19-Year Old Gay Teen’s Suicide: Part 2 – “The love that dare not speak its name now never shuts up.”
Yesterday we began our five-part series, “19-Year Old Gay Teen’s Suicide” with Part 1: “Watch The Bigots Who Pushed Him Over The Edge.” (See part three: 19-Year Old Gay Teen’s Suicide: Part 3 – “Gay†Same As “Fornicator, Adulterer, Bigamist, Prostituteâ€) In it, we showed you a video of a so-called concerned citizen whom I dubbed “Mr. Slippery Slope,” who had the gall to stand in front of his town’s mayor, city council and fellow citizens to protest a proclamation to name October “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History Month.”
You’ll remember Mr. Slippery Slope predicted with certainty, should the proclamation be adopted, that homosexuality will be “infiltrated†into the schools, schools will be forced to teach about how people came out, there will be pictures of gay sex shown to children in school, “recruiting children into these lifestyles will be very easy,†hate crimes laws will be passed to discriminate against anyone who speaks out about homophobia, the bible will be banned, the bible will be called a hate book, clergy will be put in jail…
Sick.
Sadly, it is words like this, and the words you’ll hear below, that pushed nineteen-year old Zach Harrington into suicide. Yes, Zach’s parents believe their son’s death came as a result of hearing three hours of “debate” on the merits of something as innocuous as a proclamation honoring LGBT history.
The Norman, Oklahoma newspaper reports Harrington’s father, Van, while blaming the comments from the debate for his son’s suicide, doesn’t hold them solely responsible. “Van Harrington said he feels a lack of acceptance from society and what he calls a “toxic meeting†last month is what finally pushed Zach over the edge.â€
I also believe we have the professional bullies to blame for this ignorance, ignorance that caused this young man’s death, and that caused the death of ten other teens in September alone.
Today, watch this Norman citizen say, “The love that dare not speak its name has become the love that never shuts up.” He then compares a proclamation for “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History Month” to a proclamation for “wife-swapping.” Classy. “In conclusion,” he says, “If you choose to vote this down, no one will be physically harmed.” Think again.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=dqVTe_7L1Ss%3Ffs%3D1%26hl%3Den_US
Our thoughts are with the families of all teens who succumbed to suicide after enduring anti-gay hate. It is my hope that all the people who had a hand in spreading that hate, homophobia, and ignorance, turn their lives around and embrace people’s differences as much as their similarities.
I invite anyone from Norman to contact me to share their thoughts on the proclamation, and on the life and death of Zach Harrington.
Thanks to NGBlog‘s YouTube channel for providing these very important videos.
(See the next installment: 19-Year Old Gay Teen’s Suicide: Part 3 – “Gay†Same As “Fornicator, Adulterer, Bigamist, Prostituteâ€)
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News
Chris Wallace Busts GOP Governor for Opposing Vaccine Mandates for COVID but Not for Chicken Pox
Fox News host Chris Wallace challenged Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) for opposing a mandate for the Covid-19 vaccine but not for other diseases.
During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Wallace asked Ricketts why he is fighting President Joe Biden’s call for companies with 100 or more employees to require worker vaccinations for Covid-19.
“I’ve talked to a number of people,” Rickets said. “They’ve told me, if they make me take the vaccine, I’m just going to be fired.”
“You say it’s a personal choice,” Wallace pointed out. “In fact, to attend school in your state of Nebraska, children must be vaccinated against a number of diseases.”
The Fox News host then listed off the diseases which include tetanus, polio, measles, and chicken pox.
“Why are those mandates that parents and your state must comply with and do comply with routinely, why is it that they’re not so objectionable and such a violation of personal freedom but Biden’s vaccine mandates are?”
Ricketts argued that the Covid-19 vaccine does not have a “long history” of use.
“There are still a lot of people out there that don’t know what to trust,” Ricketts said. “This is really an outcome of what the CDC has done because they have flip-flopped on so many issues, whether it’s masks or if you have masks when you’ve been vaccinated and so forth. There’s just a lot of people out there that don’t know who to trust right now.”
“That’s why it should be a personal choice and not something mandated by the government,” he added.
Wallace pushed back by noting that the polio vaccine was mandated as soon as it was available.
“So we’re in the middle of a pandemic, there is a new vaccine that Donald Trump was largely responsible for, it’s been approved — full approval — by the FDA,” Wallace said. “Again, if the polio vaccine is OK for parents and they have to comply with it to send their kid to school, why not the vaccine for this disease?”
Ricketts insisted that the current pandemic is “very different from polio.”
“Children are no more at risk for the coronavirus than they are the ordinary flu,” he said. “The risk for this is just such that this is something that we shouldn’t be mandating it.”
Watch the video below from Fox News.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton raised eyebrows on Saturday after honoring 9/11 by posting a bizarre picture imaging the scene inside the World Trade Center just before it was struck.
The photo shows three men in an office, drinking from red Solo cups before the early morning attack.
“Our enemies turned planes into missiles & used them to strike at the heart of American Democracy,” Paxton wrote.
20 yrs ago today our country was attacked. Our enemies turned planes into missiles & used them to strike at the heart of American Democracy. We must #neverforget the almost 3000 Americans that perished. Please spend a few moments today remembering & praying for the families. #911 pic.twitter.com/hCxUYfmZm2
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) September 11, 2021
As Twitter user Ian Livingston noted, former MTV “Teen Mom 2” star Jenelle Evans had generated controversy when she posted the same image a year earlier.
“‘AWFUL’ Teen Mom Jenelle Evans slammed for posting ‘tone deaf’ and ‘horrible’ photo of plane to commemorate 9/11,” was the headline used by the U.S. Sun.
And sure enough, Paxton was also dragged.
AFAIK, the WTC was not the “heart of American democracy”
But I def understand you wanting to confuse people what striking at the heart of American democracy would look like
— DL 138 (@DL_138) September 11, 2021
According to a report from the New York Post, former president Donald Trump is planning to visit Ground Zero in Manhattan on Saturday as part of the 20th-anniversary remembrance of the 9/11 attack.
Trump’s visit will come hours after he released a video using the somber day to attack current President Joe Biden over his Afghanistan withdrawal by claiming “The leader of our country was made to look like a fool, and that can never be allowed to happen.”
With Biden expected to visit Ground Zero early Saturday morning before appearing at the other two sites of 9/11 plane crashes, Trump told Fox News Friday night about his Saturday plans, scheduled for the afternoon, before taking an additional shot at Biden over Afghanistan, saying, “It is very depressing. his was supposed to be a day of victory. Now it is a day of embarrassment. How do you have this happen? I think Biden rushed it [the Afghan pullout] to try to claim victory and now, he looks like a fool.”
You can read more here.
Image: DOD photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Dominique A. Pineiro via Flickr
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