What else can i say, everyone is gay....

Today, in support of the six young men, some gay, some not, who were bullying so badly they felt their only recourse was to take thier own lives, in support of them, I'm wearing purple today. I don't normally jump on bandwagons like this, but this one really touched a nerve with me.

I wasn't really bullied in school. My birthday was late in the year, so i started kindergarten a year later than most people, so I, along with two other guys, were always the oldest ones in my class. And therefore, we were usually the tallest, broadest, and first to hit puberty. Because of all this, I wasn't physically threatened at any time in school.

Verbally, yeah I was called names. But mostly, as I was a fat kid, it was kids making fun of my weight. That, in addition to my not being really flambouyant, meant I wasn't really ever teased about being gay. Plus, I had fooled around with a lot of my classmates over the years, so we had like mutual blackmail on each other for that.

But even the teasing I got, I handled it with humor. I became a clown, laughing at and mocking myself. I figured if I made fun of my being fat, then there'd be no reason for anyone else to. This led to self-esteem issues, and issues with my body image that I still carry with me today.

However, I never seriously considered doing any harm to myself, especially not killing myself. Contrary to what Middle School Polt would have thought at the time, I really didn't have a bad school experience, in general.

But upon reading the stories of these young men who took thier lives, I couldn't help but tear up in some cases. These beautiful, wonderful young men, with so much potential, ending thier lives before they even began is unconscionable. And all of this happened because some kids thought it'd be funny to make fun of the 'queer boy'.

Certainly I blame the kids who harrassed them. I also blame their parents for either condoning the kids' actions or not knowing their kids well enough to know they were turning into bullies. But I also blame national institutions. Like the military, where the idea that gays are too disruptive to be allowed to openly serve is still being fought over. And organized religion, which allows people to hate gays and lesbians, even though all major religion have love and compassion as some of their main tenets. And polictians who rail against gays and lesbians and allow us to be second class citizens since we don't have the same rights as straight Americans. And espeically members of all these groups who are themselves gay or lesbian. It takes a special kind of self loathing to try to score political points on a group that you belong to.

And all of this has to stop. but moreso, gay and lesbian youth need to know they can't give up. If nothing else, we need them alive so when they reach voting age, they can help us get rid of politicans that dont' support gay equality. So we need to let them know, things will get better. This is my way of doing that.

Granted, I'm only wearing a purple shirt and undies, but it's the least I can do.

POLT