With the heartbreaking rash of recent gay teen suicides, the media has seen an influx of discussion about the LGBT issues our culture faces. With bullying at the center of attention, the It Gets Better video movement started by Dan Savage serves as a powerful reminder to the victims of anti-queer bullying – and really all bullying – that there is life after the torture those taunters put you through. Sympathy for the families of those teens whose lives were needlessly cut short has been exhibited across all manner of media outlets; but as might be expected, a slew of vaguely concealed (and not so concealed) hate speech has also made its way into the public discourse.
Not all of the homophobic rhetoric has been as public as New York gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino or as misinformed and twisted as Tony Perkins’ Washington Post Op-Ed of course. But sadly, the message from far too many remains the same, “While I don’t support gay marriage, I am so saddened about these suicides”. Religion has certainly played a role in honing that canned response to the recent tragedies. As far as I’m concerned, Dan Savage’s retort to such a commenter is spot on and well worth the read (read me, read me, read me). Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson also has a powerful take on the ways religion is shaping the LGBT dialogue and what we need to do about it.
While it may have been the impetus for the suicides, bullying it not the root issue. Those bullies didn’t decide that LGBT people are inferior on their own, it took years of conditioning by their families, friends and media to develop those beliefs. And while many religions have preached a hatred of LGBT people under the guise of “compassion” for their souls, they are also only one part of the problem. Because in the United States, we do not only have a social culture in which many are denouncing the worthiness of LGBT people; it is actually the law.
That’s right, the US government has made their message on LGBT youth clear: “Don’t kill yourselves children… but don’t think you can get married, serve your military, or have families like the rest of us”. It is completely hypocritical for us to think for a moment that our children will see LGBT people as they do straight people when we literally have laws in place governing us to treat LGBT people as less.
If you are denying gay people the opportunity to marry the person they love and receive the same benefits as straight people who have committed their lives to one another, you are part of the problem. If you are supporting Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and preventing gay people from openly serving their country, you are part of the problem. If you are enforcing state laws that deter – or in many states do not allow – same sex couples from jointly adopting, you are part of the problem. Sarah Silverman seems to think so too. So what action are you going to take?
