The following is a very strong and moving letter written by the mother of a gay boy in Vermont...
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"Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I've taken enough from you good people. I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric about the "homosexual agenda" and your allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same thing as advocating sex with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys of motherhood ever since my children were tiny.
My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from your moral, upright families from the time he was in the first grade. He was physically and verbally abused from first grade straight through high school because he was perceived to be gay.
He never professed to be gay or had any association with anything gay, but he had the misfortune not to walk or have gestures like the other boys. He was called "fag" incessantly, starting when he was 6.
In high school, while your children were doing what kids that age should be doing, mine labored over a suicide note, drafting and redrafting it to be sure his family knew how much he loved them. My sobbing 17-year-old tore the heart out of me as he choked out that he just couldn't bear to continue living any longer, that he didn't want to be gay and that he couldn't face a life without dignity.
You have the audacity to talk about protecting families and children from the homosexual menace, while you yourselves tear apart families and drive children to despair. I don't know why my son is gay, but I do know that God didn't put him, and millions like him, on this Earth to give you someone to abuse. God gave you brains so that you could think, and it's about time you started doing that.
At the core of all your misguided beliefs is the belief that this could never happen to you, that there is some kind of subculture out there that people have chosen to join. The fact is that if it can happen to my family, it can happen to yours, and you won't get to choose. Whether it is genetic or whether something occurs during a critical time of fetal development, I don't know. I can only tell you with an absolute certainty that it is inborn.
If you want to tout your own morality, you'd best come up with something more substantive than your heterosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you. If you disagree, I would be interested in hearing your story, because my own heterosexuality was a blessing I received with no effort whatsoever on my part. It is so woven into the very soul of me that nothing could ever change it. For those of you who reduce sexual orientation to a simple choice, a character issue, a bad habit or something that can be changed by a 10-step program, I'm puzzled. Are you saying that your own sexual orientation is nothing more than something you have chosen, that you could change it at will? If that's not the case, then why would you suggest that someone else can?
A popular theme in your letters is that Vermont has been infiltrated by outsiders. Both sides of my family have lived in Vermont for generations. I am heart and soul a Vermonter, so I'll thank you to stop saying that you are speaking for "true Vermonters."
You invoke the memory of the brave people who have fought on the battlefield for this great country, saying that they didn't give their lives so that the "homosexual agenda" could tear down the principles they died defending. My 83-year-old father fought in some of the most horrific battles of World War II, was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart.
He shakes his head in sadness at the life his grandson has had to live. He says he fought alongside homosexuals in those battles, that they did their part and bothered no one. One of his best friends in the service was gay, and he never knew it until the end, and when he did find out, it mattered not at all. That wasn't the measure of the man.
You religious folk just can't bear the thought that as my son emerges from the hell that was his childhood he might like to find a lifelong companion and have a measure of happiness. It offends your sensibilities
that he should request the right to visit that companion in the hospital, to make medical decisions for him or to benefit from tax laws governing inheritance.
How dare he? you say. These outrageous requests would threaten the very existence of your family, would undermine the sanctity of marriage. You use religion to abdicate your responsibility to be thinking human beings. There are vast numbers of religious people who find your attitudes repugnant. God is not for the privileged majority, and God knows my son has committed no sin.
The deep-thinking author of a letter to the April 12 '05 Valley News who lectures about homosexual sin and tells us about "those of us who have been blessed with the benefits of a religious upbringing" asks: "What ever happened to the idea of striving . . . to be better human beings than we are?"
Indeed, sir, what ever happened to that?
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If you believe that homosexuals deserve the same rights as everyone else, repost this, and pray and thank God that there are people like this mother, cause without them, where would we be?
Sunday 29 April 2007
Friday 27 April 2007
I don't mean to be unkind, but...
... am I the only one who thinks it's funny that Amanda Vanstone will be working for DFAT?
Vanstone quits politics, now for the Italian job - National - theage.com.au
Vanstone quits politics, now for the Italian job - National - theage.com.au
Tuesday 24 April 2007
Victoria Catching Up!
Finally! Years after same-sex couples have been given legal recognition in places like New Zealand, the UK, The Netherlands, Canada, Spain, and even some US states, Victoria looks set to be the second state in Australia after Tasmania to push aside legal discrimination against same-sex couples.
Gay and lesbian couples will soon be able to register their relationships with a government department and have certain rights protected. This is anticipated to give same-sex couples the same protections as opposite-sex couples in the areas of inheritance, being able to make medical decisions for their partner and superannuation to name a few. It isn't known yet how far the Government is willing to go in removing all discrimination, such as the right to adopt children.
Congratulations to Steve Bracks' Labor Government for finally seeing that discrimination has no basis in our society.
The Age
Gay and lesbian couples will soon be able to register their relationships with a government department and have certain rights protected. This is anticipated to give same-sex couples the same protections as opposite-sex couples in the areas of inheritance, being able to make medical decisions for their partner and superannuation to name a few. It isn't known yet how far the Government is willing to go in removing all discrimination, such as the right to adopt children.
Congratulations to Steve Bracks' Labor Government for finally seeing that discrimination has no basis in our society.
The Age
Monday 23 April 2007
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe - Kevin Rudd & Peter Costello
Clarke and Dawe with an extremely verbose Opposition Leader and hopefully a soon to be Opposition Leader.
Clarke and Dawe: Rudd's questions
19/04/2007 - John Clarke and Bryan Dawe and a rather voluble politician.
Video: Real Media (hi) | Real Media (lo) | Windows Media (hi) | Windows Media (lo)
Read the transcript.
Clarke and Dawe: Kevin Rudd
12/04/2007 - Clark and Dawe talk to the new boy in class.
Video: Real Media (hi) | Real Media (lo) | Windows Media (hi) | Windows Media (lo)
Read the transcript.
Clarke and Dawe: Peter Costello
05/04/2007 - Clarke and Dawe catch up with Treasurer Peter Costello.
Video: Real Media (hi) | Real Media (lo) | Windows Media (hi) | Windows Media (lo)
Read the transcript.
Sunday 22 April 2007
Mozart on Rollerblades
This guy plays some Mozart with some wine bottles and a pair of rollerblades.
Thursday 12 April 2007
Tokyo Girl Down Under
This blog has just been made a blog of note by Blogger. It's beautifully written by a lady in Sydney.
I wish I could write so well!
Tokyo Girl Down Under
I wish I could write so well!
Tokyo Girl Down Under
Tuesday 10 April 2007
Monday 9 April 2007
Belief
"Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good
we often might win, by fearing to attempt."
-- William Shakespeare
we often might win, by fearing to attempt."
-- William Shakespeare
Saturday 7 April 2007
Friday 6 April 2007
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe - 12/10/06 - 29/3/07
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe present their satirical take on the week's events.
This is a listing of their segments on The 7.30 Report since October 12 to last week.29/03/2007 - John Clarke, Bryan Dawe and the Hicks trial
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe on the Hicks trial.
Real Dialup | Windows dialup | Real Broadband | Windows Broadband
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe talk schoolyard politics with John Howard.
Real Dialup | Windows dialup | Real Broadband | Windows Broadband
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe on the hot issue of probity in politics.
Real Dialup | Windows dialup | Real Broadband | Windows Broadband
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe engage in a little defence spending with Brendan Nelson.
Real Dialup | Windows dialup | Real Broadband | Windows Broadband
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe have been foraging in Burke's backyard this week.
Real Dialup | Windows dialup | Real Broadband | Windows Broadband
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe on tour with Kevin Rudd.
Real Dialup | Windows dialup | Real Broadband | Windows Broadband
Back for 2007, John Clarke and Bryan Dawe kick off the year with green matters.
Real Dialup | Windows dialup | Real Broadband | Windows Broadband
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe say goodbye for 2006 with a little inspiration from Labor's new leader.
Real Dialup | Windows dialup | Real Broadband | Windows Broadband
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe take a look at issues surrounding the AWB.
Real Dialup | Windows dialup | Real Broadband | Windows Broadband
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe discuss the G20 summit.
Real Dialup | Windows dialup | Real Broadband | Windows Broadband
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe hone in on Australia's new strategies in Iraq.
Real Dialup | Windows dialup | Real Broadband | Windows Broadband
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe with some end of school term blues.
Real Dialup | Windows dialup | Real Broadband | Windows Broadband
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe discuss climate change.
Real Dialup | Windows dialup | Real Broadband | Windows Broadband
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe on the ABC's new editorial policy.
Real Dialup | Windows dialup | Real Broadband | Windows Broadband
John Clarke and Bryan Dawe now, exploring a number of fronts with the Prime Minister.
Real Dialup | Windows dialup | Real Broadband | Windows Broadband
Wednesday 4 April 2007
Help Scientists Find Cures For Diseases
The World Community Grid is a project sponsored by IBM where hundreds of thousands of people around the world donate their spare computer capacity to help perform the huge computing calculations required for medical research. This is known as "grid computing".
All together, thousands of years worth of comuputing have been performed to date on projects like:
You can help by donating the time your computer is turned on, but is idle, to projects that benefit humanity! They provide the secure software that does it all for free, and you become part of a community that is helping to change the world. Once you install the software, you will be participating in World Community Grid. No other action must be taken; it's that simple! To learn more and join, go to the World Community Grid site.
I have been running the World Community Grid on my PCs since November 2004 and have not had any problems affecting the performance or security of my system.
We can't always afford to give money to medical research, but we can afford to give our PC's spare time.
All together, thousands of years worth of comuputing have been performed to date on projects like:
- Cancer research
- Muscular Dystrophy research
- Fight AIDS@home project
- Human Proteome folding
- Genome comparison
You can help by donating the time your computer is turned on, but is idle, to projects that benefit humanity! They provide the secure software that does it all for free, and you become part of a community that is helping to change the world. Once you install the software, you will be participating in World Community Grid. No other action must be taken; it's that simple! To learn more and join, go to the World Community Grid site.
I have been running the World Community Grid on my PCs since November 2004 and have not had any problems affecting the performance or security of my system.
We can't always afford to give money to medical research, but we can afford to give our PC's spare time.
Poor Knut - not really!
All the media stories last week about the poor little polar bear, Knut in Berlin Zoo who's mother rejected it were a beat up.
The story went that "animal rights activists" were insisting that the bear be put down because its mother rejected it. This claim went on to see countless examples of shock and criticism around the world. People calling for animal activists to be put down, death threats to the people who supposedly made the call to kill the bear.
The trouble is, it was all a pack of lies.
Here is a story from the Australian ABC's Media Watch to set the record straight. You can read it or watch the video.
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s1887892.htm
The story went that "animal rights activists" were insisting that the bear be put down because its mother rejected it. This claim went on to see countless examples of shock and criticism around the world. People calling for animal activists to be put down, death threats to the people who supposedly made the call to kill the bear.
The trouble is, it was all a pack of lies.
Here is a story from the Australian ABC's Media Watch to set the record straight. You can read it or watch the video.
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s1887892.htm
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