|
Quote:
http://www.dallasvoice.com/teens-sui...t-1046116.html |
my guess, AtLast, is that teachers dont get involved because 1) they have similiar values as the bullies or 2) they themselves were bullied and are afraid to step in or 3) are so caught up in their role as educator that they cant see how it has changed over the decades to include sociological patrol.
I was screaming statistics about how homosexuality was the NUMBER ONE reason for adolescent suicide in the 80s and 90s. Hell, I even presented workshops at national conferences for youth leaders. I bombarded 4H with information on creating safe environments for gay youth to feel comfortable participating. What did it get me>? A county wide hate crime directed at me and my daughter. The state wouldnt back me when I demanded that I was working in a hostile environment. This is going to be a hot topic until people and organizations get the damn balls to stand up to the bullies and take legal action. |
The NFL will be sporting pink gear this Sunday to raise awareness of breast cancer.
There will be pink ribbons on the footballs, the players will have pink chin cups and towels, and refs will have pink whistles, all part of a Breast Cancer Awareness campaign. |
Published on The Root (http://www.theroot.com)
Home > The NAACP Reaches Out to Gay-Rights Groups -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The NAACP Reaches Out to Gay-Rights Groups By: Cord Jefferson Posted: September 28, 2010 at 12:06 AM With an upcoming march on Washington, D.C., providing the opening, Ben Jealous is leading the civil rights group into an era of greater cooperation with the LGBT community. He told The Root why he has a personal stake in the effort. On Sept. 22, Benjamin T. Jealous, the charismatic head of the NAACP, made history. On that Wednesday, Jealous spoke at Manhattan's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center in Greenwich Village to promote the upcoming One Nation Working Together march on Washington, D.C. It was the first time in history that a current NAACP president has visited an LGBT center. Jeffrey Campagna, head of the LGBT desk for One Nation Working Together, called it "an indication of the true coalition that One Nation Working Together represents, and the true opportunity this is for the LGBT movement to join with labor groups and other civil rights groups to advance our agenda." In 1999, while still president of the NAACP, Kweisi Mfume spoke at the annual dinner for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights organization, but under Jealous, the now century-old NAACP is ramping up its LGBT coalition building more than ever before. Last year the NAACP came out against California's Proposition 8, the recently overturned ballot initiative banning gay marriage. And in July, at its annual national convention, the NAACP rolled out an LGBT Equality Taskforce, a seven-member committee designed to stay on top of justice issues within the gay community. But it seems as if these activities may have been merely preludes to the upcoming One Nation Working Together march. Led by the NAACP, the Oct. 2 event will find President Jealous and his colleagues stepping out with more than two dozen LGBT partner organizations, an unprecedented showing of public support for gay-rights activists of every stripe. A Schism in the Black Community For people like Newsweek columnist Jeninne Lee-St. John, who once argued that the fight for black civil rights and the fight for gay rights are "strikingly similar," the NAACP's newfound LGBT partnership isn't just sensible, it's long overdue. So what took so long? "To be honest with you, our African-American community is in a schism," says Donna Payne, associate director of diversity for the HRC. "[Some African-American leaders] smile at you and don't want to say anything bad, but they won't include you in anything. That's the reality." In October of last year, nearly 65 percent of African Americans believed homosexuality to be "morally wrong," according to the Pew Research Center, while only 48 percent of whites felt the same way. In a nation in which the black community is vastly more religious than the country as a whole, African Americans have a tendency to take cues about morality from their religious leaders, many of whom -- like embroiled Bishop Eddie Long -- speak openly and fervently against homosexuality. The result is the perplexing schism of which Payne speaks: a black community that overwhelmingly supports progressive Democratic politicians while simultaneously not tolerating gays. According to Payne, the NAACP's attempt to walk that fine line of propriety for years saw it adopt an unofficial "Don't ask, don't tell" culture like the one currently flagging in the American armed forces. "It's like we know you're there, but don't talk about it," she says. A New Attitude, and a Personal Stake Enter Ben Jealous. Though Jealous told The Root that he "doesn't want to take too much credit" for the NAACP's hard pivot toward full acceptance of gay rights as civil rights, Payne, who's been with the HRC for more than a decade, says the change has been "100 percent" about Jealous' leadership. "Before Jealous, there was a lot of talk and no movement," she says. Jealous, who began his tenure in 2008 at the age of 35, is the youngest NAACP president in the organization's history, making him part of a generation of people who favor homosexual rights markedly more than their elders. What is less well-known than Jealous' northern-California roots, however, is that he has a gay brother (whom he did not name), whom he calls "the person closest to me in the world." This relationship has given Jealous a glimpse into the very comparable struggles of gays and African Americans, as well as the way the two classifications can augment each other when paired. "When [my brother] has been beaten up by the cops," says Jealous, "it's been very clear that it's both because he's black and gay." Though black leaders like Julian Bond -- the chairman of the NAACP, until this year -- have in the past made a strong case for African-American support for gay rights, none have used the tremendous power and gravitas of the NAACP as well as Jealous, whose youth and personal experiences make him uniquely prepared to usher the NAACP into an America that's increasingly tolerant of homosexuality. Entwined Struggles Jealous is certainly also aware that it makes tactical sense for racial-justice advocates to partner with gay-rights groups. According to a new study (pdf) from the Applied Research Center, people of color, especially LGBT ones, are significantly hurt when blacks and gays don't work together: LGBT people of color are harmed by the perceived split between communities of color and LGBT communities. Dozens of young, local organizations serving LGBT people of color do exist, but they are virtually invisible, poorly supported and often too busy providing critical health and human services to engage deeply in education and organizing for policy change. To that end, Jealous is clear that One Nation Working Together will find him marching for the empowerment of all people, black, white or gay. "The person who stands in my position needs to be prepared to stand up for the civil rights of everybody," says Jealous. "And it's now my job to make sure there are no second-class citizens in this economy." One Nation Working Together has the pursuit of jobs and economic stability at its core, two issues that might finally bridge the divide between African-American groups and gay-rights groups, once and for all. Although the plight of black workers in a discriminatory job market has existed for centuries, relatively recent developments like the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, and conservative pushback against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) -- proposed legislation that would protect LGBT individuals from workplace discrimination -- have called into question the job security of gays more than ever before. Luckily for Jealous and his colleagues, if there's one issue that will rally disparate groups in the currently lackluster economy, it's money. Stacey Long, the federal legislative director at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, says that her group jumped at the opportunity to work with the NAACP to promote job growth, specifically because, in so many minority communities, one hardship cascades into many more. "One of the things that we do when we're working on legislation or policy matters is we fit it through the lens of racial and social justice," she says. "For instance, if we're talking about the impact that ENDA will have once it's passed, we're thinking about the countless numbers of [people of color] who will be able to maintain their jobs because they won't be fired on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. And those are individuals who are sometimes supporting their families. And in some instances, they'll be taking care of their extended-family members, as well. These are entire minority families that we're helping keep out of poverty." Jealous says that Saturday's march will be a success if it "lifts up the need for our entire country to focus intently on job creation and ensure every child has access to an excellent education." Whether that will happen remains to be seen. But the coalition building that's already taken place between the NAACP and the LGBT community seems built to last. Payne says that she has already discussed with NAACP representatives how best to reach out to the black community about the AIDS epidemic, and Long says that internal meetings have made her optimistic about future dealings with the NAACP. "[The NAACP] has made it very clear that the table is open and it's diverse and it's wide and all are welcome," she says. "And they're going to make sure that we stay of one accord." An NAACP insider speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the topic says that, as of now, the organization has no plans to come out in full support of gay marriage. But sometimes change takes time, and Jealous hopes that One Nation Working Together will be a big step forward. "Marches are important because … people make new friendships," he says. "They find common ground and make a commitment to work together." Cord Jefferson is a staff writer at The Root. http://www.theroot.com/views/naacp-r...roups?page=0,1 |
Quote:
I remember when a LTR partner and myself were called lesbos by some neighborhood kids in the first home we bought together. These were the exact same kinds of words their father used when speaking of us around his children. I confronted him about it. I was not going to take this from him or his kids. I did not go ballistic, just said that as an adult and a homeowner (one that paid property taxes that support the schools his kids attended), I was not going to listen to this from a bunch of 10 year olds. I told him be ought to be ashammed of promoting disrespectful behavior around his (and other) kids concerning adults. This was the only framework this guy was going to get- going on about gays and lesbians would have only gotten things going in another direction. And, hey, as if it was going to do any good- his anti-gay and lesbian feelings were not going to change. But, he got the disrespect of adults thing. I had to do the tax garbage stuff to just get to the what this guy would actually understand. Although, being a person that does pay taxes and yet, does not have the same civil rights as others does piss me off. |
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The death of a Rutgers University freshman stirred outrage and remorse among classmates who said they wished they could have stopped the teen from jumping off a bridge after secret video of his sexual encounter with a man was streamed online.
Tyler Clementi, 18, jumped off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River last week. His body was identified Thursday after being found in the river a day before. "Had he been in bed with a woman, this would not have happened," said Rutgers student Lauren Felton, 21, of Warren. "He wouldn't have been outed via an online broadcast, and his privacy would have been respected and he might still have his life." Clementi had just started at Rutgers, which bills itself as the state university of New Jersey, and was a talented violinist whose life revolved around music, friends and mentors said. "Musically, Tyler was destined for greatness," childhood friend Mary Alcaro, who played in a summer music academy with him, said Thursday in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "I've never heard anyone make a violin sing the way he did." Ed Schmiedecke, the recently retired music director at Ridgewood High School, from which Clementi graduated this year, called Clementi "a terrific musician, and a very promising, hardworking young man." Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, and fellow Rutgers freshman Molly Wei, both 18, have been charged with invading Clementi's privacy. Middlesex County prosecutors say that they used a webcam to surreptitiously transmit a live image of Clementi having sex Sept. 19 and that Ravi tried to webcast a second encounter on Sept. 21, the day before Clementi's suicide. Collecting or viewing sexual images without consent is a fourth-degree crime, and transmitting them is a third-degree crime with a maximum prison term of five years. A lawyer for Ravi, of Plainsboro, did not immediately return a message seeking comment, and it was unclear whether Wei, of Princeton, had retained a lawyer. A spokesman for the Middlesex County prosecutor's office didn't return messages inquiring whether there could be additional charges, and experts diverged on the potential for the pair to face more severe charges in light of Clementi's apparent suicide. Parry Aftab, who runs the website WiredSafety, said it's possible the classmates could be prosecuted for violating Clementi's civil rights. "If these kids could get away with one privacy law violation, that would be a sin," she said. But former assistant Essex County prosecutor Luanne Peterpaul said such a prosecution was unlikely because the federal government doesn't recognize sexual orientation as a protected class. Peterpaul, vice chairwoman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, said prosecutors might be able to pursue the case as a hate crime if they could establish that the defendants were motivated to act because they perceived Clementi as gay. But that can be hard to prove, she said. A lawyer for Clementi's family has not responded to requests for comment on whether Clementi was open about his sexual orientation. |
and bullies have heroes
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
Glynn |
First potentially habitable planet found
This is one of those oh WOW science moments that only astronomy delivers. 20 light years from us, there is a red dwarf star named Gliese 581 and one of its planets is in what is called the 'Goldilocks zone'. Around any given star there will be one or more orbits that is neither too hot or too cold for liquid water. As far as we know, life requires liquid water (there are other options, methane could take the place of water and silicon the place of carbon) and so a planet that could sustain liquid water is one criteria we would look for in a habitable planet. The other thing about this planet which is, for now, named Gliese 581-g, is that it is tide-locked with its star. What this means is that the planet doesn't turn on its own axis. One side of the planet is in perpetual daylight and the other in perpetual darkness. The effect of this is that the climate is stable. Life can handle shifts in climate but not a truly chaotic climate.
Full article from NASA is http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/...1_feature.htmlhere. One more thing; contemplate, if you will, just how cool it is that we have gotten to a place where we can not only detect other planets but can now actually begin to tell some things about them. To understand how remarkable a feat this is, remember that this planet is 20 light years from us. In miles that is a bit shy of 118 trillion miles! (117,569,761,144,207 miles to be a bit more precise) Say what you will about us hairless chimps, but there's no arguing that we ARE clever. Cheers Aj |
This one is really sad, to die so young without even getting a chance to live because of bullies and being gay.
Parents: 13-year-old son driven to suicide by ruthless bullying at school http://www.khou.com/?nTar=OPUR&iq_id=5612805 by Lisa Chavarria / 11 News khou.com Posted on September 29, 2010 at 3:18 PM Updated yesterday at 5:47 PM HOUSTON – A local mom and stepdad say their 13-year-old son committed suicide because of ruthless bullying at his junior high school. Asher Brown killed himself last Thursday. His mother, Amy Truong, said her son recently realized that he was gay. She said that, along with his religion, made him a target for bullies at Hamilton Junior High. "They would insult him because he was Buddhist, and they would call him ‘booty boy’ and try to link the two together between Buddhism and homosexuality," Truong said. Truong and her husband, David, said Brown endured verbal and physical abuse. They said they tried to contact the school about the bullying, but their cries fell on deaf ears. Amy and David Truong believe Brown as literally pushed to the edge. "This bully, we can’t say his name, deliberately tripped Asher down … two flights of stairs," David Truong said. According to other students, Brown told the bully, "You better apologize, or I’m gonna kill myself." Those words haunt his parents. Amy and David Truong said they always thought their son would come to them when something was wrong. "We’re still trying to piece together everything that happened to him that we didn’t know before," Amy Truong said. Meanwhile, they’re speaking out about the consequences of bullying. They say actions that could be brushed off as a childhood rite of passage can sometimes have tragic consequences. "These kids don’t deserve this, they don’t. And I can’t do anything to save mine anymore, but if I can help somebody else, I want to. I know Asher would want to. He was a good boy. He was such a good boy," Amy Truong said. In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD said the district’s counseling and psychological teams would be expanding crisis services for students at Hamilton. "The district, together with the Hamilton community, is saddened by the death of Asher Brown," the statement read. "A district administrative team is conducting a thorough and involved investigation into the allegations of bullying that have been made since the death of Asher Brown. Although the investigation is not completed, the initial findings indicate that Asher’s personal and family histories were very complicated." |
U.S. apologizes to Guatemalans for 1940s STD experiment
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/10/0...alans-for.html CROSENBERG@MIAMIHERALD.COM The Obama administration apologized Friday for a ``clearly unethical'' 1940s U.S. government experiment that infected Guatemalan prisoners with venereal disease in the name of public health research. |
Quote:
And the fact of the matter is that the US looked the other way for a very long time at what was going on in Europe for Jews (medical experimentation as well as the genocide) and other groups of people. So often, the people in glass houses that throw stones comes to mind. |
and yes the US did the same to our own POC here in the states, STD experiments.
Quote:
|
Man Attacks 14 Year Old Girl For Carrying Rainbow Flag
La Crosse, Wisconsin – A 14 year old girl on rollerblades was getting ready to march in the Maple Leaf Parade with the LGBT Resource Center’s float, she was carrying a rainbow/American flag hybrid. But it got ugly when Mark Schneider ran up, grabbed the flag, pushed her and screamed, “Go to a country where they will hang people like you.” |
Quote:
|
Some positive news in the Toronto papers in the last few days:
Prostitution laws struck down by Ont. court http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/sto...on-law028.html Toronto-born researcher pioneers new method of creating stem cells http://www.thestar.com/article/86845...ing-stem-cells |
Quote:
Blood = boiling. |
Windy City Times
Yet another gay suicide—this time in R.I. News update Friday, Oct. 1, 2010 Raymond Chase, a student at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., committed suicide by hanging himself in a residence hall Sept. 29, according to a press release from Campus Pride. According to the Huffington Post, Johnson & Wales Vice President Ronald Martel e-mailed students, "Today I contact you with the deeply sad news of the passing of Raymond Chase, sophomore, 19, culinary arts major. The campus community is mourning the loss of this vibrant young man who leaves many JWU friends and teachers, and a loving family of Monticello, New York. Shane Windmeyer, executive director and founder of Campus Pride, said, "The loss of Raymond this week is the second college LGBT-related suicide in a week and the fifth teenage LGBT suicide in three weeks. The suicide of this openly gay young man is for reasons currently unknown; however, the recent pattern of LGBT youth suicides is cause for grave concern. "Campus Pride demands national action be taken to address youth bullying, harassment and the need for safety and inclusion for LGBT youth at colleges and universities across the country. We must not let these tragic deaths go unnoticed. Together we must act decisively to curb anti-LGBT bias incidents, harassment and acts of violence." Johnson & Wales, founded in 1914, has four campuses in Providence; Denver, Colo.; North Miami, Fla.; and Charlotte, N.C. The university is known for "combining academics and practical skills with relevant work experiences and community service," according to its website. |
And another.
Two lesbian youth found dead in Orangeville (Ontario) Quote:
Quote:
|
Currently the awareness of the LGBTQI youth suicides is on the radar so to speak. If any of you are active in youth and/or LGBTQI community service, please ask your organization how are they addressing this issue? I am sure that at Butch Voices, Los Angeles, this will be brought up by participants at the conference. Thanks.
|
Rutgers suicide or something else?
From People Magazine -
On Sept. 21, the day before he committed suicide, Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi was apparently angry that his roommate, Dharun Ravi, had allegedly recorded him kissing another man in his dorm room – and broadcast the encounter online. Postings on the Web site Justusboys.com's message board, which appear to have been written by Clementi under the alias "cit2mo," document his feelings and actions in the hours leading up to his Sept. 22 suicide. "I'm kinda pissed at him," Clementi apparently wrote about his roommate on Sept. 21. "It would be nice to get him into trouble ... I feel like the only thing the school might do is find me another roommate ... and I'd probably just end up with somebody worse than him." "I mean aside from being an a–––e from time to time, he's a pretty decent roommate." While many questions remain, Clementi's apparent online postings, which seem to follow a realistic timeline of events, reveal a young man who was struggling with what actions to take next. In a Sept. 21 post, Clementi, 18, expressed his anger, writing on the message board, "the fact that the people he was with saw my making out with a guy as the scandal, whereas I mean come on...he was SPYING ON ME...do they see something wrong with this?" But later that evening, he wrote, "Revenge never ends well for me. As much as I would love to pour pink paint all over his stuff … that would just let him win." Final Hours On Sept. 22, Clementi logged back on to the site at 4:38 a.m. with an update. "So I wanted to have the guy over again. I texted roomie around 7 asking for the room later tonite and he said it was fine," he wrote. "When I got back to the room, I instantly noticed he had turned the webcam toward my bed and he had posted online again … saying...'Anyone want a free show just video chat with me tonight.' " Then, Clementi apparently decided to get help. "I ran to the nearest R.A. and set this thing in motion," he wrote. "We'll see what happens." In a post two hours later, he wrote that his residence assistant took his concerns seriously. "He asked me to email him a written paragraph about exactly what happened," Clementi wrote. "I emailed it to him and to two people above him." Later that night, though, Clementi drove onto the George Washington Bridge, parked his car and posted his final message on Facebook: "Jumping off the gw bridge. Sorry." He then walked a mile onto the span and jumped to his death at approximately 8:50 p.m. Clementi's body was found in the Hudson River and identified on Thursday. Meanwhile, the two Rutgers freshman, Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, have each been charged with two counts each of invasion of privacy for "using the camera to view and transmit a live image." ------------------------------------------------------------------ This has been eating at me since I read it. Anyone else wondering if there is more to this than meets the eye? Or are my jaundiced social worker instincts on overload? |
Quote:
Between this and the numbers of suicides/bullying cases/hate crimes, why arn't we organizing nationwide (Canada too) and stoping this! It is time we all broke through the barriers that keep all of the factions within the entire LGBTIQ umbrella splintered, raised money as a whole and joined forces to combat this stuff. Our divisions and inability to recognize, respect and honor each other combine as our worst enemy And this division is just what the hate mongers want- "divide and conquer."queer sexualities of ever persuasion, religious queers, conservatives, libertarians, moderates, liberals, progressives.... all of us!! Every sub-grouping among us needs to deal with this as one. Gay men, lesbians, lesbian-feminists, the transgendered, intergendered people, all of we making-up the B -F spectrum... (add any other group you like) ALL of us need to stop going at each other and organize as one, unified Queer Nation!! United we stand, Divided, we fall.. and fall, and fall, and some of us die. I just know if we thought about the petty BS that keeps scattered, we could let go of it and get something done... like saves lives for one! |
Bullied Tehachapi gay teen Seth Walsh dies after suicide attempt Seth Walsh was an ordinary everyday kid who just wanted to live his life except there were cruel kids around him who won't let him. Why you ask? Walsh was a young gay kid and there were kids that would not stop tormenting him while school officials ignored the problem despite being aware of the bullying. Walsh as s 13-year-old student at the Jacobsen Middle School in Tehachapi, Kern County, California. On September 19, Walsh hanged himself from a tree in his backyard. Walsh did not die immediately and was discovered and taken to a hospital where he was placed in life support critical care. Seth Walsh from Tehachapi, California finally died Tuesday afternoon after clinging on life support for nine days. During the investigation many students acknowledged that Seth Walsh was in distress due to bullying over a long period of time because Walsh was gay. In spite of an anti-bullying program mentioned by school, the school officials nor the school board (more on the politically inept school board later) didn't intervene to stop the bullying and mental torture of Seth Walsh. It's ironic that the principal of the Jacobsen Middle School Susan Ortega proudly claims that she has a B.A. in Child and Family Crisis. Apparently Seth Walsh was a crisis Ortega did not see. Police investigated and interviewed Jacobsen Middle School staff and students regarding the death of Seth Walsh but found that the no crime was committed and there would be no charges in the death of Seth Walsh. Walsh's friends did a video for him while he was on life support. Seth Walsh, may you rest in peace. As far as the principal and staff in Tehachapi Jocobsen Middle School are concerned, I hope everyone there has learned a lesson to listen for cries of help. Listening and acting on bullying could be a matter of life or death. The death of Seth Walsh is the third recent incident of suicide due to anti-gay bullying in schools. Asher Brown, 13, of Texas and Billy Lucas, 15 of Indiana also committed suicide due to bullying. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/...#ixzz11QEHMXQJ |
Quote:
Think they killed him? |
Quote:
|
America: the National Catholic Weekly- group blog "What is a Catholic response to Gay Suicide"
It's impossible not to be moved by the terrible stories of the five youths who recently took their own lives because they were being harassed as gays and lesbians. In New York the story of Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers freshman who was filmed having a romantic encounter with another man, which was them live-streamed by his "friends," seemed particularly harrowing. A despairing Clementi, age 18, ended his life by jumping off of the George Washington Bridge. Any suicide is an unspeakable tragedy, just as any murder of any kind is a tragedy, but there is something especially sad about a young person believing that their life will never be, or can never be, better. The Christian heart is, as Jesus's heart was, "moved with pity." This rash of deaths has prompted a response, especially on college campuses, and the "It Gets Better" project, which has adult gays and lesbians reminding youth that as one matures "it gets better." Essentially, it is an argument against despair and suicide. Sadly, many of the people interviewed speak of overcoming the hatred that they felt in Christian churches, schools and other organizations. [...] It's a sad irony, because there is one life-changing resource in the Christian tradition that can transform those who feel unloved--that is, Jesus. The Son of God reached out specifically to those on the margins, specifically to those who felt rejected, specifically to those who felt excluded from the community. For Jesus, as the theologian James Alison has written, there was no "other." And there is much in the Catholic tradition in particular that can help gays and lesbians as well. [...] Those places in our tradition might all be good places to start when it comes to outreach, especially with youth (and not just with gay and lesbian youth, but with all who feel excluded). And if pro-life means trying to avoid anything that will threaten any life, from natural conception to natural death, then we should be finding ways to protect all life, which also means preventing suicides, and preventing gay suicides. In any event, there is much for us, the church, still to do. |
very interesting
|
Quote:
I agree. There is so much to consider. Something that keeps coming up for me about all of the youth sucides relating to queerdom, is just thinking about the very big difference public humiliation as it is experienced by young people as oppossed to older people. There have many things in my life that when a teen or young adult that I would have been mortified about if made public. As an adult with more life's experience and just a better sense of self, these kinds of things took on different perspectives and I couldn't care less about public opinion. My ego-strength developed along the way like it does with we humans. These kids are just not there yet which is totally "normal." Yet, something else is going on at the moment they feel killing themselves is the answer. My heart is just deeply disturbed by all of this and the lack of getting at all of what these kids experienced to push them over the edge. It isn't a single event, they have been suffering for awhile. What other things have failed them? And what can we all do to stop the harrassment and hatred? I keep thinking about my early years in secondary education and a counselor I knew. She had been and English teacher before and had students write in journals. This would have been in the late 60's and she was a new teacher in her mid-20's. One male student wrote about his sexuality as being gay in his journal along with info about his torment. Later, he hung himself. This teacher turned counselor lived with this- she didn't attempt to talk to this kid about his journal entries at all. She had her own homophobia keeping her from this. Later, she herself, took her own life years after this all happened. I had left the district but remembered talking to her about depression and getting some help. She did do this, but...... Oh, and menopause was blammed for her suicide...... ARGH!!! |
Quote:
i hope folks keep turning up the volume until maybe these folks realize the part they have in this... in kathy griffins video she spoke about the blood of these kids being on [their] hands... it is so true... and they pass out platitudes like... *oh... dang... we gotta show them what jesus thought so they will stop doing this... its a shame for any life to be lost... even fukd up ones...* and yeah... i know that isnt what they said... but goddammit i am mad... i am so tired of this happening to kids... other kids are so cruel... and the most sensitive have to deal with the cruelty... and.. then... they cant even turn to adults to reassure themselves... i am beside myself on this one... |
Quote:
i only posted this because the Catholic church, although it has miles to go, is actually miles ahead of the Baptist church in terms of teaching respect for GLBT people and teaching against prejudice or discrimination. They just need to get over that little birth control hurdle and that oppresses way more straight people than us.... (of course our current pope would cause one to assume the opposite, and i would never defend the catholic hierarchy as a whole, but the academics who wrote the catechism paint a vastly different picture of the faith than its public face does- it is universally the case that academic theology and popular practice bear little resemblance to each other, even in the Baptist church) i did a news search looking for Christian responses to the issue and the Catholic church was the only one of the mainline churches that has said anything at all on an unrelated note- i am in Houston and Cypress, where Asher Brown lived and died, is part of our metroplex. The media here have been overwhelmingly sympathetic to Asher and his family and aggressively pushing the school district for action. It has been the top news story every night. It is heartening, but tragic that it took something like this and yesterday, my super-Christian, tea party lovin, Obama hatin aunt shared ellen's link on facebook. i almost cried. |
"Never Leave a Man To Do a Woman's Job"
Woodward: VP Hillary 'on the table'
By: Carol E. Lee October 6, 2010 12:57 AM EDT Speculating that President Barack Obama will replace Vice President Joe Biden with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the 2012 ticket has been a private pastime among some Democrats over the past few months, and it broke into the open Tuesday night when investigative reporter Bob Woodward said in an interview on CNN it was a possibility. Appearing on "John King, USA" to promote his book “Obama’s Wars,” Woodward was asked by King about possible “political asides” that cropped up while he was doing research. “A lot of people think if the president's a little weak going into 2012, he'll have to do a switch there and run with Hillary Clinton as his running mate,” King said, repeating gossip that’s swirled for several months and appeared from time to time on blogs. “It's on the table,” Woodward replied. “And some of Hillary Clinton's advisers see it as a real possibility in 2012. President Obama needs some of the women, Latinos, retirees that she did so well with during the 2008 primaries. So they switch jobs and [it's] not out of the question. The other interesting question is, Hillary Clinton could run in her own right in 2016 and be younger than Ronald Reagan when he was elected president.” Woodward did not offer any evidence that the idea is under consideration by either Obama or Clinton. A senior administration official said that any suggestion of replacing Biden with the secretary of state is totally off base. Obama is happy with Biden as his vice president and Clinton as his secretary of state, the official told POLITICO, “and he wants them to keep on doing what they’re doing.” One Democratic source said that the rumor has been circulating among some of Clinton’s longtime supporters. Another Democratic Party source with ties to the Clintons said, “There's so many rumors going around. But I don't believe this is true.” In addition to being talked about as Obama’s running mate in 2012, POLITICO reported in May that some of Clinton’s allies have floated the notion that she should replace Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the Pentagon when he makes his long-planned exit from the administration. Maggie Haberman contributed to this report. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43192.html |
Puerto Rico - FBI charges 133 in its biggest crackdown ever on corrupt cops
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/06/...rrests/?hpt=T1 |
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10...ild.samaritan/
Quick-thinking Good Samaritan saved a kid from her abductor in Fresno A construction carpenter by trade until work slowed down, Perez has been recently cutting wine grapes, earning minimum wage. Early Tuesday, there was a light rain, making that task unlikely. Perez, 29, tuned in to television news coverage of the abduction, paying attention to the description and video of the suspect's pickup truck. At about 6:45 a.m., Perez was outside his house talking with his cousin about the abduction when they saw a vehicle matching that description: an older-model, reddish-brown Chevrolet with a white stripe on the side. "I thought, that could be the truck," Perez, a father of two boys, told CNN Tuesday night. That's when he sprang into action. He jumped into his 1988 white Ford pickup and followed the vehicle. Perez tried to cut off the vehicle several times to question the driver. One time, the driver told him, "I don't have no time [to talk]. My battery is dying." The second time Perez pulled up to the Chevy, he saw the little girl, her head popping up from below view, and knew something was wrong. "I kept telling him, 'That's not your little girl,'" said Perez. "We argued. We exchanged words." Perez -- who admitted he did wonder at some point whether the motorist had a gun -- pulled up to the truck a third, and then a fourth time, when he blocked the pickup truck. Immediately after the truck stopped, the girl was out. Perez said he believes the driver pushed her out. "I was beyond scared," he said. Perez got out of his vehicle and stayed with the girl. She was wearing a Winnie the Pooh sweater, he said. The chase had taken him about a mile from his house and into another neighborhood. He yelled for residents to get the girl a blanket. The Chevy drove off. By then, Perez had a partial license plate number, which he gave to dispatchers, Police Chief Jerry Dyer said. About 40 minutes later, police caught up with the truck, now parked, and arrested Gregorio Gonzalez, 24, of Fresno. Charges against him will include kidnapping, false imprisonment and sexual assault, Dyer said. The suspect was not armed. Police, officials and the parents of the girl praised Perez and other good Samaritans and citizens who aided the search and took action to find the girl. "This is a remarkable accomplishment for an entire community," Mayor Ashley Swearengin said. Perez said the incident was beginning to sink in Tuesday night. "I probably saved a little girl's life." The question arises: What would have happened if Perez had gone to work this day? He quoted a relative who said divine providence might have stepped in. "God works in mysterious ways." |
A noisy workplace doubles the risk of heart disease
http://www.latimes.com/health/booste...,1476439.story Years spent in a noisy workplace may take a toll on both hearing and heart health. A study published Wednesday found that persistent noise in the workplace doubled the chances of an employee developing serious heart disease. Previous studies that have looked at the effect of loud noise on the heart have produced mixed results. For the new study, researchers examined a database of more than 6,000 employees ages 20 and older who were surveyed about lifestyle, occupation and*health. The participants were grouped according to those who endured loud noise at work (meaning it was difficult to talk at a normal volume) for at least three months and those who did not experience loud noise. The study found 21% of workers, mostly men, endured noisy workplaces. They were two to three times more likely to have heart disease compared with workers who did not experience noise. The workers who endured loud noise also were more likely to smoke and weigh more than workers who experienced quieter environments. But noise emerged as a risk factor for heart disease even when controlling for those other risk factors. The authors of the study, published online in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, speculate that noise exerts the same kind of stress on the body as sudden strong emotion or physical exertion. These kinds of stress trigger the release of chemicals that constrict blood flow through the arteries. The study has some flaws. For example, the researchers couldn't rule out that the increased risk of heart disease in an noisy workplace wasn't also due to other factors, such as air pollution, shift work or workload. But the research does suggest persistent loud noise can effect health and "deserves special attention," the authors said. It's also a risk factor that would seem fairly easy to remedy with a good pair of ear plugs or a protective head set. -- Shari Roan / Los Angeles Times |
Students Lie Down To Stand Up Against Homophobia
Furman University Event Supports Gay Community Mandy Gaither, WYFF News 4 Reporter POSTED: 9:00 pm EDT October 6, 2010 UPDATED: 9:22 pm EDT October 6, 2010 GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. -- In light of recent suicides of young men bullied because of their sexual orientation, some Furman University students and staff sent out a message of support to the gay community. Around 50 of them laid down outside the campus library Wednesday to stand up for those who have killed themselves. Signs with pictures of Billy Lucas, Seth Walsh, Tyler Clementi, Asher Brown and Raymond Chase were held during the event. All of the young male students have killed themselves since early September after reportedly being bullied or harassed because of their sexual orientation. While Furman hasn’t had the tragedies other schools have felt recently, Dusty Roether, the president of the campus organization EROS, which stands for Encouraging Respect of Sexualities, said some students have transferred in the past after feeling harassed at the school. "If something like this can happen at Rutgers then something like this can certainly happen at Furman," said Roether. "If we can't even feel comfortable on our own campus, then something needs to be done." Flyers were also passed out during the event to tell people who passed by what was going on and how each person can help achieve acceptance for the gay community. “Everyone needs to show their support for diversity and for everyone else so that these tragedies don't happen again," said Rene Travis, a student who participated in the event. Roether said EROS is holding other events on campus like Safe Zone, where students of all sexualities come together to talk about how prejudice can be reduced. Copyright 2010 by WYFF4.com. |
|
Quote:
|
Very disturbing
1 Ohio school, 4 bullied teens dead by own hand
By MEGHAN BARR (AP) – 59 minutes ago MENTOR, Ohio — Sladjana Vidovic's body lay in an open casket, dressed in the sparkly pink dress she had planned to wear to the prom. Days earlier, she had tied one end of a rope around her neck and the other around a bed post before jumping out her bedroom window. The 16-year-old's last words, scribbled in English and her native Croatian, told of her daily torment at Mentor High School, where students mocked her accent, taunted her with insults like "Slutty Jana" and threw food at her. It was the fourth time in little more than two years that a bullied high school student in this small Cleveland suburb on Lake Erie died by his or her own hand — three suicides, one overdose of antidepressants. One was bullied for being gay, another for having a learning disability, another for being a boy who happened to like wearing pink. Now two families — including the Vidovics — are suing the school district, claiming their children were bullied to death and the school did nothing to stop it. The lawsuits come after a national spate of high-profile suicides by gay teens and others, and during a time of national soul-searching about what can be done to stop it. If there has been soul-searching among the bullies in Mentor — a pleasant beachfront community that was voted one of the "100 Best Places to Live" by CNN and Money magazine this year — Sladjana's family saw too little of it at her wake in October 2008. Suzana Vidovic found her sister's body hanging over the front lawn. The family watched, she said, as the girls who had tormented Sladjana for months walked up to the casket — and laughed. "They were laughing at the way she looked," Suzana says, crying. "Even though she died." ___ Sladjana Vidovic, whose family had moved to northeast Ohio from Bosnia when she was a little girl, was pretty, vivacious and charming. She loved to dance. She would turn on the stereo and drag her father out of his chair, dance him in circles around the living room. "Nonstop smile. Nonstop music," says her father, Dragan, who speaks only a little English. At school, life was very different. She was ridiculed for her thick accent. Classmates tossed insults like "Slutty Jana" or "Slut-Jana-Vagina." A boy pushed her down the stairs. A girl smacked her in the face with a water bottle. Phone callers in the dead of night would tell her to go back to Croatia, that she'd be dead in the morning, that they'd find her after school, says Suzana Vidovic. "Sladjana did stand up for herself, but toward the end she just kind of stopped," says her best friend, Jelena Jandric. "Because she couldn't handle it. She didn't have enough strength." Vidovic's parents say they begged the school to intervene many times. They say the school promised to take care of her. She had already withdrawn from Mentor and enrolled in an online school about a week before she killed herself. When the family tried to retrieve records about their reports of bullying, school officials told them the records were destroyed during a switch to computers. The family sued in August. Two years after her death, Dragan Vidovic waves his hand over the family living room, where a vase of pink flowers stands next to a photograph of Sladjana. "Today, no music," he says sadly. "No smile." ___ Eric Mohat was flamboyant and loud and preferred to wear pink most of the time. When he didn't get the lead soprano part in the choir his freshman year, he was indignant, his mother says. He wore a stuffed animal strapped to his arm, a lemur named Georges that was given its own seat in class. "It was a gag," says Mohat's father, Bill. "And all the girls would come up to pet his monkey. And in his Spanish class they would write stories about Georges." Mohat's family and friends say he wasn't gay, but people thought he was. "They called him fag, homo, queer," says his mother, Jan. "He told us that." Bullies once knocked a pile of books out of his hands on the stairs, saying, "'Pick up your books, faggot,'" says Dan Hughes, a friend of Eric's. Kids would flick him in the head or call him names, says 20-year-old Drew Juratovac, a former student. One time, a boy called Mohat a "homo," and Juratovac told him to leave Mohat alone. "I got up and said, 'Listen, you better leave this kid alone. Just walk away,'" he says. "And I just hit him in the face. And I got suspended for it." Eric Mohat shot himself on March 29, 2007, two weeks before a choir trip to Hawaii. His parents asked the coroner to call it "bullicide." At Eric's funeral and after his death, other kids told the Mohats that they had seen the teen relentlessly bullied in math class. The Mohats demanded that police investigate, but no criminal activity was found. Two years later, in April 2009, the Mohats sued the school district, the principal, the superintendent and Eric's math teacher. The federal lawsuit is on hold while the Ohio Supreme Court considers a question of state law regarding the case. "Did we raise him to be too polite?" Bill Mohat wonders. "Did we leave him defenseless in this school?" ___ Meredith Rezak, 16, shot herself in the head three weeks after the death of Mohat, a good friend of hers. Her cell phone, found next to her body, contained a photograph of Mohat with the caption "R.I.P. Eric a.k.a. Twiggy." Rezak was bright, outgoing and a well-liked player on the volleyball team. Shortly before her suicide, she had joined the school's Gay-Straight Alliance and told friends and family she thought she might be gay. Juratovac says Rezak endured her own share of bullying — "name-calling, just stupid trivial stuff" — but nobody ever knew it was getting to her. "Meredith ended up coming out that she was a lesbian," he says. "I think much of that sparked a lot of the bullying from a lot of the other girls in school, 'cause she didn't fit in." Her best friend, Kevin Simon, doesn't believe that bullying played a role in Rezak's death. She had serious issues at home that were unrelated to school, he says. After Mohat's death, people saw Rezak crying at school, and friends heard her talk of suicide herself. A year after Rezak's death, the older of her two brothers, 22-year-old Justin, also shot and killed himself. His death certificate mentioned "chronic depressive reaction." This March, her only other sibling, Matthew, died of a drug overdose at age 21. Their mother, Nancy Merritt, lives in Colorado now. She doesn't think Meredith was bullied to death but doesn't really know what happened. On the phone, her voice drifts off, sounding disconnected, confused. "So all three of mine are gone," she says. "I have to keep breathing." ___ Most mornings before school, Jennifer Eyring would take Pepto-Bismol to calm her stomach and plead with her mother to let her stay home. "She used to sob to me in the morning that she did not want to go," says her mother, Janet. "And this is going to bring tears to my eyes. Because I made her go to school." Eyring, 16, was an accomplished equestrian who had a learning disability. She was developmentally delayed and had a hearing problem, so she received tutoring during the school day. For that, her mother says, she was bullied constantly. By the end of her sophomore year in 2006, Eyring's mother had decided to pull her out of Mentor High School and enroll her in an online school the following autumn. But one night that summer, Jennifer walked into her parents' bedroom and told them she had taken some of her mother's antidepressant pills to make herself feel better. Hours later, she died of an overdose. The Eyrings do not hold Mentor High accountable, but they believe she would be alive today had she not been bullied. Her parents are speaking out in hopes of preventing more tragedies. "It's too late for my daughter," Janet Eyring says, "but it may not be too late for someone else." ___ No official from Mentor public schools would comment for this story. The school also refused to provide details on its anti-bullying program. Some students say the problem is the culture of conformity in this city of about 50,000 people: If you're not an athlete or cheerleader, you're not cool. And if you're not cool, you're a prime target for the bullies. But that's not so different from most high schools. Senior Matt Super, who's 17, says the suicides unfairly paint his school in a bad light. "Not everybody's a good person," he says. "And in a group of 3,000 people, there are going to be bad people." StopCyberbulling.org founder Parry Aftab says this is the first time she's heard of two sets of parents suing a school at the same time for two independent cases of bullying or cyberbullying. No one has been accused of bullying more than one of the teens who died. Barbara Coloroso, a national anti-bullying expert, says the school is allowing a "culture of mean" to thrive, and school officials should be held responsible for the suicides — along with the bullies. "Bullying doesn't start as criminal. They need to be held accountable the very first time they call somebody a gross term," Coloroso says. "That is the beginning of dehumanization." Associated Press writer Jeannie Nuss in Columbus contributed to this report. Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. |
We have become a Lord of the Flies society.
Cheers Aj Quote:
|
| All times are GMT -6. The time now is 12:24 AM. |
ButchFemmePlanet.com
All information copyright of BFP 2018