saw this on Milkboys...found the whole story.

thoughts...

Hi Friends;

  A comment by Miles to my last post began a thought for me....almost always a dangerous thing leading to all sorts of unknown and heretofore best left alone areas.  You know, the proverbial " where angels fear to tread " thing.  Well, rash be damned, I'm confused.  
  To save you some time, in paraphrase, I commented to Miles that we create a great multitude of unnatural consequences from forcing what we would consider "natural" choices on people -- ok, actually I said that anytime a natural attraction is stifled, unnatural things are apt to develop.    And, there is where I get into trouble.  You see, this isn't a very well thought out post, it's an idea that is bugging me to no end.
  On the one hand, we, the "we as a people" we, have a duty and a right to train our young, etc, into an image that fits our outlook of what is right for humanity.  And yet, it is the very oddballs among us that seem to make such incredible leaps of creativity and thought.  Einstein was a very poor student due to his learning disabilities, and Elvis's choir teacher said he couldn't sing...the history of man is filled with such examples.  And yet, we try and try to put our youth and such into these forms that are fit in our eyes.
  Do any of you remember when the powers that be would try to retrain left handed kids to write right handed, because that was the right thing?  And yet, there is a certain segment of the population, a natural and undeniable portion of us as people, who are left handed.  What other traits are natural but the 'powers'  seek to "retrain"?
  Now, as is often the focus of this blog, the comment engendering this thought was about sexuality... specifically the church's role in deciding that certain behaviors of the priests were ok under wraps of secrecy while the outward orientation of homosexuality was decried a sin.  And, as is often the case with comments involving the church and sex, it was with kids that happened.....which made me wonder if the very control seeking behavior of the church decrying homosexuality did encourage pederasty as an unnatural outlet of the proverbial square peg being forced into the round hole?
  And, now we come to my confusion.  You see, I am wondering if this is part of the repeated problems we have now or if the problems we have are just the "anomie" of the times.  Are we fighting natural progressions and creating more and more problems because of that, or are we - again this is all 'we as a people' - failing to guide and develop our young as we should?


So, help me out...what do you think?

What does it mean to you?

Homophobia means:




I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.
I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.
I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.
We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.
I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.
I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.
I am one of the lucky ones, I guess. I survived the attack that left me in a coma for three weeks, and in another year I will probably be able to walk again.
I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.
We are the couple who had the Realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.
I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.
I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.
I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.
I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.
I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.
I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.
I am the man who died when the paramedics stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.
I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I did not have to always deal with society hating me.
I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don’t believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind.
I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.
I am the person who is afraid of telling his loving Christian parents he loves another male.
I am the boy kicked out of his home because I am gay.


  and who are you?

http://quasil0t.tumblr.com/post/11946430599

A bully is never remembered well...

Hello everyone;

  I was reading on this new Michigan Law, "Matt's Safe School Law".  The law is named after Matt Epling, a teen who committed suicide after being bullied further than he could handle, to the distinct displeasure and embarrassment of the teen's father due to the impotence of the law.  It was passed by the entire Republican party portion of the Senate, and voted against by the entire Democratic party portion.  Ought to tell us something, huh.
  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/03/gretchen-whitmer-michigan-senator-bullying-bill_n_1073928.html

  What I wanted to write about today was a boy I remember from school.  He was one of the "popular" kids.  Smart. Good looking. Athletic.  He was part of the "in crowd", in a school predominantly white and of upwardly moving middle class parents.  I was part of the lower middle class portion.  I saw him everyday.
  My school was dominated by the "in crowd".  It was filled with alligator shirts, spiked hair, snooty attitudes, you name it.  I was separate from that, sometimes its victim - and in a couple incidents I actually triumphed.  Yet, no amount of physical aggression could overcome the snooty judgementalism of that in crowd.
  Ok,...I'm dragging this along.  You see, I remember this boy so well not because he was a bully, but because he was not.  I have memories of the bullies to this day, but I'd be hard pressed to care one whit about them.  But, this boy was kind.  He was the anomaly of the 'in crowd' because he didn't judge others cruelly, didn't bully, didn't hate, didn't make people feel bad.  He had a ready smile, a laugh, and a power to lead that was nearly magical.  To this day I'd vote him for president.
  I nearly cried to learn that he died at the age of 21.  He fell asleep driving to college. 

  The sad thing about bullies is that even their friends don't really like them.  It could be argued that they don't like themselves.  Perhaps that is the real shame....that the bully lives on fear because that is such a great part of what he/she understands.  Afraid others will see just how small and insignificant they feel.  John was one who seemed so confident, so ready to smile and laugh, in contrast with some of the bullies I remember so well.  They seemed to laugh only with a sneer, compared themselves to the "lesser beings about them", and felt the ability to deal out humiliation and misery a profound power.  These boys peaked, in my eyes, in school.  I left them behind me, remembering only their pathetic nature.  John, on the other hand, I remember with a fondness and hope that even to this day I could be more like him.  That is real power.

The fox has new ideas on how to protect the hen house...

Hi everyone;

This came to my attention through Milkboys and Towelroad. Thought you would like to see it - and I'm really hoping you will spread the word. Repeatedly this arena is attacked by those purporting to "protect" it. Much like the fox proposing ideas on hen house security, the "protectors" seem intent on only protecting their position gained from the very things they now wish to stifle.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDX8Lyl16Qs&feature=player_embedded



-randy