Church Vandalized in SLO

A sad sight from my hometown appeared this morning when a sign outside the United Church of Christ proclaiming that "all are welcome" was vandalized. This is the fourth time that the church has been a target. At the bottom right of the sign is a small symbol of a rainbow, indicating that the church is inclusive of the LGBT community.

It is disheartening that a church willing to accept a group that many others shun is being threatened by these vandals. Thankfully, the church is not backing down, and is instead installing security cameras to ensure that repeat vandalization does not occur.

The Gay Joke

is not funny

lacks sophistication

is offensive

reveals your own insecurities

promotes misunderstanding, ignorance, and hate

So you're not funny, and you go for the easy laugh? You're not so popular with the ladies and you need to feel like you're better than someone? You're in a fraternity and that's just the way people talk in your particular organization? I love it when ugly guys freak out thinking about gay guys in the locker room oggling them. Hey, you're ugly, if girls think you're ugly, what makes you think guys would be so desperate? I swear it's only the ugly ones that say that! (come on think about the last person you heard that from, and if that person was you uhhhh awkward....) You know why its ok? Cuz even though you can't find the few obscure references to the sinfulness of promiscuous homosexual acts in the Bible, you cling to calling it a sin because YOU are uncomfortable with it, because YOU have your own insecurities, because YOU feel like God somehow empowered you to judge His people, because the speck in your neighbor's eye bothers you more than the plank in your own. Don't try to hijack my Faith, if you've ever read a page of the New Testament, you'd know that He reserves His harshest criticism for the Pharisees, (you know, the scripture-thumping hypocrites who had a little too much to say about who they thought were good Jews or bad Jews)... well who's the Pharisee now?

I have digressed from probing the gay joke. Confused yet? Please consider the consequences of your off-color, poorly conceived gay joke. It's not even about propagating stereotypes, it's about ridiculing a group of people. It's about reinforcing the message that being who you are is not always the right thing to do. Because if you happen to be gay, you may be laughed at. If you happen to be gay, you may even be killed. And if someone who is gay makes the mistake of confessing to you that they're crushing on you, you may be under the impression that you need to do whatever it takes to disassociate yourself from that person, lest others think that you too are gay. Are you gonna be a part of this process? Are you gonna make it a little harder for someone to figure out who they are? Are you gonna make it a little easier for someone to pull that trigger to defend their masculinity? Is it a leap to say that your gay jokes are somehow connected to Larry's death? Maybe. But maybe not.

Source: My roommate, Scott Sia

Ellen DeGeneres Discusses The Recent Tragic Death of Middle School Student Lawrence King

Here's Ellen DeGeneres's reaction to the death of Lawrence King, which I had posted on earlier. As Ellen mentions, it really is sad that people are motivated to kill just because someone has a crush on them. Can you imagine if Lawrence had been told by a female classmate that she had a crush on him and reacted by shooting her? Unimaginable. And, yet, incidents like this one happen far too often.

Middle School Student Killed in Hate Crime

So, as children come out at earlier ages, apparently the homophobia surrounding these newly out youngsters is intensifying at a younger age as well. Lawrence King, a 15 year old student in Oxnard, was openly gay at his middle school. This apparently did not sit well with his classmate, Brandon McInerney, shot Lawrence to death in a school computer lab in front of their other classmates and teacher.

Apparently Larry had told Brandon that he had a crush on him, which, you know, is the worst thing anyone could ever want--a GAY person crushing on them. Larry had already come from an abusive family and was living in a foster home. Quite sad indeed.