War on Gay Teens

[BoomerLynn]

I've been MIA for awhile but finally have time to check back on here (if one more thing in my house malfunctions I think I may officially lose it lol). Anyway, I went back a few pages and didn't see this mentioned anywhere. Has anyone read anything about this? It involves the schools in Michelle Bachmann's ( no surprise there) district. It's about the rash of teen suicides and the extreme right-wing, anti-gay views in the area.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/ne ... s-20120202

[LynnKaboom]

Yeah, I've heard about that, and it absolutely disgusts me. Some government agency (I want to say the CDC, but I don't think that's what it was) labeled it as a suicide contagion zone, and then you get Bachmann all up in the legislature trying to stop anti-bullying initiatives.

I don't give a fuck what your religious beliefs are, anyone who opposes regulations to avoid children and teens committing suicide is a fucking idiot. I'll bet you my entire salary for this next year that Bachmann doesn't know what it's like to be in such despair that you legitimately feel like the only way out is to off yourself. I don't think she understands what it's like to fear going to school every day because you know that they will be there, that it'll be a miracle if you get through another day without them doing something to you, and that even if they do do something to you that leaves marks, no one will believe you because "nice kids like that wouldn't do things like that." And this was in fucking grade school, and what I was targeted for had nothing to do with my sexual orientation (and even if it had been, I'm not a lesbian so it would have been moot). If it was bad enough for me to try to poison myself when I was in sixth grade, I can only imagine what it would have been like for a teenager targeted for their sexual orientation, instead of arbitrary shit that I can't even remember now.

This bullshit makes me so angry. Bachmann and her ilk need to experience what it's like to feel nothing but rage and despair for a while, no matter how hard you try to feel something else, and then come back and tell me they still support these laws.

(Hopefully this makes sense, I tend to get rambly on this issue).

[asinglevoice]

Stuff like this just fills me with absolute rage. I live in Michigan where, on the whole, people are pretty accepting - or so I thought, until our government passed a law that would allow bullies to be free from any sort of disciplinary action if their comments or behavior were the result of a "strongly held religious or moral conviction." Are you fucking kidding me?! How do people get away with this kind of stuff?

[BoomerLynn]

Stuff like this just fills me with absolute rage. I live in Michigan where, on the whole, people are pretty accepting - or so I thought, until our government passed a law that would allow bullies to be free from any sort of disciplinary action if their comments or behavior were the result of a "strongly held religious or moral conviction." Are you fucking kidding me?! How do people get away with this kind of stuff?

Wait, a law like this was actually passed? WTF? So does that mean if I have a strongly held moral conviction to bitch-slap the stupid off bigots like these, I should be able to do so? I wonder how long it would take to get to Michigan.......

LynnKaboom I understand where you are coming from. I was bullied from Kindergarten until graduation for one thing or another. I spent 8th through 10th grade contemplating suicide. I finally just stopped giving a shit about what other people thought and went on about my business until I finally graduated and got the hell out of there. College was a much better experience, thankfully. I'm sorry you had to endure all of that pain and I hope you are in a better place now. No one deserves to be treated like they are inferior.

[Trynn]

Stuff like this just fills me with absolute rage. I live in Michigan where, on the whole, people are pretty accepting - or so I thought, until our government passed a law that would allow bullies to be free from any sort of disciplinary action if their comments or behavior were the result of a "strongly held religious or moral conviction." Are you fucking kidding me?! How do people get away with this kind of stuff?

My state did WHAT?!

[asinglevoice]

Wait, a law like this was actually passed? WTF? So does that mean if I have a strongly held moral conviction to bitch-slap the stupid off bigots like these, I should be able to do so?

It's called "Matt's Law" or "Matt's Safe School Law", you can look it up on Google. It was signed into law on Dec. 6th; supposedly there were concessions made by Republicans on the wording of the law, but I could only find *one* article about that and it was ambiguous as to what the changes actually were.

One person had actually brought up a really good point when all the hubbub was going on, that the law would essentially protect a Christian student bullying a gay kid because it was his strong religious belief, but the rules should also equally extend to a Muslim student in Dearborn who bullies a Christian classmate because he considers her an infidel or something like that.

Needless to say, the Republicans didn't like that line of logic very much.