Regardless

As many people are no doubt aware, today is Spirit Day, a day of remembrance for those poor kids who basically were bullied to death. They felt they had nowhere to go to escape such hatred that they killed themselves. This is truly a heart-breaking trend that has become all to common in recent years. The sad thing is that so many people out there are also biased against gay people. My own church has not exactly been the most gay-friendly organization out there either, seeing such things as the fight for Proposition 8 and now President Packer's controversial remarks. I find it remarkable that so many people still act as though somehow their lives are endangered by the gay lifestyle. Like a gay couple getting married somehow puts their marriage in jeopardy. Also, who gave them the right to vote on someone else's life? If it were a vote to decide whether black people could get married, or Japanese, and everyone got to vote on it, would that be considered fair? Unlikely. And yet, the people got to decide on something that did not affect them. Oh sure, they said it did, but let's face it, no. You just like the idea of imposing your views on people who do not share them. That is in fact quite wrong indeed. This is of course going way off topic, but you can see how such homophobia caused these children to find themselves alone and hated. They honestly didn't see anywhere to turn, for fear of being ridiculed and cast out even more.
Regardless of how people feel about this issue, I think we can all agree that bullying is wrong, whether it be for someone being gay, or being Jewish, or black, or handicapped, or anything that is perceived as being incorrect in the eyes of the bully. No one should ever have that type of feeling of superiority or justification for belittling another human being.
That's why it was so wonderful to see people today wearing purple honoring Spirit Day. Whether some of the people I saw were wearing purple conscious of the occasion or not, I don't know, but it was so nice to see all the support from people who genuinely feel terrible about the loss of these young lives. The bullies and bigots out there need to see that there are more people out there who side with the oppressed, and the bullied need to see that they have friends on their side. No one should have to resort to suicide to escape the torment and hell that they experience. So let's take a moment and remember these young men and commit to being a little less closed-minded, especially with regards to things we pretend to know all about but really don't.