Re-try: Bullying and the people who defend it

Tried to post about this last night and pretty much verified that blogs should come with Breathalyzers. My tone was sarcastic and mad--and I hate when I get that way, because I should know by now....words count. Ironically "words counting" being part of the issue at hand, I re-read my tone, turned gray, and "DELETE".

What gets me really pissed about the different responses from the anti-gay religious right regarding bullying is the classic "blame the victim" attitude: "we're so sorry, but doesn't that just show there's something wrong with 'the gay lifestyle'?" Well, no it doesn't. It proves that kids who are bullied can sometimes get desperate enough to seek any way out, even suicide, And it shows that there are kids who single out people because of actual or perceived "gayness".

If women are raped in a given culture, does that mean there's something wrong with being a woman? If people of some ethnic minority are discriminated against and experience violent hate crimes--is there something innately wrong with them? Reasonable people would recognize the problem is cultural; and I don't see these homophobes as reasonable on this issue.

My deleted post went off on one article linked which I just went at the wrong way--the statistics don't matter. The real question is, "How many dead gay kids do you need before you decide there's a problem?" And I am totally sick of the homophobe's "well, you're persecuting me for my religion." No (sigh). Criticism isn't persecution, and the criticism is because there are actually people collecting a paycheck to be professional homophobes. That this is something anyone actually thinks their God wants them to do skeeves me right the hell out. And religion isn't innate, and homophobia isn't mandatory. There are gay Catholics, gay Protestants, gay Jews, gay Muslims, and there are gay-friendly people who profess those faiths as well, because their regard for their fellow human being outweighs some bit of scripture written a long time ago in different circumstances.

The point that my earlier post stepped all over was this: the culture has to change its focus on "What goes wrong with these kids?" to "Why are there people so fucked in the head they actually work out ways not to accept blame for spreading intolerance and blame innocent people instead?"