Homophobic Bullying Takes Another Teen Life

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com
September 26, 2011

Beyond grief is the loss of young Jamey Rodemeyer, only 14, whose fragile ego was finally crushed by the poison of homophobic bullying from classmates at his Williamsville North High School in upstate New York on September 20, 2011.

A child's death at any young age is tragic enough, but a deliberately targeted murder seems more horrible than an accidental or disease death. This child was clearly an innocent victim of American scripture-based discrimination against homosexuals.

Hatred in youth is inherited from hatred in parents, peers, church, school, society, government. Homophobia so devastating and pervasive among bigots that it is taken as normal, as a right of passage in high school, as a righteous act of religious ethics, as a popular political position.

Homophobia is truly a social cancer that kills children. If a manufactured product injured children or a medication were deemed harmful it would be recalled and removed from store shelves very quickly. But because so many local and federal politicians are steeped in self-declared 'legitimate scriptural views' of sex and marriage they feel homophobia is justified; based in blood-soaked Biblical-Koranic-Talmudic conditioning this killer disease remains in the public domain with no remedy in sight.

In a slight gesture toward justice (revenge is what many are calling for against the perpetrators, their parents and school officials) the local police in Amherst, NY, are investigating to determine if any hate crimes were committed against Jamey; it's hard to imagine they were not as he received anonymous (and traceable) condemnations and urgings to kill himself from schoolmates.

These bullying kids had no idea of the deadly effect of their actions, not unlike being ignorant of the risks of playing with a loaded gun; stupid on their part and irresponsible on their parents' part.

Jamey had been verbally assaulted by cyberbullies who made degrading comments with gay slurs on his Formspring account, a website that allows anonymous postings. "JAMIE IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND [sic] UGLY. HE MUST DIE!" one post reportedly said. Another read, "I wouldn't care if you died. No one would. So just do it :) It would make everyone WAY more happier!"

The danger of such abuse we have known for a long time. To counter this criminal behavior the internet pro-gay 'It Gets Better' campaign has been online for over a year. Strangely, Jamey had posted his own video on YouTube that was encouraging in tone and looked beyond current problems to future promise of better times.

But something snapped in his mind within a month and he collapsed under the cruel rejection from schoolmates. Shame is one of the most painful punishments a person can endure. Many Asian and Arab gay people remain deep in the closet for fear of being shamed or bringing dishonor to their families. Other LGBT people have come out and in turn been murdered by a family member to avenge the dishonor.

Such powerful hate-and-shame-fueled homophobia is so overwhelming that it turns a loving parent or brother into a murderous family member. What switch gets flipped to turn love to hate for no apparent reason--no action, no words, no overt offense from the gay person.

And from classmates who have less bonding the curses are all the more easy to make. This is not just a personal tragedy, it's a national disgrace among those who advocate intolerance and discrimination.

Also see:
Lady Gaga dedicates song to Jamey Rodemeyer
GlobalGayz blog about teen suicides.

Opposing DODT Repeal is a Moral Evil

By Richard Ammon
GlobalGayz.com

Don't ask don't tell has finally gone down, another act of stupidity repealed by Congress today. After 17 years of blatant prejudice and discrimination the motion to remove the military rule was approved by 65 senators with 31 opposing.

What's remarkable and unnerving is that 31 of the nation's elected leaders voted against the repeal, openly continuing to agree to egregious discrimination against homosexual military personnel in particular and LGBT people in general. Such a bigoted position is essentially an insupportable abhorrent position.

That any modern legislator could hold this unjust, unconstitutional, hateful and narrow-minded view of human nature is immoral and frightening. Yet there they are, in our capitol making speeches and decisions that effect America's social welfare (medical care, taxation, banking/finance, education, criminal justice…) while holding distinct prejudicial views that not all citizens are equal.

Given these crucial and essential matters that effect the daily lives of 350 million people, how is it right that a full third of the US Senate can hold office with such odious prejudices against any minority group of Americans?

It is now well beyond simple science that human sexual orientation is a deeply inherent trait that forms in the psyche virtually from birth and inevitably becomes manifest in the second decade of a person's life. In countless research studies homosexuality has been shown to have biological, genetic and social components that lift it far beyond simplistic religious, political or cultural opinions and personal points of view. Way beyond 'choice'.

But with a dismissive wave of a hand toward such studied research, a politician can ignore all these in-depth analyses and all the personal testimonies of LGBT people who felt they were gay at a very young age. Such a callous attitude is a moral evil, a violation of oath to defend the constitution, a spiritually violent act, a step into ignorance and blindness. Nothing less than a social evil.

This prejudice is commonly sourced in the religious background of each senator who claws his way into Congress. Manipulating money, people and media to get elected into a position of power, a successful member is revealed for what he is when it comes to voting on the core issue of human rights.

"Human rights are international norms that help to protect all people everywhere from severe political, legal, and social abuses." Are those 31 Senators listening to this? Obviously not, and they should be fired from their jobs.

For Gays and Lesbians Apartheid is Alive and Well

Laguna Beach, CA - October 28, 2009

Richard Ammon - GlobalGayz.com

Last night on PBS a drama titled ‘Endgame’ was broadcast nationwide that focused on the intense and delicate negotiations in South Africa in the late 1980’s that brought down apartheid and brought a new dawn of democracy in that tormented country.

It was a gripping drama of real life brought close up with cameras, script and fine acting by players who had not previously been privy to the dangers and risks of the political and murderous chess match. At any one time, any one of the historical figures could have been assassinated, including Nelson Mandela whose release from 27 years in prison was the keystone to the new order of life in South Africa.

I couldn’t help thinking of the poignant parallel between the South African apartheid mentality that justified so much killing and violence, and the ongoing apartheid of today that continues against homo-affectional citizens around the world that manifests in murder, brutality, imprisonment and discrimination.

The singular enemy that the black-race ANC faced was the white-race National Party, a political authoritarian system of governance in place since the turn of the 20^th century, which in 1948 manipulated apartheid into an official policy of repression.

More than One Enemy
But the homosexual ‘movement’ faces more than one enemy embodied in a single figurehead with an armed militia. Gay and lesbian citizens are surrounded by many forces that wish to minimize or destroy us daily in many countries.

We are assaulted by political enemies such as legislative systems who pass anti-gay laws; as well as legal systems that hand down unjust rulings; religious enemies that stigmatize gay people as sinners; societal enemies such as schools who allow bullying and refuse LGBT clubs; secular institutional enemies such as corporations who fire gay employees or refuse to extend health benefits to domestic partners; a military enemy that forbids homosexual personnel; and individual enemies who walk the streets or schoolyards with hatred in mind to attack queer or queer-looking people.

Yet such ongoing anti-gay discrimination is not seen as apartheid because so many of these institutions justify it and declaim against gay rights or protections.

When a lie is told loud and long enough it eventually feels like a truth—a notion that worked so well in Germany in the 1930’s and 40’s that soldiers and militias and individual vigilante groups felt justified, even righteous, in the carnage against gypsies, Jews, gays and Poles and others, thinking they were actually doing good to cleanse the Aryan society of pollutants.

The Violence Continues
So too today as these many enemies (ex-gay ministries, family focus groups in addition to the institutions) seek to cleanse gay contaminants from their ranks and pews and homes and parenthood. Their messages feed simple minds toward violence and bigotry--even in ‘developed’ countries with ‘advanced’ societies.

Two apartheid-style attacks occurred recently, one in the UK against an off-duty gay policeman (also this report) The other attack in the Queens borough of New York City against a gay man on his way home.

Even in the face of real-life facts (“I was born gay”), scientific studies (homosexuality in nature), disproven fallacies (gays are pedophiles), human rights progress (UN declaration of human rights)... people committed to ignorance and blindness insist on seeing in the darkness and shadows strangers whom they do not know yet target as sinners and criminals - victims of apartheid thinking.

I think this struggle will never end because non-rational religious thinking infuses this mode of discrimination. Faith and belief rarely submit to logic, reason or evidence. The best we can hope for is legal protection against violence since there is no other means by which by which LGBT people can fend off the sword of religious contempt.

Their are exceptions of course. To their great credit, working uphill against spiritual violence are SoulForce and Other Sheep

Human rights are frail against prejudice and aroused emotion; anger will always cut through dignity with a bloody machete as it did in Rwanda and Burundi against enemy tribes and continues today in many African countries against gays (such as currently in Uganda), though nowadays not usually with hand-held weapons—except in Iraq where the killing squads use knives and guns for individual executions. In the USA fists and bats are favored.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the first major federal civil rights law protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people was just passed by the US Congress but not as a free-standing bill. It was attached to an obscene $680-billion measure for the Pentagon’s budget, which includes $130 billion for ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Photo left: James Byrd, Jr)

The great irony in this Congressional act was that under the cover of protecting some innocents at home with a hate crimes statute, Congress authorized massive acts of war against countless innocents abroad.

We welcome the crumbs of the Shepard/Byrd law but for gays and lesbians the pandemic of apartheid is alive and well.