{"id":2617,"date":"2010-10-21T18:43:16","date_gmt":"2010-10-21T18:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beerandrap.com\/word\/2010\/10\/21\/a-wonderful-post-by-dan-savage\/"},"modified":"2010-10-21T18:43:16","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T18:43:16","slug":"a-wonderful-post-by-dan-savage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beerandrap.com\/word\/2010\/10\/21\/a-wonderful-post-by-dan-savage\/","title":{"rendered":"A Wonderful Post By Dan Savage"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Wonderful Post By Dan Savage<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

snapandgo<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Gay Kids Are Dying, Fuck Your Feelings<\/strong><\/a>
October 14, 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Dan:\u00a0 I was listening to the radio yesterday morning, and I heard an interview with you about your It Gets Better campaign. I was saddened and frustrated with your comments regarding people of faith and their perpetuation of bullying. As someone who loves the Lord and does not support gay marriage, I can honestly say I was heartbroken to hear about the young man who took his own life.<\/em><\/p>\n

If your message is that we should not judge people based on their sexual preference, how do you justify judging entire groups of people for any other reason (including their faith)? There is no part of me that took any pleasure in what happened to that young man, and I know for a fact that is true of many other people who disagree with your viewpoint.<\/em><\/p>\n

To that end, to imply that I would somehow encourage my children to mock, hurt, or intimidate another person for any reason is completely unfounded and offensive. Being a follower of Christ is, above all things, a recognition that we are all imperfect, fallible, and in desperate need of a savior. We cannot believe that we are better or more worthy than other people.<\/em><\/p>\n

Please consider your viewpoint, and please be more careful with your words in the future.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014L.R.<\/em><\/p>\n

Savage:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sorry your feelings were hurt by my comments.<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, wait. I\u2019m not. Gay kids are dying. So let\u2019s try to keep things in perspective: Fuck your feelings<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A question: Do you \u201csupport\u201d atheist marriage? Interfaith marriage? Divorce and remarriage? All are legal, all go against Christian and\/or traditional ideas about marriage, and yet there\u2019s no \u201cChristian\u201d movement to deny marriage rights to atheists or people marrying outside their respective faiths or people divorcing and remarrying.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why the hell not?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sorry, L.R., but so long as you support the denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples, it\u2019s clear that you do believe that some people\u2014straight people\u2014are \u201cbetter or more worthy\u201d than others.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And\u2014sorry\u2014but you are partly responsible for the bullying and physical violence being visited on vulnerable LGBT children. The kids of people who see gay people as sinful or damaged or disordered and unworthy of full civil equality\u2014even if those people strive to express their bigotry in the politest possible way (at least when they happen to be addressing a gay person)\u2014learn to see gay people as sinful, damaged, disordered, and unworthy. And while there may not be any gay adults or couples where you live, or at your church, or in your workplace, I promise you that there are gay and lesbian children in your schools. And while you can only attack gays and lesbians at the ballot box, nice and impersonally, your children have the option of attacking actual gays and lesbians, in person, in real time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Real gay and lesbian children<\/em>. Not political abstractions, not \u201csinners.\u201d Gay and lesbian children<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Try to keep up: The dehumanizing bigotries that fall from the lips of \u201cfaithful Christians,\u201d and the lies about us that vomit out from the pulpits of churches that \u201cfaithful Christians\u201d drag their kids to on Sundays, give your children license to verbally abuse, humiliate, and condemn the gay children they encounter at school. And many of your children\u2014having listened to Mom and Dad talk about how gay marriage is a threat to family and how gay sex makes their magic sky friend Jesus cry\u2014feel justified in physically abusing the LGBT children they encounter in their schools. You don\u2019t have to explicitly \u201cencourage [your] children to mock, hurt, or intimidate\u201d queer kids. Your encouragement\u2014along with your hatred and fear\u2014is implicit. It\u2019s here, it\u2019s clear, and we\u2019re seeing the fruits of it: dead children<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, and those same dehumanizing bigotries that fill your straight children with hate? They fill your gay children with suicidal despair. And you have the nerve to ask me<\/em> to be more careful with my<\/em> words?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Did that hurt to hear? Good. But it couldn\u2019t have hurt nearly as much as what was said and done to Asher Brown and Justin Aaberg and Billy Lucas and Cody Barker and Seth Walsh\u2014day-in, day-out for years\u2014at schools filled with bigoted little monsters created not in the image of a loving God, but in the image of the hateful and false \u201cfollowers of Christ\u201d they call Mom and Dad.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Wonderful Post By Dan Savage snapandgo: Gay Kids Are Dying, Fuck Your FeelingsOctober 14, 2010 Dear Dan:\u00a0 I was listening to the radio yesterday morning, and I heard an interview with you about your It Gets Better campaign. I was saddened and frustrated with your comments regarding people of faith and their perpetuation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-link"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerandrap.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerandrap.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerandrap.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerandrap.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerandrap.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerandrap.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerandrap.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerandrap.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerandrap.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}