For young LGBTQ TalkBass members...

[MAJOR METAL]

The scars run deep when the laceration is complete.

The scars tell the stories, sad but true.

 

[MIJ-VI]

10 Anti-Gay Myths Debunked

 

[MIJ-VI]

A beautifully written and performed song of hope for those who feel they have none left:

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[kydnav]

I like this one;

 

[MatticusMania]

As a Christian myself, I was not offended by the usage. Because let's face it...there are certainly large numbers of bigots amongst our numbers. But it's not all like that....if you ever hear the phrase "affirming church" it refers specifically to churches (generally protestant) that openly embrace LGBT people. And with no strings attached either...we don't attempt to "fix" them or whatever phrase you want to use. Just accept them just like anybody else.

Certainly. My disdain is not for Christians in general, but those who use religion as a means for discrimination. These can be people of any religion. I have actually been to a church in pasadena that is an "affirming church" where I witnessed many gay & straight people worshiping together. My future in-laws just became members. It truly is a wonderful thing.

 

[IconBasser]

I like this one;

hey Kydnav! How's our favorite dutch woman doing?

 

[kydnav]

hey Kydnav! How's our favorite dutch woman doing?

Quite dandy actually! How you doin'?

(I actually still lurk around here often, just don't find the need to post most of the time )

 

[IconBasser]

I'm alright, just workin' my way through college and jammin with my death metal band.

 

[username n/a]

Quite dandy actually! How you doin'?

(I actually still lurk around here often, just don't find the need to post most of the time )

GEE, thanks for asking how I'm doing.

 

[MatticusMania]

no one cares username, now go gorge yourself on late night stuffing!

 

[username n/a]

I don't have any stuffing. My thanksgiving dinner was tortilla chips and salsa.

 

[vegas532]

In the winter of '92 I was at the tail end of a 6 year-long booze and cocaine-tinged binge when early one morning I went to a tiny all-night coffee shop in downtown Toronto known as a hangout for street-level drug dealers and prostitutes. I wanted dope.

Three young guys in drag came in to buy coffee. They looked (to me) like they were dressed up for a costume party. One of them was so young I was staring at him and asking myself if his parents knew where he was at such an hour. They bought their coffees and left.

Nearly four and a half years later I was sober (finally) and walking down the street fully absorbed in how I was going to arrange a MIDI string part once I arrived home. For some reason I glanced down at a Toronto Sun newspaper box. I was stunned breathless to see the front page plastered with a photo of the same boy (except that he looked older) and a headline stating that he was one of three prostitutes murdered the night before. It was only then that I learned his name: Shawn Keegan. He had just turned 19.

I later learned that he ran away from his Belleville Ontario home just before his 13th birthday and had hitchhiked to Toronto. He was openly Gay. I don't know why he ran away from home but I do know that it's unlikely a 12-year-old boy would leave a home where he felt loved and safe.

If I had my life in reasonable order at the time I first saw him in that coffee shop I may have been able to help him when it would've done some good. But instead I was a pathetic, suicidally depressed, psychotic drunk who had recently been fired and was 2 weeks away from being evicted & homeless for the first time ever. In failing myself I insured that I would also fail others.

However, preceding my failure was a sequence of events contributing to Shawn Keegan's avoidable demise--starting with the concerted actions of those whose conduct drove him to leave the security of his family's home when he was just 12 years old.

In contrast to Shawn Keegan's response to widespread rejection due to his sexual orientation, 14-year-old Brandon Bitner, pictured above, was sufficiently driven to escape his torment by running into the path of a transport truck.

LGBT people: the most universally hated and persecuted minority on Earth, bar none.

This, sir, is the most heart breaking, yet beautiful post I have read in many years. A huge BRAVO to you...and as it's been said before, the world needs more people like you.

 

[MIJ-VI]

This, sir, is the most heart breaking, yet beautiful post I have read in many years. A huge BRAVO to you...and as it's been said before, the world needs more people like you.

IMHO what the world needs more of are people who can succeed in rescuing runaway/throwaway kids off of big city streets.

Here in Toronto the need for personal action on the part of those who have the means and the ways to help is great:

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I sincerely hope that some of the growing numbers of same sex married couples in Toronto who have two income households will consider offering refuge to one of the young LGBT runaway/throwaway kids they can readily find in and about their own neighbourhood--especially since these vulnerable youngsters currently have no officially designated support which is proportionally on par with that available to heterosexual runaways/throwaways:

Why Doesn't Toronto Have a Homeless Shelter for LGBT Youth?

Aside from underfunded organizations like Covenant House and Eva's Initiatives which try to get homeless kids off the street for good, it seems that for the most part the only other people who pursue an active interest in these youngsters are the predators who range from pimps, to drug dealers, to 'chicken hawks' (older homosexual men who are attracted to minors), to seemingly straight-laced middle class family men from the 'burbs who come downtown for a piece of young stuff - of either sex - which they wouldn't dare solicit in their own neighbourhoods.

To those who are thinking of say.., taking a second vacation each year, or adopting a pricey pet like a parrot or a purebred dog etc: why not take in, protect, educate, and mentor a homeless minor instead?

UPDATE:

Toronto Group Pushes for Gay Homeless Youth Shelter

 

[Alucard817]

My only question is where are the groups for people who are bullied for other reasons.
why do homosexuals get all the attention?

there are people who commit suicide everyday because of bullying who are not gay.

 

[MIJ-VI]

My only question is where are the groups for people who are bullied for other reasons.
why do homosexuals get all the attention?

there are people who commit suicide everyday because of bullying who are not gay.

Post some links to who they are and why they're bullied to the point of killing themselves.

 

[Alucard817]

Post some links to who they are and why they're bullied to the point of killing themselves.

right-o

Phoebe Prince/ Bullied and raped Simply because of two guys she dated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Phoebe_Prince

Samantha Kelly/Pressed charges of rape, supsoquently bullied at school til she committed suicide.
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Thats just two, i dont feel like looking up more since its 6 am here.

suicide statistics. btw 2009 statistics wont be released until the end of the year.

Data concerning young homosexuals is somewhat unreliable. It appears that about one in three teen aged suicides is by a gay or lesbian. Since homosexuals represent only about 5% of the population, gays and lesbians are greatly over-represented.

Young Native Americans have a very high suicide rate. "Among American Indians/Alaska Natives ages 15- to 34-years, suicide is the second leading cause of death." 5 Older Native Americans commit suicide less often than do Whites of the same age.

source
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In 2007, suicide was the third leading cause of death for young people ages 15 to 24.1 Of every 100,000 young people in each age group, the following number died by suicide:1
Children ages 10 to 14 — 0.9 per 100,000
Adolescents ages 15 to 19 — 6.9 per 100,000
Young adults ages 20 to 24 — 12.7 per 100,000

Of every 100,000 people in each of the following ethnic/racial groups below, the following number died by suicide in 2007.1
Highest rates:
American Indian and Alaska Natives — 14.3 per 100,000
Non-Hispanic Whites — 13.5 per 100,000

source
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/suicide-in-the-us-statistics-and-prevention/index.shtml
The LGBT suicide rate is greatly exaggerated, yes its a terrible thing, but there is a media frenzy to "get the gory details". and make it look worse then it really is.

the approximate numbers for the gay population in the US is debatable but figures are anywhere from 3-16% (its impossible to really know, maybe the 2010 census will shed some light on the subject) when you break that down even further to teens the number is much lower.

Since this group is such a small minority among suicide victims then it would stand to reason that the 100,000-200,000 teens who commit suicide every year are primarily NOT lgbt.

There is also a statistic floating around that cites LGBT are 4 times more likely to commit suicide.
I am a bit skeptical of this statistic.
1 I have never seen the study, or source this was quoted from.
2 there are no ACTUAL numbers, since sexual orientation is rarely if ever mentioned in suicide attempt/completion statistics.

 

[MIJ-VI]

Thank you for supplying an additional perspective to the recent LGBT teen suicides Alucard817.

 

[MIJ-VI]

Please Live Campaign
http://www.facebook.com/PleaseLive?v=wall

 

[MIJ-VI]

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"In a scathing indictment of New Jersey's Emerson School District, the state's attorney general Paula Dow says administrators there for six years ignored the obvious anti-gay bullying of student "'J.C." And she wants blood.

From middle through high school, J.C. was physically assaulted, had his life threatened (with kids telling him they'd slit his throat and shoot him at school), and regularly taunted with gay slurs. Drawings of J.C. performing gay sex acts were circulated among students. A faux Facebook profile was set up that identified J.C. as "female" and listed his sexual orientation as "unknown." J.C.'s parents complained to the school at least 17 times, but not once were the parents of the bullies ever contacted by the school, the complaint says, nor were the students punished in any meaningful way..."

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Here's an excerpt from:

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"...David and Amy Truong said they made several visits to the school to complain about the harassment, and Amy Truong said she made numerous phone calls to the school that were never returned.
'We want justice'

Cy Fair ISD officials said Monday that they never received any complaints from Brown's parents before the suicide about the way the boy was being treated at school.

School district spokeswoman Kelli Durham, whose husband Alan Durham is a Hamilton assistant principal, said no students, school employees or the boy's parents ever reported that he was being bullied.

That statement infuriated the Truongs, who accused the school district of protecting the bullies and their parents.

"That's absolutely inaccurate — it's completely false," Amy Truong said. "I did not hallucinate phone calls to counselors and assistant principals. We have no reason to make this up. … It's like they're calling us liars."

David Truong said, "We want justice. The people here need to be held responsible and to be stopped. It did happen. There are witnesses everywhere."

Numerous comments from parents and students on the Web site of KRIV-TV Channel 26, which also reported a story about Brown's death, stated that the boy had been bullied by classmates for several years and claimed Cy-Fair ISD does nothing to stop such harassment.

Durham said the school counselor and an assistant principal received an e-mail from Amy Truong earlier this month, asking them to keep an eye on her son, but Durham said it was because of ongoing concerns at home and not about bullying..."

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"Superintendent: "None of the suicides were connected to incidents of bullying""

"Monday night’s meeting of the Anoka-Hennepin School Board was a contentious one as the issue of bullying and suicide in the district again came up. The state’s largest school district opened an investigation into the suicides of nine students over the past year — some by students who were allegedly bullied for their sexual orientation — and said that it found no evidence that any of the nine were bullied. Students and parents criticized the district for its statement — at times the conversation devolved to shouting — while district officials said there’s not much they can do if students and parents don’t report incidents to the schools.

In a voicemail to staff last week, the district said that reports by parents, students and staff regarding bullying are “not true.”

“We continue to correct inaccurate statements about students who have committed suicide over the past year,” Superintendent Dennis Carlson told district staff. “We know how difficult these deaths have been for our schools. Based on all the information we’ve been able to gather, none of the suicides were connected to incidents of bullying or harassment. In addition to family and friends, many of our employees were personally affected by these tragedies.”

Over the last 18 months, the district has been at the heart of the debate over LGBT-bullying. In late 2009, a high-profile investigation by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights found that two teachers in the district conspired to harass a student they thought was gay. The teachers went on leave, and the district paid $25,000 to the student..."

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The lesson to be learned here is that if one has a kid who is being relentlessly bullied in school then please:

- document ALL of the details (Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?)

- then submit said documented details to a lawyer and have him or her send a registered letter which names and is addressed to your child's home room teacher, the school's principal, and to someone in a position of authority at the local school board. (Optionally: send a copy of the registered letter to a local newspaper.)

Easy-to-make-and-to-ignore phone calls and e-mails are insufficient. Don't leave school officials ANY wiggle room.

 

[Alucard817]

Thank you for supplying an additional perspective to the recent LGBT teen suicides Alucard817.

WOAH!!! Your not going to call me a homophobe? Or tell me Im a horrible person for having a different opinion on this subject?

Holy cow, on the other guitar/bass forum I belonged to would jump down my throat. (wont mention any names) and berate me.

Thanks for NOT being like that.

Please Live Campaign
http://www.facebook.com/PleaseLive?v=wall

See thats what we need right there. Thanks for posting the linky.