Please pass it on to your friends and acquaintances and ask them to read it...It may make a difference in someones life! Whether you are homosexual or not, you should repost this in support of your friends and loved ones who are. Love is not defined by color, creed, or gender. I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman. I am the boy who never finished high school, because I got called a fag everyday I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian. I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman. I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights. We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time. I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room. I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me. I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear. We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men. I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me. I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman. I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male. I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men. I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that. I am the woman who died when the EMTs stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual. I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I didnt have to always deal with society hating me. I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don't believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind. I am a warrior for my country serving proud, but can't be my true self because gays aren't allowed in the military. I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love. ..LiKE THIS..PEOPLE ARE IGNORANT . I am the person ashamed to tell my own friends I'm a lesbian, because they constantly make fun of them. I am the boy tied to a fence, beaten to a bloody pulp and left to die because two straight men wanted to "teach me a lesson." This is the boy, Matthew Shepard. On October 7, 1998 Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson lead him to a remote area east of Laramie where they demonstrated unimaginable acts of hate. Matthew was tied to a split-rail fence where he was beaten and left to die in the cold of the night. Almost 18 hours later he was found by a cyclist who initially mistook him for a scarecrow. Matthew died on October 12 at 12:53 am at a hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. KILLED BECAUSE HE WAS GAY!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard I found out about this boy before I read your post. It makes me sick every time I hear about it, he was so innocent and he died because he was different from the two neanderthals who committed this atrocity. What those two men did was utterly unforgiveable. Your reference to a scarecrow was emphasised in this song: http://www.lyricstime.com/melissa-etheridge-scarecrow-lyrics.html Thank you for mentioning this story, Bear.
wow those are some amazing words Canadian Bear. Thanks for posting them. Hm....wonder what my story will be
I've seen this somewhere before, although I don't recall where at the moment. And honestly, it hit me just as hard the second time as it did the first. And if I happen upon it again, it will still hit me just as hard. These are the kinds of things that could very easily break someone's spirit, and these are the things that we as a community need to rally around. I realize that most of the members here are not of legal voting age, but there's no reason not to being getting informed about the issues and informed about the politics. And for those who are old enough, GET INVOLVED! The only way we can stop this shit from happening is if WE get up and get motivated and get some change happening. Read up on the candidates for public office and VOTE. Write letters to your elected officials. Contribute money to gay rights groups. Every time I read about something like Matthew Shepard or the guy in Indiana who had to go to court to get visitation for his partner of 25 years or the guy that got robbed and died because the bastards thought that a gay guy would be an easy mark, it makes me that much more willing to contribute money to things like the HRC and to watch the presidential debates. Forgive me if I sound a bit preachy, but this isn't just something to show people. This is a rallying cry and a cause for action and motivation.
I think what shocked me most was the anti-gay slogans about Matthew Shepard after his death (it says on the wiki page) "Matthew Shepard rots in Hell" "AIDS kills fags" "God hates fags" Stupid homophobic asswipes
