. Breakout sessions focused on in-school, campus-based and community-based programs and policies, as well as cyberbullying. No similar sessions, however, focused on federal legislative or even administrative efforts – although participants raised them in the other sessions.
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What was completely absent from the president's remarks was any mention – however fleeting – of either legislative effort aimed at combating bullying or discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
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The SSIA was reintroduced by Sens. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) earlier in the week of the conference and has 19 co-sponsors. At the end of the 111th Congress, the bill had 132 sponsors and co-sponsors in the House and 18 sponsors and co-sponsors in the Senate.
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The SNDA, meanwhile, was reintroduced by Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on the same day as the conference. The House bill has 99 co-sponsors, and the Senate version has 29 co-sponsors. At the end of the 111th Congress, the bill had 127 sponsors and co-sponsors in the House and 32 sponsors and co-sponsors in the Senate.
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Neither bill was mentioned by Obama in his remarks, nor were they mentioned by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius or Education Secretary Arne Duncan later in they day when they addressed the attendees.
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Over the course of the past nine months, in fact, White House and other administration officials have declined numerous opportunities to endorse either bill and have rarely even mentioned the bills except in response to specific questions about them.
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Efforts to draw attention to the issue of anti-LGBT bullying – most notably, the ''It Gets Better'' campaign started by Dan Savage – struck a chord with the country, even leading Obama to record a message that was uploaded to YouTube on Oct. 21, 2010. He did not mention either bill as a way that the government could help make it better in his three-minute message.
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Gaylord said, ''Both bills have a lot of support in Congress. Both bills have a lot of support in the [relevant] committees. I think we're making a really good case for both bills at the moment.'' Of the lack of an endorsement of the bills from the White House, Gaylord said, ''It would be great if they had done it already, but I don't think the moment has passed. ''I think that a statement of support around either or both bills is clearly what we're looking for.''
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My thoughts? Don't hold your breath.

Bullycide Victims - A Photo Gallery

Some may wonder at my passion/anger when it comes to teen and youth suicide that arises from malicious bullying. Take a good look at this gallery of photos if you need a wake up call. NO ONE has the right to make someone else's life a living Hell. Yet that's the precise message that is disseminated daily by false Christians and whore like professional Christians who make a living spreading hatred towards LGBT individuals and perpetuating deliberate lies. And, yes, I mean folks like Maggie Gallagher, Tony Perkins, Scott Lively, and GOP elected officials who place pandering to Christianists ahead of saving young lives. They all literally have blood on their hands and the y continue to oppose effective anti-bullying laws and policies under the lie that suck laws and policies would promote homosexuality.

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Not all of these "bullyside" victims were LGBT, but a number of them were or were taunted for being perceived as gay by their tormentors. Conservative versions of Christianity and Islam are a truly toxic and deadly force in the world more often than not.

Anti-Gay Bullying - One Mother's Letter to Obama

As The Advocate and other news outlets have reported, President Obama - who I often refer to as out faux fierce advocate in the White House - will be holding an anti-bullying conference on March 10, 2011. The Advocate notes that Melody Barnes, the chief domestic policy adviser, announced the conference last week on a call with reporters. She said that participants would have the opportunity to speak with President Obama and high-level administration representatives about bullying and ways to prevent it in their communities. Not every parent who has lost a child to anti -gay bullying, however, will have an opportunity to speak with the President. One excluded parent is Alise Williams of Yorktown, Virginia, whose son Christian Taylor (pictured above) was driven to suicide by anti-gay bullying last Memorial Day weekend. The irony is that Alise's husband is in the U. S. military deployed overseas to protect the interests of American citizens - meanwhile his stepson was bullied to death because of religious based discrimination. She has shared her letter to the President Obama with me. Here are some highlights from Alise's letter to President Obama:
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I am not going to call in a favor because my husband is in the Army, or because my son was a DOD dependant, because quite frankly while my son is precious to me and he lived as a military child, EACH and EVERY child who has been the victim of bullying is of utmost importance to myself, my family, and their parents. When each parent who's child took their life due to bullying has a birthday or anniversary of their death - whether it is 1 month, 6 months, or 10 years later - we parents who belong to this club we DIDN'T sign up for but just HAPPEN to belong to, support each other. We check in and we get concerned if we don't hear from them. When you lose a child it throws you into another world, and if you have other children it is 10 times worse because then you worry every day about them and their safety.
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My husband was in Korea and asleep the day Christian took his life. He woke to me screaming into the answering machine at 4:30 AM Korea time,that Christian hung himself - you HAVE to come home, I cant do this alone.....
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More recently, when William, my 14 year old was shoved up against the wall and called gay, I followed the school procedure to report it. Nothing happened AGAIN! Even though in the school division's OWN student code of conduct handbook, the punishment mandated was 1 to 10 days non-discretionary suspension. . . . The Army is compassionately reassigning us to another state and school , . . .
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The only support the Government has given myself my kids and my husband is our unit in Korea who saw that we needed to be quickly reassigned away from here because the loss of even ONE child to bullycides is too much. I take a huge offense to your non-response when on last September FIVE kids died due to bullying, . . .
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This problem is going to continue to grow until you and your staff - and Congress - get real and realize that this is a very serious problem and it needs to be dealt with swiftly and in a timely manner. . . . . as I said before, I don't want special treatment because every child that we have lost is precious and the most special, loving caring souls we have lost.
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On the 15th of March, I will go to the Airport around 10:00 AM and go to the gate and meet my soldier and bring him home to a house that once again we are packing up and moving from due to bullying - to protect our kids.
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Respectfully Yours,
Alise Williams

Wife to SSG Andrew Juntti
US Army 1-38 Charlie Co
Camp Casey, Korea
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Unfortunately, the York County Schools seem utterly indifferent to bullying when the victims are attacked because of their perceived sexual orientation. Sadly, that mindset is in keeping with the demands of "godly Christians" who want to have the right to abuse and denigrate others merely because they don not subscribe to twisted Christianist religious beliefs. It makes me sick and ought to make Obama sick as well. Would that it would cause him to actually do something other than give lip service.

Two Virginia Lawmakers Introduce Anti-Bullying Bills

As I have noted before, Virginia's current anti-bullying laws are nothing less than a joke and school personnel who fail to address bullying are pretty much given blanket immunity while the bullies face virtually no consequences - even when the bullying leads to a student's suicide as happened last May at Grafton High School in nearby York County in the case of Christian Taylor (pictured at right). In Taylor's case, his principal bully continues to strut around the school and likely bullies others still with zero consequences. Now, two members of the Virginia General Assembly - one gay and one straight have introduced bills that would address this shameful deficiency in Virginia's laws. These bills deserve passage yet I am sure will be strongly opposed by the Christo-fascists at The Family Foundation who want no conceivable constraints on their ability to denigrate and make life a living Hell for LGBT students and others who do not subscribe to their vile and perverted version of Christianity. One can only hope that all too spineless members of the General Assembly with for once stand up to Victoria Cobb and her fellow hate merchants. Here are highlights from the Washington Blade's coverage:
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Two members of the Virginia House of Delegates — one gay, one a straight ally — have introduced two anti-bullying bills that, if successful, will be major accomplishments in the coming legislative session considering how difficult activists and elected officials there have found getting pro-LGBT legislation passed.
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Del. Adam Ebbin, who represents Virginia’s 49th House District, which includes parts of Arlington County, Alexandria and Fairfax County, has introduced legislation that would make bullying a class one misdemeanor, give victims the right to sue bullies who are sanctioned or found guilty, provide for expulsions for bullies and require that any bullying that causes injury be reported to the state’s attorney. Ebbin is the only openly gay member of the House of Delegates.
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Del. David Englin, who represents the state’s 45th House District which includes parts of Arlington and Fairfax counties and Alexandria, has introduced the “Anti-Bullying Responsibility Act,” which would add specificity to the codes of student conduct already required of state school districts, require schools to have procedures in place to separate victims from bullies, make bullying intervention a requirement for teachers, require incidents to be reported to superintendents and hold administrators responsible for their local policies.
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Ebbin’s bill, for instance, adds sexual orientation and gender identity to the definition of bullying even though some districts, such as his, already have that specified. He said having those areas identified is important because in some parts of the state, educators don’t take anti-gay bullying seriously.
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Ebbin said he was inspired to introduce the legislation in part because of the late Christian Taylor, a 16-year-old freshman at Grafton High School in Yorktown, Va., who committed suicide last May after enduring months of bullying. He hung himself in his bedroom. His mother told reporters they had reported the bullying to school administrators and police but nothing was done. Police said they looked into the situation but turned it over to the school when they determined no crime had been committed. Ebbin said one bully told Taylor, “you need to just go commit suicide and get it over with.”

It is Time to Toughen Virginia’s Anti-Bullying Law

The New Jersey legislature has nearly unanimously approved what will be, if signed into law by GOP Governor Christie (something Christie has not committed to do), the nation's toughest anti-bullying law. As noted previously, Virginia's anti-bullying statute is largely a joke - unless one is the victim of bullying. Then it may be a matter of life and death. Just ask Lisa Williams, the mother of Christian Taylor who committed suicide after constant bullying at Grafton High School in nearby York County, Virginia (the bully reportedly responsible for Christian's suicide is pictured at right via his Facebook page). Former House of Delegates member Phil Hamilton (a Republican) has an op-ed piece that takes Virginia to task and advocates for a tough anti-bullying statute much like that adopted by the New Jersey legislature. The main obstacle to such a statue will be FOTF affiliate, The Family Foundation, which is perfectly happy with LGBT students being bullied to death. Here are highlights from Hamilton's op-ed:
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During the 2010 General Assembly session, the House of Delegates’ Courts of Justice Committee failed to consider anti-bullying legislation – HB 744. The legislation would have provided that any person who engages in the bullying, harassment, and intimidation of a student on school property, on a school bus, or at a school-sponsored activity shall be subject to punishment for assault.
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In Virginia, this would make bullying a Class 1 misdemeanor which is punishable by up to twelve months in jail, a $2500 fine, or both. If the bullying resulted in bodily injury or was committed because of one’s race, religious conviction, color or national origin, the person shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony, and the penalty upon conviction shall include a term of confinement of at least six months, 30 days of which shall be a mandatory minimum term of confinement.
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Because physical, psychological, and cyber bullying is a major problem facing elementary, middle, high school, and even college students, the upcoming General Assembly session should take this problem much more seriously than it did in 2010.
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Unfortunately, youth suicide is often the final result for young people who are unable to deal with being bullied. Once a suicide from bullying has occurred, it is learned that reports of the bullying were often ignored by adults and in some cases, school officials.
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In light of Virginia’s weak law in specifically addressing behavior that most people consider bullying, state legislators should seriously consider creating an Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights in state law. Such legislation, modeled after a new proposal being considered in New Jersey, should include the following components:
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ANTI -BULLYING “BILL OF RIGHTS”
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1. Require new teachers and administrators hired in the 2011-12 school year to complete an anti-bullying training program, and mandates all teachers must learn about bullying as part of the suicide prevention training they already complete. School board members would also undergo training.
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2. Discipline school administrators who fail to investigate an incident of bullying.
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3. Include “harassment, intimidation and bullying’’ in the types of conduct that may cause a student to be suspended or expelled.
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4. Mandate school superintendents deliver a report twice a year at an open school board meeting on “all acts of violence, vandalism, harassment, intimidation or bullying.’’ The report would be used to “grade” schools and districts on their efforts to identify and respond to incidents of bullying under a program devised by the state Education Commissioner. The state’s School Report Cards would also include statistics about bullying.
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5. Require school employees to report harassing actions they learn about that take place off school property — and those who don’t could face disciplinary action.

A Bullying Suicide Close to Home - Part II

Early in the week I wrote about the bullying induced suicide of Christian Taylor, a student at Grafton High School in Yorktown Virginia (pictured at left). Like so many victims of bullying victim induced suicide, Christian's mother sought to have school officials intervene in a meaningful way and protect her son. Sadly, as seems to be the norm in these cases, school officials did nothing. To my amazement, Christian's mother left comments on the post and her phone number which lead us to have a conversation yesterday. Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the story is that even after her son's death, the principal bully in the sad story remains in school having faced zero consequences. How can this be? Because in Virginia there is no anti-bulling statute that requires real and severe consequences for bullies or indifferent school officials. In fact, the existing law bends over backwards to protect teachers and administrators from liability. Here's the basically worthless anti-bullying statute provisions§ found in 22.1-279.6. Code of Virginia of 1950, as amended:
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Each school board shall include, in its code of student conduct, prohibitions against bullying, hazing, and profane or obscene language or conduct. School boards shall also cite, in their codes of student conduct, the provisions of § 18.2-56, which defines and prohibits hazing and imposes a Class 1 misdemeanor penalty for violations, i.e., confinement in jail for not more than 12 months and a fine of not more than $2,500, either or both.
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Unfortunately, Sec. 18.2-56 only pertains to hazing in the context of clubs and fraternities and, therefore, there is no criminal penalty for bullying no matter how severe or how horrific the results. As for school officials, § 8.01-220.1:2. of the Code of Virginia provides in part as follows:
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A. Any teacher employed by a local school board in the Commonwealth shall not be liable for any civil damages for any acts or omissions resulting from the supervision, care or discipline of students when such acts or omissions are within such teacher's scope of employment and are taken in good faith in the course of supervision, care or discipline of students, unless such acts or omissions were the result of gross negligence or willful misconduct.

B. No school employee or school volunteer shall be liable for any civil damages arising from the prompt good faith reporting of alleged acts of bullying or crimes against others to the appropriate school official in compliance with specified procedures.
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Under this language, all a negligent and indifferent school official need to claim is that they acted in good faith. To say that this situation is outrageous is a huge understatement. Christian Taylor's mother is on a mission to create change (she is launching a foundation) and I hope Virginia readers will begin demanding that something be done to change the existing in adequate laws. Here are highlights from one event where ChristianTaylor's mother, Lisa Williams was speaking out:
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The keynote speaker was Lisa Williams, a Yorktown, Va., mother whose son, Christian Taylor, committed suicide May 31 after being bullied. Mrs. Williams has founded a nonprofit foundation in her son’s honor aimed at stopping bullying. She’s also working with a Virginia lawmaker to strengthen that state’s anti-bullying law. The law has been named Christian’s Law.
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“I don’t want any parent to feel what I’ve gone through,” she said. “Schools need to protect our kids. Parents shouldn’t have to send their kids to school afraid if they’re going to be OK.” Mrs. Williams said a business has also given, at a low cost, a car to her foundation. She plans to have names of children who have committed suicide because of bullying since May 2009 printed on the car.
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Mrs. Williams said she’s angry about what happened to her son, but wanted to use that anger to do something positive.

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To effect real change in Virginia it will be necessary to take on one of the most insidious and toxic organizations in Virginia: The Family Foundation ("TFF"), the Virginia affiliate of Focus on the Family. TFF has consistently opposed efforts to enact a comprehensive anti-bully statute that would impose serious consequences on both bullies and school administrators who fail to protect students from bullies. Why? Because TFF wants bullies to have carte blanche when it comes to targeting LGBT students. Moreover, TFF doesn't want school officials to be forced to stop homophobic bullying. According to TFF, the current statute is just fine. Here's some of the bullshit TFF was disseminating this past summer:
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Efforts to increasingly sexualize our children will be at an all time high this fall. The Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a national organization, recently selected its Richmond Chapter to conduct a pilot program to promote the homosexual agenda in 60 Central Virginia middle schools.
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Bullying, no matter the content and no matter the target, is not tolerated in Virginia public schools, making GLSEN’s middle school initiative that much more inappropriate and unnecessary. GLSEN’s materials regularly undermine both parental authority and religious teaching. They seek to separate children from their families and from their faith upbringing.
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While no child should be bullied, the fact is that GLSEN and other pro-homosexual groups are using harassment as a way to promote a dangerous lifestyle and attack the values taught by families across our commonwealth.
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It's the typical wink and a nod that Christianists take when it comes to bullying: they claim to oppose it, but are the principal obstacle in passage of truly effective anti-bullying statutes. We need legislation that has teeth and will (1) hold school officials liable for their failure to protect students, (2) not only lead to the expulsion of students who bully others, but can impose jail time, and (3) make the parents financially liable for the consequences of their child's bullying.

A Bullying Suicide Close to Home

I'm not sure how I missed this story other than the fact that during the week after Christian Taylor's suicide the boyfriend and I were in Ft. Lauderdale and then Key West and as a result I did not see the initial stories. Fortunately, blogger friend Mike Rogers shared a link to a follow up story in the Washington Post to those that had run in the Daily Press earlier in the year. While Christian Taylor (pictured at left) was not gay, the pattern is all to familiar: (1) those who are deemed different are tormented and (2) indifferent school administrators and indifferent law enforcement officials who do nothing to protect the victims of bullying. First a little background on York County, Virginia, where Grafton High School is located: York County (located about 20 minutes from Hampton) is VERY Republican and is pretty much mutually exclusive with the word progressive. When one of my sisters liver there in 2006 and had yard signs up in opposition to passage of Virginia's anti-gay marriage amendment, she worried that the sign and/or her home might be vandalized. True to form, the haters of all things different tend to be the "godly Christian" and uber-patriot set. Here are highlights from the Washington Post story:
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The birthday boy is dead. He killed himself five months before the party. Christian Taylor's friends and family say he was bullied to death, harassed daily until he would rather die than go to school another day. The grim birthday party was the best way they could find to deal with the horrible way they lost him.
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"I'm all cried out," Ariel Mullins, 13, told me, after she and others released balloons into the sky at 5:58 p.m. on Nov. 5, the moment when Christian was born 17 years ago.
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For those left behind, a world of could-haves and should-haves. "That was one of the signs I really missed. He said he didn't want to go to school, and I kept telling him he needed to go to school," said his mother, Alisa Williams, who has filed a $10 million lawsuit against Grafton High School officials. The suit alleges that they failed to protect Christian from his tormentors.
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Taylor's mother has done the right thing in suing school administrators (I suspect that the school system was not a named defendant because typically in Virginia public school divisions invoke the defense of sovereign immunity, leaving the aggrieved plaintiff only able to sue individual employees of the school division). I also agree with Taylor's mother that their need to be statutes imposing liability on both those who bully and their parents. If individuals and school officials will not stop severe bullying for the right reasons, then I'll settle for good behavior motivated solely out of fear of crippling financial liability. For more background, here are a few highlights from previous Daily Press stories. First, the June 3, 2010 Daily Press:
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Christian Taylor, a freshman at Grafton High School, committed suicide Monday and his mother said he had been bullied at school ever since the family moved here in January. "All I remember is looking into my son's eyes, because he had the most beautiful blue eyes, and he was staring and he was cold," said Alise Williams.
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She said Taylor, 16, hung himself at the family home Monday. The military family had moved to York County from Fort Hood, Texas, in December and Taylor's step-father is currently deployed to South Korea with the Army.
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"He didn't want to get in trouble because my thing is don't fight, take it out and tell an adult so it can be handled on a different level," Williams said. "That happened on a Monday, then on Tuesday this kid said to my son you need to just go commit suicide and get it over with. Not only that, but said something to my son's girlfriend, who had her head down on the table at lunch. I don't know how my mood was, but he told her to just go slit her wrists and die.
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A second June 3, 2010 Daily Press story:
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Williams said she contacted the York-Poquoson Sheriff's Office about filing charges against the student, but officials refused to take her report. Alise Williams said she contacted officials from the York County School Division and York-Poquoson Sheriff's Office about her son's harassment by another student, but she didn't feel school officials did enough to alleviate the situation.
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"They didn't do anything," Alise Williams said. "I had five meetings. I asked them if I needed to pull my son out of school to keep him safe, and they assured me that he would be safe."
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And then a later Daily Press stry after a local court rejected the defendant school officials' attempt to have the law suit dismissed:
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A civil lawsuit against four York County School Division employees alleging negligence for not protecting a student from bullying will proceed, but a school security officer was dismissed as a defendant Thursday.
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Alise Williams of York County filed a $10 million wrongful death suit against a Grafton High School principal, two assistant principals, a counselor and school resource officer. Williams claims that the officials failed to protect her son, Christian Taylor, from bullying at school and that it contributed to the teenager committing suicide on May 31.
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Substitute Judge R. Bruce Long heard a demurrer — essentially a motion to dismiss the case — in York-Poquoson Circuit Court Thursday. It was the first court date for the suit, which Williams filed July 30.

More Fruits of "Godly Christians" - 13 Year Old Attempts Suicide

Personally, I hope that there is a special place in Hell for those who denigrate and malign others out of supposed religiosity. How much blood and/or ruined lives do these false Christians have to have on their hands before they are satisfied? Christ himself must be sickened by the pain and suffering engendered by folks like Tony Perkins, Maggie Gallagher, James Dobson, Don Wildmon, et al. These foul individuals not only make a nice living off of peddling hatred and intolerance, but they knowingly engage in behavior that encourages others to torment and harass others. I can only wonder at the psychological and moral depravity of these individuals who seemingly only feel good about themselves by maligning and denigrating their fellow humans. These people make the most tawdry whore look like a tower of virtue. Their latest victim is a 13 year old in Tehachapi, California, who tried to hang himself and is now on life support. Here are some highlights from KGET-TV 17:
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Friends and neighbors of Tehachapi 13-year-old who attempted suicide Sunday said the boy is openly gay and was taunted by bullies for years, at school and at a local park.

T*he bullying might have been what led him to try to take his own life, friends said. The boy hanged himself at his own home from a tree and has been on life support since Sunday, according to the Tehachapi Police Department.
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He previously attended Jacobsen Middle School, but was put on independent study this year. Friends said he was still bullied outside of school for being gay and bisexual, but he didn't tell close friends how the bullying affected him.
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[S]ome parents said the school hasn't done enough to prevent bullying and they are concerned about their children's safety at school.
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As a parent, I truly cannot say that I would not resort to violence against some of the perpetrators if this child were one of my own. Christianity becomes a more toxic and foul belief system with every passing day in the hands of the professional Christians who maintain an atmosphere where this type of situation becomes all too likely. I find it more and more difficult to have anything to do with Christianity - epscially because the "good Christians," to there are any constantly yield the field to the hate mongers rather than openly confront them.

Homophobia Is Killing Our Youth

Yesterday was the National Day of Silence - a program started in the 1990s at the University of Virginia - and with the recent deaths of teens the mainstream media seems to be waking up if ever so slightly to the fact that homophobia is killing our nation's youth. Unfortunately, they stories do not properly lay the blame for these deaths squarely at the feet of the professional Christians and anti-gay hate mongers of the Christian Right who do all in their power to create an atmosphere where gays are denigrated, youth are bullied to the point of suicide, and it's fine to kill LGBT citizens for being different. As I have noted often, I simply cannot understand the twisted mindset where tormenting people and disseminating lies and hatred are deemed to be the cats of Christians. Is money and perceived political power - not to mention feeling self-satisfied and superior - that important to people like Rick Warren, Tony Perkins, and James Dobson that people must die? Disturbingly, Barack Obama has appointed individuals representing this foul set of Christianists to his advisory counsel on faith based issues rather than exile them to the political wilderness where they rightly belong. First the Huffington Post takes a look at the toxic phenomenon. Here are some highlights:

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Today, across the country schools will participate in a National Day of Silence to protest the homophobic bullying that is killing teenagers and honor those whose lives have been taken by the barbaric hands of hatred. In less than two years there have been four brutal teenage deaths resulting from homophobic bullying. Just last week Carl Walker, an eleven year old in Springfield, Massachusetts , who never actually identified as gay, hung himself with an extension cord from the 3rd floor landing of his home. This was after his mother repeatedly implored his school to do something about the homophobic bullying he experienced.

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Last summer a transgendered teenager, Angie Zapata, was brutally murdered in Greeley, Colorado. Last February Eric Mohat, a 17-year old student from Ohio, who also never identified as gay, committed suicide after being repeatedly harassed with anti-gay epithets such as "fag" and "homo." Also, last year, Lawrence King, a fifteen year old who identified as gay, was shot in the head twice in his English class. He died a few days later. His heart was donated the day after Valentine's day.

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Change has been a pervasive concept in our country over the past two years. Barack Obama's presidential election, along with the dissolution of our economic institutions, are catalysts for significant change. We need to start applying this same principal of change to the institution of hatred entrenched in our culture. The Greek philosopher Aristotle, and social psychology pioneer Albert Bandura have both shown that aggression and hatred are learned behaviors. If a child is taught to hate and fear diversity, then the next place he or she expresses that hate is at school. If hate is learned, then it lies on the shoulders of our schools, church officials, parents, teachers, and communities to teach our young kids acceptance before they continue hurting each other, and before they become adults who will likely pass their hatred to the next generation.

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[P]eople who choose to hate in the name of "their" God are simply immersed in a human experience that is built on irrationality, fear, hatred and ego; . . . I cannot say when, but I have faith that one day those who attack in the name of "their" god will discover that they are also attacking themselves.

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Judith Warner in the New York Times also chimes in on this issue and looks at the releated issue of how perverted ideas of masculinity can be in American society where those who do not fit one a particualr narrow range of stereotypes get treated with contempt. Personally, I have always felt that males who feel threatened by gays are the ones who have issues, not the gays. Here are some highlights from Warner's column:

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I’m only partly talking about homophobia, which, though virulent, cruel and occasionally fatal among teenagers, is not the whole story behind the fact that words like “fag” and “gay” are now among the most potent and feared weapons in the school bully’s arsenal. . . . . It’s really about showing any perceived weakness or femininity – by being emotional, seeming incompetent, caring too much about clothing, liking to dance or even having an interest in literature.

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“To call someone gay or fag is like the lowest thing you can call someone. Because that’s like saying that you’re nothing,” is how one teenage boy put it to C.J. Pascoe, a sociologist at Colorado College, in an interview for her 2007 book, “Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School.”

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The message to the most vulnerable, to the victims of today’s poisonous boy culture, is being heard loud and clear: to be something other than the narrowest, stupidest sort of guy’s guy, is to be unworthy of even being alive. . . . . Boys were showing each other they were tough. They were afraid to do anything that might be called girlie,” she [Barbara J. Risman, a sociologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago] told me this week. “It was just like what I would have found if I had done this research 50 years ago. They were frozen in time.”

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Malina Saval, who spent two years observing and interviewing teenage boys and their parents for her new book “The Secret Lives of Boys,” found that parents played a key role in reinforcing the basest sort of gender stereotypes, at least where boys were concerned. “There were a few parents who were sort of alarmist about whether or not their children were going to be gay because of their music choices, the clothes they wore,” she said. Generally, she said, “there was a kind of low-level paranoia if these high-school-age boys weren’t yet seriously involved with a girl.”

Gay students more likely to consider suicide

I cannot help but see some irony in the fat that while Sally Kern and other self-righteous "Christian" homophobes are going about voicing nasty anti-gay statements and basically comparing gays to terorists and/or diseased vermin, a new study has been released that shows that gay teens in the nation's capital are much more at risk of committing suicide than their straight counterparts. Of course, what makes the study results even worse is that in relative terms, Washington, D. C., is a relatively liberal, gay friendly area. Imagine life for gay teens in more rural Red State areas. Not that Ms. Kern and those of her ilk give a flying f**k. That would be expecting way too much of such cold, self-centered people.

The truth is that gays are living, breathing, feeling, and worthy human beings who are the beloved sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters of other citizens. A fact that never crosses the hate-filled minds of Christianists. I find such peoples to be disgusting and cannot help but wonder how they came to be such unloving, unfeeling, and generally horrible people. How did the Gospel message become so perverted? In any event, here are some highlights from the Washington Blade (http://www.washingtonblade.com/2008/4-4/news/localnews/12337.cfm):

D.C. high school students who identify as gay, lesbian or bisexual are four times as likely to contemplate suicide than their heterosexual counterparts and regularly report being bullied and harassed by their classmates, according to a survey released last week by the District’s public school system.

Andrew Barnett, acting executive director of the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL), a D.C. group that advocates for gay youth, said the survey findings confirm what SMYAL has learned anecdotally from the youth who participate in its programs — that anti-gay harassment is a common occurrence in the city’s high schools.

Also among the report’s findings:
* 24.8 percent of Washington gay high school students reported using ecstasy one or more times compared to 3.9 percent of straight students.
* 39.1 percent reported using marijuana three or more times compared to 17 percent of straight students.
* 30.6 percent reported being bullied at least once on school property in the previous year compared to 16 percent of straight students.
* 30.6 percent of gay teens considered suicide in the previous year, 28.9 percent made a plan to commit suicide and 32.6 percent attempted suicide. That compares to 13.8 percent, 12.1 percent and 8.6 percent respectively in those same categories for their straight counterparts.
* 40.3 percent answered yes to the question, “During the past 12 months, did you ever feel so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that you stopped doing some usual activities?” Just 25.7 percent of straight students said yes.

LGBT Teen Suicide Still A Persistent Problem

As the Christianists and pompous homophobes like Archbishop Peter Akinola continue their relentless attacks against LBGT rights and continue their efforts to demonize and marginalize gays, their handiwork continues to take a deadly toll. Here is a portion of a news story from the Contra Costa Times (California) (http://www.contracostatimes.com/bayandstate/ci_6977529?nclick_check=1):

In the gay community, youth suicide continues to be a persistent problem, experts say. Among gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youths, as many as 40 percent are likely to attempt suicide, said Cassie Blume, youth programs coordinator for the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center in San Jose. The national data is derived from several studies, Blume said. "They are three times more likely to attempt suicide" than straight young people, Blume said. "Our work can be just about keeping them alive."

University of Minnesota pediatrics professor Gary Remafedi's book, "Death by Denial," found that 30 percent of gay youths said they had attempted suicide at least once as a teenager. A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report from 1989 concluded that gay youths are two to three times more likely to commit suicide than straight teens. Gay and lesbian teens accounted for about 30 percent of youth suicides, the department found.

I hope these "good Christians" are proud of themselves. I find them disgusting. So much death and heartache and for what? So that these self-satisfied and self-righteous bigots can feel good about themselves?