It seems that yet another gay teen has committed suicide after years of bullying, with the authorities seemingly sitting on their hands, despite being well aware of the situation, and letting it happen. No doubt the religious right, more or less openly, will be smugly satisfied. Can you imagine, though, the outcry from the very same people if a series of Christian kids, in some country where they're in a minority, were killing themselves in similar circumstances? They'd be lobbying for any such country to be invaded to enact a 'regime change'.
There's a lot of faux outrage about from politicians and pundits about oppression of GLBT rights in 'backward third world' countries, especially where death sentences are mooted, but there seems to be precious little interest in mitigating the de facto death sentences that bullying causes in our supposedly 'advanced Western democracies'. As ever, some are far more equal than others.
RIP Jacob.
Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B
Hi Sammy;
ReplyDeleteI am just so very blown away. You are right. Another casualty of apathy.
I just don't even know what to say. Thank you for posting this.
-randy.
Hello Randy
ReplyDeleteIt's just so bloody sad that yet another young life has been sacrificed to ignorance and bigotry. I saw a comment on another blog post about this story which said that it wasn't the bullies who should be arrested, but the parents of the bullies, for inculcating such attitudes into their children. Difficult to argue against, in my opinion - as I've said before, prejudice and bigotry are learned, not innate.
Love & best wishes
Sammy B
And I'm tired of the "we didn't know anything about it" crap. Yeah, you did. Your lack of doing anything anti-bullying is a sin of omission as severe as "knowing about it" and not doing anything.
ReplyDeleteAnd Sammy, about the Christians, you are soooo right.
Peace <3
Jay
Hello Jay
ReplyDeleteThe problem, as I see it, is that a lot of the teachers and administrators are just as prejudiced as the kids. They can't pick on those who are 'different' directly, and get away with it, so they're happy to get the bullies to do it for them while turning a blind eye, and then denying all knowledge when the shit hits the fan. As you say, the inaction of those who should be facilitating a safe environment for everyone is as bad, if not worse, than the actual bullying.
Love & best wishes
Sammy B