Emaciated Republican Asinine Shrews Embarrass

E.R.A.S.E. the Hate

(Taken from the GLAAD website, article by writer Aaron McQuade)
Conservative political commentator Ann Coulter decided last night
to make a joke about family rejection of LGBT youth.

-Last Thursday was national "coming out" day.This Monday is national "disown your son" day. — Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) October 16, 2012-
  I recognize that this is a joke, and that she is not really taken seriously
in any context anyway, but with this coming right after National Coming
Out Day, at the start of Ally Week and just days before Spirit Day, I
thought this would be a good opportunity to talk about this idea of hers.
There was a time in our culture's history when, if thousands of LGBT
kids were to come out on the same day, the next week genuinely would
be exactly what Ann describes, all across the country. Fathers disowning
their sons and kicking them out onto the street. Mothers locking up their
daughters or sending them to charm school. Children forced to undergo
electro-shock or even worse forms of "therapy" to rid themselves of their
orientation. To learn how to not be true to themselves.

And although we've come a long way from those ideas as a cultural
collective, I have no doubt that last week, more than a few American
households experienced the tragedy that Ann joked about. Approximately
50% of LGBT youth experience some degree of family rejection. There
are as many as one hundred thousand homeless LGBT youth on our nation's
streets, and it's estimated that LGBT youth make up as much as 40%
of our nation's homeless youth population. LGBT youth who are completely
rejected by their parents are more than 8 times as likely to have attempted
suicide. Pretty funny, right?

Again, I know it’s a joke, but ANYTHING that adds to the idea that family rejection of LGBT young people is expected, or even "normal" enough to
be casually joked about, causes harm. The kind of harm that Spirit Day was
specifically created to protect against.

Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation

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Even though the author was pretty generous with giving Coulter the
understanding that this is her sick, meek, twisted cry for media attention
and she is just a vacuous mouthpiece who gives no thought to her words
beyond stirring the pot, I have a much darker view.

Yes, she is a joke. She is not credible. She is baseless. But that's what
thinking people know; she caters to the ignorant and the uncouth. They
take up people like her as saviours and identify with every vile word they
speak. She is dangerous.

If she were joking about restarting concentration camps or experimenting
on black folks with viruses again, the nation would come unglued, but
because it is the 'good old reliable standby of acceptably-targeted gays
and lesbians,' everyone sloughs it off.

We can't afford to let an ounce of hate speech go unattended, nor taken
as attack. Because words and ideas are where it all starts. And these
freaks are getting bold enough and brazen enough to say worse and worse,
out loud, more often. We know what the next step is.

-Robert Sayre, Georgia Unity/NYDGP
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The Trevor Project (Help for LGBTQ Youth)


GLBT National Help Center


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University-Sponsored Hate

(FROM THE HEARTSTRONG OCTOBER NEWSLETTER)

EDUCATION/OUTREACH UPDATE

*The best way to stay up-to-date on HeartStrong's work.
*University of Arizona's Daily Wildcat publishes hateful cartoon

Like the Notre Dame cartoon of 2010 this new cartoon published
by the University of Arizona's Arizona Daily Wildcat shows just
how far we haven't come.

HeartStrong's Youth Empowerment Project is about providing
anti-bullying materials to school counselors and students. In our
battle to save lives you should all know what this university's
newspaper editor thinks is funny.

Parent's HAVE killed their kids if they think they are gay.
This is not a joke.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/08/992721/-Horrifying-4-Year-Old-Boy-Murdered-for-Acting-Gay

It's easy to forget that it wasn't too long ago that 30 Rock star Tracy
Morgan said, "Gays need to quit being pussies and not be whining about
something as insignificant as bullying." He added, "Gay is something
that kids learn from the media and programming." When talking about
the possibility of his son being gay - Tracy said he "better talk to me
like a man and not in a gay voice or I'll pull out a knife and stab that
little nigger to death."

We think we can convince young men and women that it gets better.
We think we can prove to them that coming out is about gaining, not
about losing. We think we can help them find the path to a life of hope,
love and peace.

And then they have to see this. This is not a reprint of an old cartoon.
This is a new creation.

HeartStrong has made it's voice known in this issue. Some are calling
on the paper to fire the editor who admits she approved this cartoon.
More than that, even more must be done to help GLBT youth find their way.

Just when we think we are getting places in our own efforts to reach
students, things like this happen and bring us back down to reality.
So many young GLBT men and women around the world are subjected
to this type of language in their homes, in the religious spaces and in
their schools.

The burden to alleviate as much of that fear and shame as possible is
great. We believe that we have a responsibility to those who would be
negatively affected by this type of language to extend our reach even
further.

HeartStrong Support for LGBTQ Youth

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An added bit by Georgia Unity:

It was also not long ago that the human filth Ann Coulter made a few horrifying
remarks about gay people. (Yes, it's a longtime trend for her, and she is such a
wretched train wreck it galls me to mention her name, but the attention-whore
is hurting people with every utterance.)

She has said that she thinks gays should become pro-life because liberals
would start aborting fetuses if a gay gene were discovered.....she tweeted
just last weekend that since the prior Thursday was National Coming Out Day,
the following Monday should be 'National Disown Your (Gay) Son' Day.....
she defended Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy's anti-gay stance.....she
defended Carl Paladino's anti-gay comments and minimized them....on the Joy
Behar show she said she was "sick of gays" and that she though ex-gay therapy
worked.....and once remarked that if her child came out to her, she would tell
him that he was adopted (although she would more likely drown him in the tub
and then dispose of the body.)

The world is full of putrid human beings who don't care and who bask in their
ignorance and apathy. They even get high off of causing other people pain and
upset; they aren't oblivious to it. That's what a sociopath is.

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By the by, here's the Notre Dame cartoon mentioned in the Heartstrong post,
along with the original rejected (equally offensive) cartoon, courtesy of
www.TurningLeft.net

Egregious Offense

"But...but I'm a victim too! I can't be a bully!"

There's a trend in media of late to make those who have done wrong

take responsibility for their errors of form or judgment by

speaking on behalf of the offended party.

Yes, having the abusers counsel the abused child.

Pictured above is Isaiah Washington, former

star of 'Grey's Anatomy.' Now, some feel he got too

severe a hit for his outrageous on-set behavior and verbal

assault of gay co-star T.R. Knight.

There was a lot more to it than that.

First of all, in this particular instance, Washington was

well known as an equal opportunity asshole on set, frustrating

and offending most everyone. He had a history of violence

with coworkers. He denied he made the homophobic remark to

Knight after it happened the first time, and then there was a second

incident.

My issue, though, is thus; Washington was urged to make a

public apology (which clearly was not his choice.) Then he

was urged (for public relations purposes) to be in a PSA
(public service announcement) in favor of gay rights

and against defamation.

I don't want to see people who are playing a role

and using the parade float of current pro-gay support

(in Hollywood circles, at least) to advance themselves.

To get up and take lightly the real injustice and offense of

loaded anti-gay words is a double slap in the face.

But having offenders 'reach out' or perform public service

to those they have hurt seems the new trend, and it's a bad one.

I would rather have ten people come out and use Washington,

or Mel Gibson, or Ann Coulter, or Bill O'Reilly, or any other

knuckle-dragging scumbag as an example of what NOT to do,

chastise them for it, and promote the right thing to do.

I would rather run a campaign of "Who's Out Now" or
"Famous Gays in History" (do you know how many everyday people

don't know that Wilde, Liberace, or even Rock Hudson were

gay?) I'd rather see people who are truly enlightened doing

education. There are people in the hip-hop community, in

the rap community, amongst black athletes, and even black actors

who are pro gay. Get them. Because homophobia and contempt

 is an especially large problem still in the black and Latino

communities.

But I don't want reluctant participation for public relations.

It's the equivalent of having rapists counsel their victims.

The wounds are too deep, too recent, and too susceptible to]

reinjury. Let the ignorant be ignorant.

I like to know who people really are.

An insincere gesture is a hollow one indeed.

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