Here we are, at the end of our five-part series, “19-Year Old Gay Teen’s Suicide,” about Zach Harrington, the Norman, Oklahoma nineteen-year old who succumbed to suicide shortly after spending three hours listening to his neighbors at a city council town hall meeting debating whether or not to support a proclamation honoring October as “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender History Month†in Norman.
This is the last of the series, but this week we’ll continue to bring you news of the aftermath of the town hall.
Before we get to this last video, I want to make sure everyone knows that the city council did, indeed, pass the proclamation, 7-1. And I also want to be clear: not everyone at the meeting opposed the proclamation. There were many who supported it. The purpose of these videos is to highlight the opposition’s ignorance, hate, and homophobia, in the hopes that they, and those like them, see the direct correlation between their words and the death of young Zach Harrington.
Perhaps sharing these will prevent the next Zach from succumbing, and hopefully, will prevent these citizens, and those like them, from speaking hate.
Today’s video is of a speaker who came prepared. He is proud of how he educated himself on the issue. Sadly, his “education,” shows that ignorance is rampant on the Internet. He quotes studies from NARTH, the “National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality.” NARTH is a long-discredited hate group that was founded by none other than George “lift my luggage” Rekers. Need we say more?
It’s a little embarrassing to quote anything that NARTH supports. It would be like announcing to the world the earth is flat, a century after it was commonly accepted that the earth is round.
Oh, and those comments about “GRIDS?” Offensive. GRIDS was the pre-HIV/AIDS name in 1982. It didn’t last long. Neither will this man’s prejudices. Some day, I believe, Americans will be far less ignorant, far less hate-filled.
Make sure you watch part one, part two, part three, and part four.