Saturday, March 03, 2007

The Green Antichrist and the War on Gay Kids












Choppers scooting across the bay near the bunker. An orange moon in the sky. It reminded me of another place where I used to wonder what I was doing. Just like now I wonder where I'm going. Or what I'm blogging about. How are you supposed to keep your bearings...in a world going slowly mad?

How else you can you explain a Pope choosing to go on a retreat with a Cardinal who believes in a Green Antichrist?

An arch-conservative cardinal chosen by the Pope to deliver this year’s Lenten meditations to the Vatican hierarchy has caused consternation by giving warning of an Antichrist who is “a pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist”.

As the planet burns...and war and religious hatred rip people and countries apart...

How else can you explain a country that in a month or two could give a climate change denier and warmonger like Stephen Harper a majority? The majority he so desperately seeks.. to destroy our country's values. And change it beyond recognition.

Am I growing too cynical? I know you can't be a cynic without believing in something better....like a kinder gentler world. Because if you didn't believe in something you wouldn't be so disappointed. But am I starting to turn everything into a joke? Like my post on Ann Coulter last night.

Why couldn't I just try to write an excellent post like this one? Or this one.

Attack Coulter's creepy homophobia like it deserved to be attacked. Instead of just laughing at her.

But then I remember I am what life made me. It's really simple. They hurt me. I fought back. I hurt them. Then one day I decided that nothing would ever hurt me again. So I can laugh at just about anything....except for one cause that I could never be cynical about.

The cause of gay kids in our schools who are being bullied to death. Like I almost was...





I'd hear `faggot' and people would throw things at me. They'd yell at me a lot. One time when the teacher was out of the room, they got in a group and started strangling me with a drafting line.

One day in the parking lot outside his school, six students surrounded him and threw a lasso around his neck, saying, "Let's tie the faggot to the back of the truck."

He arrived at school early one day and was surrounded by eight boys, one of whom kicked him in the stomach for five to ten minutes while the others looked on and laughed. Several weeks later, he collapsed from internal bleeding caused by the attack.

He was subjected to a mock rape in a science lab by two of his classmates, who told him that he should enjoy it; twenty other classmates looked on and laughed. He attempted suicide at the end of his eighth grade year.

This report received almost no coverage in the U.S. media. Just like the plight of bullied gay kids receives almost no coverage here. Where in case you wondered.... the problem is even worse.

Not enough is being done to fight the shameful level of bullying in our schools. Except in British Columbia. And that program is under attack. By the same people who believe in the Green Antichrist.

Thousands of British Columbians have signed petitions and sent letters to the Education Ministry insisting that parents be allowed to pull their children from public school lessons to avoid gay-friendly messages that conflict with religious or family values.

If Stephen Harper gets a majority one of the first things he will do is pass a Defence of Religion Act. That will allow the religious extremists of his wingnut base to stop any programs aimed at helping gay kids.

So kids will continue to be bullied and die. Just like this kid. Or the kid in this video by Canadian band Billy Talent....



How come in a country preparing for an election, the plight of bullied children in our schools....and the wingnut war on them... isn't even an issue? What kind of country doesn't put its children first.?


What kind of politicians are too cowardly to tell the Roman Catholic Church to keep their hatemongering, planet burning Green Antichrist faraway from our schools and our Canadian children?

Who will save our country...

Who will save our kids?

8 comments:

JJ said...

Simon, I don't think you're cynical at all... in fact, I get just the opposite feeling from your writing. You're an idealist, you want to help people, and although it sometimes looks bleak, I think you know in your heart that the tide can be turned.

There will come a time when young gay kids won't be bullied, and anyone who tries will be the one to be ostracized. There will come a time when we won't even be able to remember when gay marriage wasn't accepted. And a time when gay parents will be left alone to raise their families in peace. It's people like you, who keep these issues at the forefront, that make the difference.

Blog on, bud.

Anonymous said...

Simon you are way too cynical, way too hard, way too worried about everything, you've got to calm down a bit. Your writing is exellent but extreme attacks on people you know little about, (Ann Coulter) lessens your bite a little. You seem to be paranoid about, and label a little to freely who you consider to be homophobic.
Things are moving forward, they will never go back. Rights of gays are moving forward, nobody can ever
change it.
You may have had a rough ride in life, many do, but when the bullied
become the bullies, you are just changing the same old tired story line, and the pain continues...

Anonymous said...

Simon, I haven't commented in a long time, but am still reading. What JJ said! My kids are hetero, but they both attended Arts schools so have many, many gay friends. They are appalled at what happens to their friends, and are fighting to right that wrong. It's tough right now because of Harper and his neocon agenda, but I have to believe that you, your friends, your kids (should you ever decide to have some - and I think you would make a great parent), JJ's kids, my kids and so many others will make a difference, despite Harper and his crowd. Don't give up. Keep on telling it the way it is.

Anonymous said...

The old neocon agenda, tell me,goodgrief, when Harper and his cabinet go to your kids school, what does he say to them exactly?
It's really tough right now with all the anti-gay ads Harper is putting on the T.V.
It's that bloody hidden agenda, the one that is so hidden it does not exist.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous #2,
Neither Stephen Harper nor a member of his cabinet has been to the school in person - they do restrict their public appearances to preconceived receptive audiences don't they - but their virtual presence is starting to permeate throughout in a certain segment's reaction towards all "Arts" students, regardless of orientation.
Why are you making your comment? Does it have anything to do with your own experience vis a vis what Simon posted? Do you have first hand knowledge of the trials that gay youth endure every day, increasingly so since the minority government and the subsequent "gay marriage" vote? Are you aware of the nastiness they had to endure before, that has become hell lately? Do you care for children - all children regardless of colour, religion, sexual orientation? If you can not answer yes to all these questions then you have no place in the discussion. If you are just commenting to make cheap points with your friends, then I pity you. If not, then I have obviously misread your intentions and if so, I apologize.

Anonymous said...

Goodgrief, way up on the high-horse, yes I do have first hand knowledge and experience, more than you could believe.
Apology accepted.

Anonymous said...

the issues that hit us hardest as kids are the ones we tend to stand up for the most as adults.....it's a natural. this is 'your cause', simon....part of your purpose in life. learn it, grow from it, be proud, be your sovereign self.

jj is right in that you are an idealist. so am i. as idealists we have to learn to seperate our ideals from reality and practical solutions. sometimes it's a challenge :D

keep on a'bloggin' , your style, and nurture your growing pains. love ya!!!

Simon said...

Hi JJ! thanks for the encouragement...yeah I think I'm an impatient idealist...But I do believe that in the end good will triumph...if only because it has too or we'll all be fucked. Since I wrote that I noticed a really good anti-bully ad on tv that really cheered me up :)
Even if old prejudices die hard...

Hi anonymous...I wish I was as optimistic as you are about gay rights. But some of the things you say are probably true. Although if I am a bit hard it's because at one time I had to be, and as for paranoia...these days it's almost a heightened sense of consciousness. But I know what you mean about the bully trap. How unfortunately some bullied people become bullies themselves.I once fell into it, but I got out quickly and now I'm not interested in hurting anyone.But I won't lie down and take it either...I don't see myself as a victim...but surely everyone can agree that bullied kids are worth fighting for...

Hi Good Grief...nice to hear from you again.I hope everything is good with you.
I think you're right...in the end the kids will make a difference. And don't worry I'll never give up...Sometimes I get angry...and then I get discouraged...but then I pick myself up and go back to fighting for what I believe in...and the fact is when it comes to the way we treat our kids...those in schools and those caught up in the juvenile system...isn't good enough. And thanks for saying I'd make a good parent. I admire good parents a lot. But I don't think I'm father material.Any child of mine would never want for love and support...but as for organization and discipline...I'm afraid I find it hard enough just raising a dog!! :)

Hi Bruce!! Sorry to get you going. Although I have to admit I do enjoy reading the result :)
I like what you said about helping the victims to not feel so alone. Like you I haven't found enough resources out there to help those victims. Although I must say I have recently seen more media reports, ads, and articles than I have seen in some time.And a teacher in BC sent me a list of projects they have on the go there...so there are some bright spots out there.I'm going to try to do more research...and in the meantime keep writing to MPs and school boards to find out what they are doing...and things like numbers or websites kids can get in contact with to seek help.
But as you point out its a complex problem. I suspect that our lumberjack culture...where you can get ten stitches across the face and still go back in the game...has something to do with it.
We need to take an honest look at ourselves.... and the values we teach our children... before we can even hope to end the problem...

Hi Scoutie!! Thanks for the wise words...so bang on as usual. I will try to learn from it and grow.
I'm interested in so many other causes where injustice and violence rear their ugly heads. But I always keep coming back to that one.So maybe I do see the world in terms of victims and bullies.I hate to see the powerful abusing the less powerful...instead of using their strength for good.
But I am your (apprentice) Spirit Warrior. And we will win!!! :)