It gets better

This post has changed a lot since I started it. It started a few weeks ago when I saw the video below.

It's about 13 minutes long, but I'll give you the short version. Fort Worth city council member Joel Burns used his time to talk about several kids who either were gay or were perceived as gay by their classmates or the community at large. These kids all committed suicide. Burns then goes on to try to tell other kids going through the same thing that he went through the same thing and that life gets better.


I was going to follow this up with my own stories and my own version of the speech. It's not just gays who suffer from the ongoing abuse of classmates. Atheists get similar abuse. So do kids who are bad at sports. Or small. Or different. Or who just look vulnerable.

We're not talking about simple name calling. This is harassment and physical abuse. It wasn't uncommon where I grew up to get snatched off the street, thrown in a pickup, hauled several miles outside of town, stripped naked, fed pissed on Oreos, and made to walk back. Not for being gay. Just vulnerable. If they had reason to dislike you, you got beaten under the football stands. I've had friends who had to wait in the school office after school to keep his classmates from beating him.

You remember the shootings at Columbine. In that school, among many others, the teachers participated in this harassment. In far too many schools the teacher become part of culture of abuse and try to gain favor with the popular kids and jocks by harassing members the victim class. They went from grade school to middle school to high school to college and back to high school. They didn't spend enough time out of the classroom culture to see how completely twisted high school culture really is. Instead of trying to protect the geeks and restrain the bullies they cheer the bullies on.

My original post was going to tell those kids that anyone who spouts that "these are the best years of your life" nonsense are completely full of crap. That once you're out of high school you'll get away from that scum. Once they're out of high school they'll be surrounded by a completely different group of people. And if those people are scum you can still find more people. Up until now where you live, what you do, who you're surrounded by have been dictated to you by others. It's hard to imagine a life where you're not getting attacked in some manner on a near daily basis.

Then Christian fucktard Mike Adams came up with his own stories about Christians being harassed by homosexuals and committing suicide. [link] Only these people didn't commit suicide.

The article shows Adams' complete misunderstanding of the issue. Christians are the majority of the population. The people in his stories were bigots who got scolded. The suicides suffered years of abuse by the majority of the population. There was no relief for them and no hint that there might be relief someday down the line. I just wish I still had that article by some Christian leader in defense of bullying.

Then Arkansas school board member (Midland school district) Clint McCance wrote on his Facebook page

"Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers killed themselves. The only way im wearin it for them is if they all commit suicide. I cant believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid. We are honoring the fact that they sinned and killed thereselves because of their sin. REALLY PEOPLE."

"It pisses me off though that we make a special purple fag day for them. I like that fags cant procreate. I also enjoy the fact that they often give each other aids and die."

"I would disown my kids they were gay. They will not be welcome at my home or in my vicinity. I will absolutely run them off. Of course my kids will know better. My kids will have solid christian beliefs. See it infects everyone."

So these kids are not only getting it from their classmates and teachers, but their school board, too.




If you feel like recording your own story about how it gets better you can upload it to the "It Gets Better" YouTube site. [link]

You can read more about the cases given by Mike Adams. [link]