This Just Hurts My Brain and My Soul

[elrhiarhodan]

I found this by way of Erastes' blog this morning.

Apparently GLBT people do not exist.

Linda Harvey, an anti-gay activist and lobbyist on behalf of Mission America, has announced that “there is no proof that there’s ever anything like a gay, lesbian, or bisexual or transgendered child, or teen, or human.”

“There are no such humans,” she added.

Following this quote through the various news sites and blogs that have picked it up, a lot of the comments say things like "she's never be on the internet, she's never been to [name of big city], etc."

I think what she's really saying that there is not there there is no such thing as GLBT people. She's saying that they aren't human.

It's 2011, why does this shit still happen?

And why am I not surprised that it does happen, either. Earlier this week, 14 year old Jamey Rodemeyer committed suicide after being bullied for over a year with taunts about his sexuality. The young man had even posted to the "I Gets Better Project" on YouTube.

You can listen to Harvey's appalling statement on Right Wing Watch.

Comments

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

I have no words. I'm just too damn angry to come up with anything. I should be used by now for all the assorted reasons to being told I'm not human. I'm not. I'll never be used to it. I hope Linda Harvey chokes on those words.

[elrhiarhodan]

I rarely wish anyone violence - but Harvey should choke on those words, and a lot worse.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

What's worst of all is that his family will have to hear what she said. This was a child. I will never understand them.

[coffeethyme4me.livejournal.com]

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Elr}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

There are more people like you (well, NONE like YOU, but that's a different post) in the world -- loving, open people -- than people like Linda Harvey. The appalling thing is that she is being given any kind of a voice. But I think the only way to combat that is with our own loving nature. My plan is to be myself, be out and proud, and make change like Mother Teresa did -- one person at a time. We'll win in the end.

My prayers go to the soul of Jamey and any and all others who couldn't make it to the 'better'. May they be forces of positive change from the other side and free of all pain. My prayers go to his and all families now dealing with both the pain of their loved one's death and the cruelty of the world that drove them to it. May their hearts not be permanently hardened. It's a hard, cruel world. It's also a loving and miraculous one.

Thank you for your love and support, Elr. People like you make the big changes possible.

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you, darling. Reading Harvey's statement this morning just wrecked me. Your reply - so generous and loving - has picked me up, dusted me off and gotten my head back on.

Thank you.

[coffeethyme4me.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.

Also, take heart that even most conservative, anti-gay marriage folk don't go so far as to believe gays don't exist. She's in a distinct minority that most people just shake their heads at in disgusted disbelief.

The majority of Americans, even a lot of conservatives, think gays should have the right to be married. DADT was repealed. There is a lot to celebrate. Two steps forward, one step back, and then two triumphant steps forward again.

<3

[elrhiarhodan]

Yes, yes you are right. I just think the combination of yet another suicide by bullying with this awful, awful woman's words just pressed the worst buttons in me.

And I am working on that DADT piece you prompted me for. If all goes well, I may even finish it tonight!

[coffeethyme4me.livejournal.com]

It's hard not to just give in to hatred. Like you said, especially with Harvey and the teen suicides combined, and we know -- all the compassionate people of this world know -- that the hateful one begets the tragic other. It's hard not to scream (and sometimes screaming is what is necessary) when the religious right is the most hateful thing there is and in the name of "love" insights violence against fragile, beautiful people. So. Fucking. Hard.

But I believe they're all sign posts for us, not to become full of hate ourselves (and of course rage and pain are a natural, essential part of this human process) but to really show who we are in response to it. And I think Who We Are is going to be what changes everything -- what is already changing it.

Okay, on to something to really celebrate:

DADT fic!!!!!!!!!!! You RULE! I cannot WAIT!!!! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

[tj-teejay.livejournal.com]

I find it so hard believe and incredibly sad that in this day and age, some people still think that way. You know, I'm as straight as they come, but I keep joking that I should buy a t-shirt that says "Not gay but supportive". I have lesbian friends, and they're all great, and they don't feel the need to hide that they are. I admire them for it.

And the fact that same sex weddings are still not legal in some countries and states is so last century. Why would we want to discriminate against something that is being more and more widely accepted these days? I don't understand.

But, you know, reading something as unsettling as that, it really put the cherry on top of my day from hell. Thanks, Linda Harvey. Now go and dig a hole and stay there. The world doesn't need people like you.

[asimaiyat.livejournal.com]

I think what she's saying is that being gay is a choice or a "lifestyle," not an inherent quality of a person. Like a person can choose to gamble, or to cheat, or whatever, they can choose to have gay sex. It's a pretty common line of reasoning in certain crowds.

The thing that always strikes me as super weird about that argument is that while most people who are honest are sometimes tempted to lie, and most people who are kind and forgiving are sometimes tempted to get mad... most straight people I've met don't see the appeal of having gay sex at all. That's why they're, you know, straight. So I always wonder what's going on in the minds of people who see The Gay as this temptation that we all have to choose to avoid...

[elrhiarhodan]

I don't know if I agree with that - it seems a little too rational.

And yes - it always seems that the ones who decry homosexuality the loudest are the ones most tempted. Didn't Shakespeare say "Methinks thou dost protest too much?"

[ultracape.livejournal.com]

There's no proof that there's ever been a bigoted, idiotic, genetically evil, misanthropic, child, but, voila, she's the living proof that there is.

[elrhiarhodan]

Good answer!

[teaboyfan.livejournal.com]

What an idiot! You have to wonder what, if anything, she would accept as proof, if millions of people living and working in this world aren't enough. An earlier poster hit the nail on the head when s/he said that the statement probably means that being gay is seen as a "chosen" "lifestyle." The classic comeback to that is "And just when did you choose to be straight? Does this mean that all of a sudden you yourself could choose to be gay? Okay, let's see you do it, if it's possible."

This rejection of research findings suggesting that many people most likely are born gay is simply another aspect of a frightening anti-scientific, anti-intellectual atmosphere professed by a vocal minority of people. I'm willing to bet she doesn't believe in evolution either. "Your truth doesn't fit my mythology, so I reject it."

[shelley6441.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, Elr. Linda Harvey doesn't exist. There's no such creature.

[elrhiarhodan]

Thank you, I have begun to suspect that.