This was taken from a person whose friend is the author of this letter:
"Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I've taken enough from you good people. I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric about the "homosexual agenda" and your allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same thing as advocating sex with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys of motherhood ever since my children were tiny.
My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from your moral, upright families from the time he was in the first grade. He was physically and verbally abused from first grade straight through high school because he was perceived to be gay.
He never professed to be gay or had any association with anything gay, but he had the misfortune not to walk or have gestures like the other boys. He was called "fag" incessantly, starting when he was 6.
In high school, while your children were doing what kids that age should be
doing, mine labored over a suicide note, drafting and redrafting it to be sure his family knew how much he loved them. My sobbing 17-year-old tore the heart out of me as he choked out that he just couldn't bear to continue living any longer, that he didn't want to be gay and that he couldn't face a life without dignity.
You have the audacity to talk about protecting families and children from the homosexual menace, while you yourselves tear apart families and drive children to despair. I don't know why my son is gay, but I do know that God didn't put him, and millions like him, on this Earth to give you someone to abuse. God gave you brains so that you could think, and it's about time you started doing that.
At the core of all your misguided beliefs is the belief that this could never happen to you, that there is some kind of subculture out there that people have chosen to join. The fact is that if it can happen to my family, it can happen to yours, and you won't get to choose. Whether it is genetic or whether something occurs during a critical time of fetal development, I don't know. I can only tell you with an absolute certainty that it is inborn.
If you want to tout your own morality, you'd best come up with something more substantive than your heterosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you. If you disagree, I would be interested in hearing your story, because my own heterosexuality was a blessing I received with no effort whatsoever on my part. It is so woven into the very soul of me that nothing could ever change it. For those of you who reduce sexual orientation to a simple choice, a character issue, a bad habit or something that can be changed by a 10-step program, I'm puzzled. Are you saying that your own sexual orientation is nothing more than something you have chosen, that you could change it at will? If that's not the case, then why would you suggest that someone else can?
A popular theme in your letters is that Vermont has been infiltrated by outsiders. Both sides of my family have lived in Vermont for generations. I am heart and soul a Vermonter, so I'll thank you to stop saying that you are speaking for "true Vermonters."
You invoke the memory of the brave people who have fought on the battlefield for this great country, saying that they didn't give their lives so that the "homosexual agenda" could tear down the principles they died defending. My 83-year-old father fought in some of the most horrific battles of World War II, was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart.
He shakes his head in sadness at the life his grandson has had to live. He says he fought alongside homosexuals in those battles, that they did their part and bothered no one. One of his best friends in the service was gay, and he never knew it until the end, and when he did find out, it mattered not at all. That wasn't the measure of the man.
You religious folk just can't bear the thought that as my son emerges from the hell that was his childhood he might like to find a lifelong companion and have a measure of happiness. It offends your sensibilities that he should request the right to visit that companion in the hospital, to make medical decisions for him or to benefit from tax laws governing inheritance.
How dare he? you say. These outrageous requests would threaten the very existence of your family, would undermine the sanctity of marriage. You use religion to abdicate your responsibility to be thinking human beings. There are vast numbers of religious people who find your attitudes repugnant. God is not for the privileged majority, and God knows my son has committed no sin.
The deep-thinking author of a letter to the April 12 Valley News who lectures about homosexual sin and tells us about "those of us who have been blessed with the benefits of a religious upbringing" asks: "What ever happened to the idea of striving . . . to be better human beings than we are?"
Indeed, sir, what ever happened to that?"
I can't believe people would actually do this to thier children!
This is a bit of information about how a national "ex-gay"
Christian based organization is running a program in Memphis, TN for
gay teens to be sent against their will, by their parents, to become
straight.
Queer Action Coalition (QAC) is a Memphis organization
dedicated to protesting this facility and alerting the public to their
practices">
Hello, this is an extremely important notification from the Queer
Action Coalition (QAC) informing you of a violation of queer youth
civil rights happening in Memphis, TN. Some of you may be familiar
with the ex-gay movement that originated in the 1970's. The premise of
this movement was that homosexual people could become straight
(usually through heavy prayer and fundamentalist christian scripture
rhetoric) and several organizations such as Exodus Int. and Love in
Action sprung up quickly to offer support and help to make this
change.
Happy and Gay?
Exodus and Love in Action operate under the assumption that there is
no such thing as a homosexual person, only homosexual behaviour, and
that in order for a person to live a full, truly happy life, he or she
must abstain from any homosexual desires or behavior. Without doing
so, they claim, a person may experience temporary happiness but
ultimately will live a sad and lonely life full of despair simply from
being gay.
They claim that they want to help those who are struggling with their
homosexuality and wish to be heterosexual. They state that these
people have the right to change their sexual orientation, but then
later admit that most of them have rarely met a truly happy gay person
and that they believe these people do not exist.
Gay youth?
Though many people in the gay community may see people who willingly
put themselves through this treatment as being severely misguided, it
is true that these people do have every right to make that choice.
However, two years ago Love in Action (currently located in Memphis,
TN) started a program called Refuge. Refuge is a 2 to 6 week program
for teens, many of whom are sent against their will with the threat of
being disowned or kicked out by their family. Because teenagers only
have the option of either becoming emancipated (or "divorcing" their
parents) or complying with their will, many teens attend this program
for as long as their parents see fit.
About a month ago a young man age 16 came out to his parents and was
told that he would be sent to Love in Action's Refuge program. He
wrote in his blog about his experience which, whether he realized it
or not, alerted many local teens and adults to what was happening in
Memphis. In his blog he goes into great detail about the rules of Love
in Action, how oppressive they are, and how scared and depressed he is
because of his parents reaction. The way that his parents described
his homosexuality to him made it clear that they view it as a sinful
mental illness. After reading this, the Queer Action Coalition
organized protests every morning for two weeks in front of Love in
Action's facility.
The Queer Action Coalition of Memphis TN came into existence
immediately after this young man was sent to Refuge and our goal is to
alert people to the dangers of "reparative therapy" and the
inconsistency of the ex-gay movement. This option is unfortunately
taken seriously all too often by parents who are having a difficult
time accepting their gay child, and groups like PFLAG are overlooked
and even hard to find. We aim to show the public that the practices of
LIA are dangerous and damaging when used on youth so impressionable,
especially when it was not their desire to go into such a program.
We have already received an amazing amount of local media attention,
as well as national media attention and we have been mentioned on many
of the most popular blogs. Many articles have been written in some of
the largest gay publications and this has already made international
news. Be looking out for spots in the New York Times and other
national magazines in the next month.
Good news: Because of all the negative media attention Love in Action
has received, the State of Tennessee is doing an official
investigation on the legality of their operation. This may be the
first step in a huge civil rights victory simply by giving gay youth
their rights to be gay!
For more information on QAC or Love in Action and Refuge, please visit
our website at http://www.qaconline.org or our blog at
http://fightinghomophobia.blogspot.com.
How can you help?
QAC is run by volunteers who have been offsetting the costs of running
the organization out of pocket. We now have an option on our site for
people to donate money via PayPal. We strongly encourage people who
are not in the Mid-South area to try and give a small donation if this
is possible.
If you would like QAC to do a workshop at your school, church, GLBT
organization or youth group, we have set up a speakers bureau and can
offer workshops to be done on queer youth, reparative therapy or ways
to combat homophobia. We would love to speak at any opportunity or be
interviewed.
If you have any information that you feel may be helpful, or if you
just want to know more, please contact us at
fighting.homophobia@gmail.com.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this email. We thank you
so much for your support.
Cale LeFevre
QAC
http://www.qaconline.org
http://fightinghomophobia.blogspot.com
fighting.homophobia@gmail.com
Current Mood: |
 at these crazy homophobes |
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