You’ve heard, probably, of the recent wave of gay teen suicides in the USA – six in September alone, some encouraged by peer “bullying.” There have been various reactions to this phenomenon…
You know I’ve been hanging with the Courage Campaign as they bird-dog the NOM homophobes who have joined up with Carly Fiorina’s “Vota Tus Valores” bus tour, attempting to use the revulsion-at-gay-marriage wedge issue to get Latinos to turn Republican. This is as good a place as any to give you a little report on their Santa Ana event.
At yesterday morning’s (Monday morning’s) Santa Ana “event,” the NOM/VTV bus pulled into the lot on the Southwest corner of 17th and Main – the lot of an office building that used to include the OC Weekly offices. Apparently one of the main Vota bus riders has a connection to a law office in that building, so they had permission to hang in that lot and pretend to do an event.
So anyway, the security guy to the left here strode up to the Courage Campaign videographer, told him he was on private property, and pushed him hard in the arm, causing him to drop and break his camera. In the follow-up blogging, Courage Campaign connected that incident to the bullying leading to recent teen suicides. A BIT of a stretch, I thought, but then of course there IS the connection – making a gay or pro-gay person feel less worthy or powerful by resorting to physical violence.
Meanwhile, as the Vota Tus Valores / National Organization for Marriage tour draws to its pathetic anticlimactic close, Dan Savage – who is known to OC Weekly readers for his raunchy yet ultra-humane “Savage Love” column, has made a pair of videos targeted toward young gay people who are feeling alone and vulnerable. As Dan wrote last week about 15-year-old Billy Lucas, an Indiana teen who committed suicide after persistent bullying and harassment by his classmates for being gay,
“I wish I could have talked to this kid for five minutes. I wish I could have told Billy that it gets better. I wish I could have told him that, however bad things were, however isolated and alone he was, it gets better.”
SO, Dan in tandem with the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) has started this series of YouTube videos called the “It Gets Better Project.” Speaking as someone who’s straight but was sort of a dork in high school, I can confirm that yes, it does get a LOT better.
AND
A much BETTER report of the incident in Santa Ana with NOM & Courage Campaign. The other report I read was a cut and paste job. Hell, I’d call myself a blogger too if that is all I had to do. I’m just a rank amateur.
Guess who wrote it? I’ll give you a hint…his initials are the same letters that are used to abbreviate District of Columbia.