I'm about to use a quite vulgar gag to talk about something. I'm not doing this to belittle the topic. On the contrary, the subject is something I care quite a great deal about. I am going to belittle the people who cause these tragedies however. I am going to belittle the shit out of them.
There's an organisation out there, an organisation dedicated to evil. They are Christian Ladies Instigating Teen Suicide, or C.L.I.T.S.Some say that C.L.I.T.S. are hard to find, that they are elusive. This is not true. It doesn't take much searching to find C.L.I.T.S. and once you do, you are often assured of a vigorous reaction.
In fact, some C.L.I.T.S. are quite famous. Today I am going to discuss the harm that C.L.I.T.S. can do. How the organised actions and policies of C.L.I.T.S. leads to the death of some of the most vulnerable.
I don't think I'm going to shock anyone when I say that the US has been going through a culture war for some time now. On one side are the preachers, dopes, dummies and dullards who want to turn the country into a theocracy, and on the other side, everybody else. One of the ways this culture war is being fought is in schools. Brainwash them young, and the next generation of fighting will go smoother.
Most think the war in schools is about prayer or school textbooks, and while those are relevant and important, one front in schools is quite important. These fundamentalists are trying to institutionalise gay hatred. Whether they demand the cancellation, delegitimisation or defunding of equality programs, or whether they force through programs of so-called neutrality, the end result is the same: you can call a kid 'faggot', tease them, beat them, make their lives a fucking hell, drive them to depression and suicide, but for fuck's sake just don't say 'gay' or 'homosexual' in school! Staff can get fired, students can get expelled.
This is the rampant hate-filled lunacy that some C.L.I.T.S. are spreading. It seems in US schools, that C.L.I.T.S. are having their way everywhere you look. Some school districts are so restricted and dominated by C.L.I.T.S. it's just not funny.
Michele Bachmann, the failed GOP Presidential candidate runner is one of the more noteworthy of the C.L.I.T.S. out there. In Michele Bachmann's home district, evangelicals have created an extreme anti-gay climate. After a rash of suicides, the kids are fighting back.
To be fair to her, when confronted with the rash of suicides, Bachmann didn't become a ferocious culture warrior, no, she did what every politician does. She nobly and truthfully dodged the issue with some mumbling and a very indirect response;
That denial reaches right up to the pinnacle of the local political food chain: Michele Bachmann, who stayed silent on the suicide cluster in her congressional district for months – until Justin's mom, Tammy Aaberg, forced her to comment. In September, while Bachmann was running for the GOP presidential nomination, Aaberg delivered a petition of 141,000 signatures to Bachmann's office, asking her to address the Anoka-Hennepin suicides and publicly denounce anti-gay bullying. Bachmann has publicly stated her opposition to anti-bullying legislation, asking in a 2006 state Senate committee hearing, "What will be our definition of bullying? Will it get to the point where we are completely stifling free speech and expression?... Will we be expecting boys to be girls?" Bachmann responded to the petition with a generic letter to constituents telling them that "bullying is wrong," and "all human lives have undeniable value." Tammy Aaberg found out about the letter secondhand. "I never got a letter," says Tammy, seated in the finished basement of the Aabergs' new home in Champlin; the family couldn't bear to remain in the old house where Justin hanged himself. "My kid died in her district. And I'm the one that presented the dang petition!" In a closed room a few feet away are Justin's remaining possessions: his cello, in a closet; his soccer equipment, still packed in his Adidas bag. Tammy's suffering hasn't ended. In mid-December, her nine-year-old son was hospitalized for suicidal tendencies; he'd tried to drown himself in the bathtub, wanting to see his big brother again.
Still, other devotees of C.L.I.T.S. are not so nobly cowardly. Most notably the usual raft of 'concerned parents' organisations, which almost always are fronts for radical christian hate groups. These charming souls didn't feel shy about blaming gay teen suicide on the gay teen. No, in their tremendously compassionate belief system, if gay teens don't want to be bullied into suicide, well, they should try not being gay! And maybe loving Jesus a bit.
Anti-gay backlash was instant. Minnesota Family Council president Tom Prichard blogged that Justin's suicide could only be blamed upon one thing: his gayness. "Youth who embrace homosexuality are at greater risk [of suicide], because they've embraced an unhealthy sexual identity and lifestyle," Prichard wrote. Anoka-Hennepin conservatives formally organized into the Parents Action League, declaring opposition to the "radical homosexual" agenda in schools. Its stated goals, advertised on its website, included promoting Day of Truth (a mandatory, school district wide christian faith event), providing resources for students "seeking to leave the homosexual lifestyle," supporting the neutrality policy and targeting "pro-gay activist teachers who fail to abide by district policies."
And what of those students who - fighting against nature, reason, biology, the right to a life of dignity and plain fucking common sense are cajoled into seeking out a 'cure' for their 'gayness'. Well, fortunately these hate groups run 'cure' programs. Just like the one Michele Bachmann's 'ex-gay' husband runs. In fact many of her supporters also run programs like that, and - holy shit! what a fucking coincedence! - are also the 'concerned parent' groups who pushed for these fucked, suicide-inducing policies in the first place;
Both policies were influenced by two religious groups - and big Bachmann supporters - the Minnesota Family Council (MFC) and The Parents Action League, which also lobbied to put discredited 'reparative therapy' materials into schools, according to the website.
So, what are these 'reparative therapy' materials they're talking about? The 'cure'. Cure programs for homosexuality are horseshit. They are almost always Christian scams, more interested in making you a miserable, non-sinning believer, than a well-adjusted out human being. But, it's not just a flyer on the noticeboard in a school canteen. No, some of these C.L.I.T.S. seem to have the clout to ensure one flyer goes home with every student's fucking report card;
The flyer is from a group called PFOX, Parents And Friends Of Ex-Gays And Gays. In the one-page message, the group tells teenagers that no one is "born gay", and people can choose their sexual orientation.
Karen Yount-Merrell, a licensed, clinical social worker, got one of the flyers when her son came home with his report card from Einstein High School.
See, all of these C.L.I.T.S. just wish these gay kids weren't there. They want them to be decent, Christian folk, and well... if they get bashed, bullied or kill themselves for not toeing Jesus' line, well they had the chance to get cured, they should have taken it, anything else is their fault.
Because to C.L.I.T.S. it's always your fault. You shouldn't have hurled your gay face at that decent, Christian fist.
But, what is this proposed 'cure' of theirs? Well, basically it's praying, praying, praying some more and just really, really begging Jesus to be not gay, and to really, really hope you can be not gay. In other words a total farrago of meaningless shit foisted on vulnerable people. And if they fuck up, you can still blame them for being 'too gay' or 'not praying enough'. A neat way of bilking people, keeping your faith, and tidying up the enormous failure rate eh?
Still, it doesn't mean nobody cleans up the wreckage left behind by these criminally bullshit 'cures'. 'Beyond Ex-Gay' is a support network for people who've gone though these farcical 'cures' and been left damaged. Recently they published a public apology from Michael Bussee, co-founder of Exodus International, quite possibly the biggest and most pervasive of the 'gay cure' organisations.
His apology was based on the fact that for 30 years, he'd been pretending the cure worked, when he knew it didn't. Lives have been ruined by this nonsense. The following has some really horrible stuff in it, so take care;
Instead, many of our clients began to fall apart – sinking deeper into patterns of guilt, anxiety and self-loathing. Why weren’t they “changing”? The answers from church leaders made the pain even worse: “You might not be a real Christian.” “You don’t have enough faith.” “You aren’t praying and reading the Bible enough.” “Maybe you have a demon.” The message always seemed to be: “You’re not enough. You’re not trying hard enough. You don’t have enough faith.”This has to stop. Get these C.L.I.T.S. out of the schools. Stop them driving vulnerable kids to their deaths. They're not helping, they're not being kind, they're not just concerned about kids' health and welfare. They are pushing an ideological agenda, and they do not care if your kids get ground under the wheels of their advance. They have no compassion. They are only filled with hate.
Some simply dropped out and were never heard from again. I think they were the lucky ones. Others became very self-destructive. One young man got drunk and deliberately drove his car into a tree. Another (a fellow leader of the ex-gay movement) told me that he had left EXODUS and was now going to straight bars – looking for someone to beat him up. He said the beatings made him feel less guilty – atoning for his sin. One of my most dedicated clients, Mark, took a razor blade to his genitals, slashed himself repeatedly, and then poured drain-cleaner on the wounds—because after months of celibacy he had a “fall.”
Stop them.
Sources;
Rolling Stone
UK Daily Mail
(Ugh) Fox
Blogger Ron Kemp and reprinted at Addicting Info
Beyond Ex-Gay
0 comments:
Post a Comment