I’m taking a deep breath before I start writing this post, because Linda Harvey is probably the single most consistently disgusting, hateful, pigheaded person on the entire Religious Right when it comes to her writings about LGBT people, and the fact that she has decided to piss on these children’s graves may send me over the edge. But we will do this together, and we will be strong.
Her piece is, of course, on WorldNetDaily, home to all of the nation’s greatest conspiracy theories — they’re the biggest birthers on the internet — so it fits right in.
The headline:
Is ‘gay’ agenda to blame for teen suicides?
Yeah, Linda, it must be us. It’s the people who are trying to send the kids a message that they’re good, that they’re worthy of life, and that they’re loved. What villains we are.
Details are sketchy in the recent rash of homosexual-related teen suicides throughout the nation, but already the “gay” lobby is ready to exploit our children one more time.
I think you need to take your predatory hands off of our children, Linda. Do not use the word “our” when referring to gay children.
How do families and school communities cope with such tragedy? As a parent, I cannot even imagine the heartbreak.
Which is strange, since you’ve had a hand in inflicting it.
Would widespread community embrace of homosexuality and gender-switching prevent some of these suicides? Or is misinformation actually a contributor to the despair embedded in these tragedies?
The answer is “both.” If people, in light of all of the science [the grown-up science, Linda, not your fundamentalist moron “science”], grew to understand that homosexuality is a very, very normal part of humanity, these tragedies would be few and far between; moreover, if the Religious Right closed up shop tomorrow, the suicide rate among gay teens would drop precipitously, as the Religious Right is the originator of basically every lie about gay people that exists in our national discourse.
Linda then spends a paragraph bitching about GLSEN and claiming that their study which shows that nine out of ten gay kids are harassed in school is “flawed,” because facts like that are inconvenient for hateful women like Linda.
As the pressure groups scream for pro-homosexual policies, they simultaneously seek to prohibit all speech opposing homosexual behavior, which is viewed as harassment or contributing to it. Compulsory re-education is the only solution, because saying “no” to homosexuality always leads to such tragedy, or so they claim. In the fantasy world of these child-corruption advocates, there’s an unbroken line connecting the actual bullies to any and all who stand up against sexual deviance.
In other words, it’s not sufficient to punish the individuals involved. No, everyone must pay because traditional heterosexual culture is guilty for daring to believe homosexuality is a negative, not a positive.
Correction, Harvey: Backwards bigots believe homosexuality is a negative. Do not try to impute your poor education, your mental anguish, your inner hatred and your complete lack of a tether to actual reality onto “heterosexual culture.” Straight people are, by in large, making the transition into understanding their gay and lesbian children, brothers, sisters, friends and co-workers just fine, thank you. It could happen faster, but as with most issues of “other” in American culture, there is tension between the younger generations, who get it, and the older generations, who will have to die off before the transition is complete.
Moreover, anti-gay speech IS harassment. If these children went to anti-gay churches, what they heard from the pulpit was bullying, pure and simple. Any gay kids reading Linda’s words right now are being bullied. It doesn’t mean the professional bullies aren’t protected under the First Amendment, but it does render us responsible to call them out for it.
Could there be another answer, one that deals with reality?
Always beware when a fundamentalist kook uses the word “reality.” It means we’re going to CrazyTown.
Recent trends in public schools might provide some clues. “Gay” advocacy is growing, now aimed at kids at younger and younger ages. Over 4,000 homosexual clubs have been formed in the past decade, some now at the middle-school level. New, often sexually graphic fiction urges children to explore alternate sexual behavior and gender norms. GLSEN’s explicit book recommendations come to mind. And the Human Rights Campaign’s “Welcoming Schools” program reaches down to grade schoolers to normalize aberrant lifestyles.
Kids are urged to “come out” early. That’s exactly what several of these young victims did, and such actions are often associated with subsequent early suicide attempts.
AND NOW she’s being completely intellectually dishonest, because her readers are stupid and she knows it. Yes, kids are coming out earlier. Many of them are doing just fine! The gay-straight alliances in schools are a big help, because they give kids a safe place where before they might not have had one. However, because there is still a disease of religious fundamentalism in this country, many of the kids accept their sexuality earlier and come out DO indeed find themselves more vulnerable to a cruel society, where many members have been indoctrinated into the sort of mindless and ugly beliefs that Linda is espousing today.
Now watch the toad just start cold making shit up:
The already troubled youngster is often the one drawn to homosexuality or gender compromise and is extremely vulnerable. For many reasons, the grand experiment is crashing before our eyes. But it’s our precious young people, the targets of the double barrels of cruel words as well as cruel sexual manipulation, who are paying the ultimate price.
That’s right, Linda. The entire scientific community has just been waiting for Linda, expert on nothing, to explain how kids become gay. You shameless fool, these kids are not “drawn” to homosexuality. They’re gay. As in, attracted to members of the same sex. It happens at puberty.
One wonders if any of these kids ever heard a clearly articulated warning against homosexuality.
OF COURSE THEY HAVE! Unfortunately, we still live in a society where irrational homophobia like Linda’s trickles down into all corners! They hear it from their predatory pastors, sometimes from their parents, from the nelly leaders of the Family Research Council on television, from kids in the schoolyard who are being raised by bigots…they hear it everywhere!
How DARE she stomp on these kids’ graves by suggesting that if only they had heard more of her Phelps-ian hate speech, maybe they’d be alive? HOW DARE SHE?
Watch her dig it even deeper:
Or were they faced with a continuous onslaught of pro-homosexual diversity lessons, novels and events like the “Day of Silence”? Were they surrounded with liberal teachers as role models and the bad example of a homosexual school club? What part did any of this play in the sad belief that homosexuality was an inevitable destiny, instead of a wayward yet changeable sexual inclination? Under almost continuous pressure to accept a lie – confusion and then despair may be the predictable result.
Yes, they were faced with an “onslaught” of people telling them that they were okay the way they are, faced with teachers and schools which gave them a safe gay club in an otherwise cruel world, and they just offed themselves. Newsflash: gay kids don’t have any reason to hate themselves if adults and other children don’t tell them they should!
She finally mentions the bullies at this point, but almost as an afterthought, because Linda is in full damage control mode. Nope, for this deranged woman, it’s all the Human Rights Campaign’s fault.
But there’s a solution. First and foremost, kids should be told the truth that no one is born gay. Despite any budding feelings he or she may have, many people who felt similarly at that age went on to change both their feelings and behavior, and to be well-adjusted adult heterosexuals, some married with children. The gay lobbyists actively prevent kids from knowing this option. Why can’t they be “pro-choice” regarding homosexuality?
Linda’s solution is to keep telling gay kids that they’re worthless and evil. She doesn’t say it that way, but because in her pig ignorance she refuses to accept the reality that homosexuality simply exists, gay kids simply exist, she would have you tell the kids that “no, you’re really not gay, you’re not who you know you are…in essence, you do not exist.” For quick reference, these kids do exist, and here’s the suicide note from one of them who survived. Read that and tell me that the only thing these kids need is to hear more anti-gay hate and bile from Linda Harvey.
Nice, Linda. It’s a wonder she hasn’t offered to hold the gun for one of these kids.
By the way, Linda is a troll in more ways than one, so if she shows up in the comments section trying to defend herself, let her have it.
