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One town's war on gays teens

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Every morning, Brittany Geldert stepped off the bus and bolted through the double doors of Fred Moore Middle School, her nerves already on high alert, bracing for the inevitable.
"Dyke."
Pretending not to hear, Brittany would walk briskly to her locker, past the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders who loitered in menacing packs.
"Whore."
Like many 13-year-olds, Brittany knew seventh grade was a living hell. But what she didn't know was that she was caught in the crossfire of a culture war being waged by local evangelicals inspired by their high-profile congressional representative Michele Bachmann, who graduated from Anoka High School and, until recently, was a member of one of the most conservative churches in the area. When Christian activists who considered gays an abomination forced a measure through the school board forbidding the discussion of homosexuality in the district's public schools, kids like Brittany were unknowingly thrust into the heart of a clash that was about to become intertwined with tragedy.
Michele Bachmann's Holy War
Brittany didn't look like most girls in blue-collar Anoka, Minnesota, a former logging town on the Rum River, a conventional place that takes pride in its annual Halloween parade – it bills itself the "Halloween Capital of the World." Brittany was a low-voiced, stocky girl who dressed in baggy jeans and her dad's Marine Corps sweatshirts. By age 13, she'd been taunted as a "cunt" and "cock muncher" long before such words had made much sense. When she told administrators about the abuse, they were strangely unresponsive, even though bullying was a subject often discussed in school-board meetings. The district maintained a comprehensive five-page anti-bullying policy, and held diversity trainings on racial and gender sensitivity. Yet when it came to Brittany's harassment, school officials usually told her to ignore it, always glossing over the sexually charged insults. Like the time Brittany had complained about being called a "fat dyke": The school's principal, looking pained, had suggested Brittany prepare herself for the next round of teasing with snappy comebacks – "I can lose the weight, but you're stuck with your ugly face" – never acknowledging she had been called a "dyke." As though that part was OK. As though the fact that Brittany was bisexual made her fair game.
So maybe she was a fat dyke, Brittany thought morosely; maybe she deserved the teasing. She would have been shocked to know the truth behind the adults' inaction: No one would come to her aid for fear of violating the districtwide policy requiring school personnel to stay "neutral" on issues of homosexuality. All Brittany knew was that she was on her own, vulnerable and ashamed, and needed to find her best friend, Samantha, fast.
Like Brittany, eighth-grader Samantha Johnson was a husky tomboy too, outgoing with a big smile and a silly streak to match Brittany's own. Sam was also bullied for her look – short hair, dark clothing, lack of girly affect – but she merrily shrugged off the abuse. When Sam's volleyball teammates' taunting got rough – barring her from the girls' locker room, yelling, "You're a guy!" – she simply stopped going to practice. After school, Sam would encourage Brittany to join her in privately mocking their tormentors, and the girls would parade around Brittany's house speaking in Valley Girl squeals, wearing bras over their shirts, collapsing in laughter. They'd become as close as sisters in the year since Sam had moved from North Dakota following her parents' divorce, and Sam had quickly become Brittany's beacon. Sam was even helping to start a Gay Straight Alliance club, as a safe haven for misfits like them, although the club's progress was stalled by the school district that, among other things, was queasy about the club's flagrant use of the word "gay." Religious conservatives have called GSAs "sex clubs," and sure enough, the local religious right loudly objected to them. "This is an assault on moral standards," read one recent letter to the community paper. "Let's stop this dangerous nonsense before it's too late and more young boys and girls are encouraged to 'come out' and practice their 'gayness' right in their own school's homosexual club."
Brittany admired Sam's courage, and tried to mimic her insouciance and stoicism. So Brittany was bewildered when one day in November 2009, on the school bus home, a sixth-grade boy slid in next to her and asked quaveringly, "Did you hear Sam said she's going to kill herself?"
Brittany considered the question. No way. How many times had she seen Sam roll her eyes and announce, "Ugh, I'm gonna kill myself" over some insignificant thing? "Don't worry, you'll see Sam tomorrow," Brittany reassured her friend as they got off the bus. But as she trudged toward her house, she couldn't stop turning it over in her mind. A boy in the district had already committed suicide just days into the school year – TJ Hayes, a 16-year-old at Blaine High School – so she knew such things were possible. But Sam Johnson? Brittany tried to keep the thought at bay. Finally, she confided in her mother.
"This isn't something you kid about, Brittany," her mom scolded, snatching the kitchen cordless and taking it down the hall to call the Johnsons. A minute later she returned, her face a mask of shock and terror. "Honey, I'm so sorry. We're too late," she said tonelessly as Brittany's knees buckled; 13-year-old Sam had climbed into the bathtub after school and shot herself in the mouth with her own hunting rifle. No one at school had seen her suicide coming.
No one saw the rest of them coming, either.
Sam's death lit the fuse of a suicide epidemic that would take the lives of nine local students in under two years, a rate so high that child psychologist Dan Reidenberg, executive director of the Minnesota-based Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, declared the Anoka-Hennepin school district the site of a "suicide cluster," adding that the crisis might hold an element of contagion; suicidal thoughts had become catchy, like a lethal virus. "Here you had a large number of suicides that are really closely connected, all within one school district, in a small amount of time," explains Reidenberg. "Kids started to feel that the normal response to stress was to take your life."
There was another common thread: Four of the nine dead were either gay or perceived as such by other kids, and were reportedly bullied. The tragedies come at a national moment when bullying is on everyone's lips, and a devastating number of gay teens across the country are in the news for killing themselves. Suicide rates among gay and lesbian kids are frighteningly high, with attempt rates four times that of their straight counterparts; studies show that one-third of all gay youth have attempted suicide at some point (versus 13 percent of hetero kids), and that internalized homophobia contributes to suicide risk.
Against this supercharged backdrop, the Anoka-Hennepin school district finds itself in the spotlight not only for the sheer number of suicides but because it is accused of having contributed to the death toll by cultivating an extreme anti-gay climate. "LGBTQ students don't feel safe at school," says Anoka Middle School for the Arts teacher Jefferson Fietek, using the acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning. "They're made to feel ashamed of who they are. They're bullied. And there's no one to stand up for them, because teachers are afraid of being fired."
Read more here.
http://www.rollingst...-teens-20120202


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Read more: http://www.rollingst...2#ixzz1lcXOel6p

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This is why I find it hard to be a man of faith, God supossedly tells us to be tolerant of all but condemns homosexuals and lets all this evil exist in the world. It's a complete contradiction :angry: to let an innocent child be led to the point where she takes her own life( with a shotgun blow to the head no less) is absolutely disgusting. How can I beleive in something that let's these atrocities occur.

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You know what else I hate?

 

People using the word Gay as an insult or metaphor.

 

Examples

 

Guy1: Hey, let's go swimming!

Guy2: Hell nah that's gay.

 

Guy1: Wanna eat at burger king?

Guy2: That place is gay.

 

Guy1: I clean my house

Guy2: Dude you're gay.

 

 

 

Then why do you think it's Gay? You're gay for thinking it if it's Gay.

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This is freaking firetrucked up! I can't believe this happened to teenagers just because they like the same gender! There's nothing wrong with that! So they're a little different? So? I'm different. Everybody's different in their own way doesn't mean that they're an abomination to human kind! I hate when people do this to people who are just like you and I though they treat people that are a bit different like they're freaking aliens! I have friends who are just like me, they're awesome. Nothing wrong with them. But they're bisexual and gay. So? I should think they're different because of that simple difference? No! Hell no! I think of them as equals no matter what! Everyone has an idiosyncrasy that makes them who they are. For some people it's liking the same gender or unsure if they like both. I don't care. Why should I care? If they're just like me, not stuck up, and will embrace themselves, then they people. In fact, people who are gay and lesbians are my heroes. It may sound weird but embracing themselves, not afraid to stand up for themselves, not afraid of what people say about them, that's a firetrucking hero in my book. Because they're themselves. No difference. So when I hear about bullying, prejudices, and suicides about them it makes me want to go to whoever caused that and punch them in the face! Because they don't know what they're missing. They could be amazing, they could be the smartest thing in the world, they could be amazing singers, exceptional artists, maybe even the best athlete out of everyone. But they're bisexual or gay changes everything for someone just makes me soo mad! It pisses me off! I just people would freaking open up their eyes and see that they're people as well and not just freaks! They're great people, amazing even, they're just a bit more different then ourselves.

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God doesnt just let this evil exist per se..He gave us a free will which means choice. We choose to sin which creates evil..But in the end its bc of our own actions.God doesnt say to kill everyone who commits sins in this world.He actually says to not judge bc only he had that right. So lets not generalize all christians into one category or blame peoples sinful actions on God..Free will is what causes this not God

 

TY I couldn't have said this better myself.

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I am no hypocrite...but I hate when others call people gay and the next thing you know they are talking about dicks and drawing them...I dont care if they talk about that...but I care that they insulting someone else and then become hypocrites.

 

Also now these days touching a man by accident or not is now considered gay...what has the world come too?

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I am no hypocrite...but I hate when others call people gay and the next thing you know they are talking about dicks and drawing them...I dont care if they talk about that...but I care that they insulting someone else and then become hypocrites.

 

 

i dont see how calling someone gay and then talking and drawing about dicks makes anyone a hypocrite.

first of all, youre implying that talking about dicks and drawing them is like being gay because a hypocrite is someone who says one thing and does the opposite.

second of all, youre disregarding that homosexuality is not limited to liking penises.

and yes, people who use gay as an insult and very rude, but i find it equally bothering when people actually take it as an insult. its not anything bad so dont take it as an insult.

anyones none of that makes anyone hypocritical, im pretty sure guys are allowed to talk about penises and drawing them without being 'gay'. its what they sexually like that matters

 

 

as for the thread, i've read this article and it's really sad that it's gone to this extreme but im sure situations like this happen everywhere.

some people may think that this is showing how gays are not accepted and how people arent growing to accept difference but ive recently read an article where a lesbian couple won homecoming queen and king and the whole school cheered and many people supported them.

there is a lot of hate but there is a lot of acceptance and love as well. its just about time when love conquers hate.

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i dont see how calling someone gay and then talking and drawing about dicks makes anyone a hypocrite.

first of all, youre implying that talking about dicks and drawing them is like being gay because a hypocrite is someone who says one thing and does the opposite.

second of all, youre disregarding that homosexuality is not limited to liking penises.

and yes, people who use gay as an insult and very rude, but i find it equally bothering when people actually take it as an insult. its not anything bad so dont take it as an insult.

anyones none of that makes anyone hypocritical, im pretty sure guys are allowed to talk about penises and drawing them without being 'gay'. its what they sexually like that matters

 

When was I limiting them from liking penises? They can if they want too, and I wont care. I did not, im saying is that in their eyes...they are busy calling others "gay" and then began to do basically a thing they would call "gay."

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When was I limiting them from liking penises? They can if they want too, and I wont care. I did not, im saying is that in their eyes...they are busy calling others "gay" and then began to do basically a thing they would call "gay."

 

you completely missed my point and misinterpreted what i meant when i said limiting homosexuality to liking penises.

and its still not hypocritical

its only douchery

not really hypocritical

straight guys talk about penises and boners all the time so that kind of stuff isnt usually seen as gay imo

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you completely missed my point and misinterpreted what i meant when i said limiting homosexuality to liking penises.

and its still not hypocritical

its only douchery

not really hypocritical

straight guys talk about penises and boners all the time so that kind of stuff isnt usually seen as gay imo

 

Sorry then,I was quite confused.

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I'll never understand why being homosexual has to be such a big deal. Leave them alone and let them love whoever they want, it's no different than a guy and girl getting together. So much bashing from overly religious/homophobic people that all this crap is getting really old, really fast. :/

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I'll never understand why being homosexual has to be such a big deal. Leave them alone and let them love whoever they want, it's no different than a guy and girl getting together. So much bashing from overly religious/homophobic people that all this crap is getting really old, really fast. :/

 

Same here. Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

The school's principal, looking pained, had suggested Brittany prepare herself for the next round of teasing with snappy comebacks – "I can lose the weight, but you're stuck with your ugly face" – never acknowledging she had been called a "dyke." As though that part was OK. As though the fact that Brittany was bisexual made her fair game.

 

 

WTF? How could anybody think that this is okay? That principal needs to be fired. It's like telling kid who is getting shoved to take karate and punch the bully in the nose.

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This is why I'm glad I live where I live. I don't know if it's because I live in Canada or the general acceptance of homo and bisexuality is just widespread here but the majority of my friends are bisexual and not once since they've come out, have they been discriminated against. Sure, there's some inititial weirdness among the guys (I don't even know what that's about. I don't get why guys can't just accept that a guy likes another guy. Maybe it's fear the bisexual or gay guy will ask them out.) but that's as bad as it gets up here. Which is why I agree with Kishira. Why can't you be as accepting as us all the way up north?

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