As many of you know, last wednesday an enormous amount of Aragon students showed up to school wearing purple. The purple clothes were worn to represent the students support of the anti-gay suicide campaign. Over the last few months, there have been muliple gay suicides due to bullying. From this horrible set of events, people have banded together to join the "It Gets Better" campaign. Celebrities such as Sarah Silverman, Neil Patrcik Harris and Adam Lambert have posted videos on YouTube encouraging LGBT teenagers to stand up to bullies.
Last week, four different news stations came to Aragon to speak with teenagers about this tragedy that is affecting the United States. The week previous there were 3 separate accounts of anti-gay bullying alone. The Bay Area is, for the most part, very accepting of people no matter what their race, religion or sexuality so I find it bothersome that in one of the most accepting areas in the world, there are still rashes of unacceptable behavior. I understand that everyone has their own opinion on homosexuality, but to bully someone over their sexuality is ridiculous.
I personally can't stand it when ignorant people purposefully try to make LGBT teens uncomfortable. What are your views on the matter?
I personally can't stand it when ignorant people purposefully try to make LGBT teens uncomfortable. What are your views on the matter?
1 comment:
I definitely agree that the Bay Area is generally more accepting than other areas (despite the fact that California in its entirety is seen to be pretty accepting overall).
Honestly, I thought that people were going to forget to wear purple and if they did remember, were just not going to wear it. But I was certainly proven wrong, and I was glad to see that so many people participated on October 20th to support and mourn the many teens who have recently, and in the past, committed suicide due to anti-gay bullying.
It is wrong for anyone to put homosexual teens through any kind of bullying, especially because it is typically during high school (and sometimes middle school, though I don't remember any ridicule imposed on anyone, gay or not) that being gay proves to be most difficult. It is when the words "fag" and "dyke" are in mostly everyone's vocabulary, and when only some of those people know the extent of the pain which those words bring. To be belittled into one word, into "gay", "queer", etc., is absolutely horrible, and I would hope that people at Aragon know better than to participate in such bullying. I know that this is not the case, that there are still some instances that occur in which teens at Aragon (and other schools) are bullied. On that note, I do think that there needs to be more severe consequences for people who are caught bullying others, whether or not it is because of that person's homosexuality. Multiple detentions are not going to teach someone a lesson; something else needs to be done.
On another note, for those who are bullied, "It Gets Better" (which I think is a great and incredibly influential campaign), really does sum it up. I hope that Aragon, and other schools in the district, make sure that the "It Gets Better" campaign is known on campus, so as to offer support to fellow students who may feel like either today, tomorrow, or whenever, may be their last. High school sucks for a little while, but it does get better.
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