June 7, 2010



All because she likes girls.







  1. This is absolutely heart-wrenching. I pray that I never understand parents motives for doing this because personally, I think it is absolutely deplorable. I am literally almost moved to tears by stories like this and I say almost because I'm definitely sitting in the Union at Carolina full of Orientation Kids.

    A friend of mine just got in a fight with his parents over the same issue and his unwillingness to "meet his parents halfway" on his sexuality. I don't really know what else to say, but I can only hope that your friend has as strong as a support system as possible.

    I'll keep her in my thoughts.

  2. This really is a shame. It seems like the homosexuality issue has driven such a wedge into our society that people lose sight of their real values. I'm sure her mother is not a hateful woman in general, but she has obviously fallen victim to the ultra-politicization (?) of homosexuality. I blame it on religious leaders and politicians who have tried so hard to stir up fear of gay people, especially in the South. The mother thinks her daughter is committing a sin, when in reality the mother is sinning against her daughter in an awful way. Hopefully in time this mindset is diminished to nothing more than a KKK-like contingent, small and insignificant.

  3. First of all, "love the sinner, hate the sin" is bullshit. Just another rhetorical justification like "separate but equal" imo.


  4. One of the most important and effective things we can do as a community is share these sort of stories. I learned a trillion things from Common Ground, but one that I've taken to heart is to not intellectualize issues like homophobia (I always feel weird using "homophobia" to label something that is more hatred than fear of gays) because it won't get Us very far. You've got to keep it real and personal to change minds.

    Just as much, too, these sorts of stories serve a reminder to a lot of the LGBTQA community that could use it (including myself). There are so many gays that do NOT need the reality check because duh. But there are many that do, because a lot of Us live relatively in a bubble. I couldn't conceptualize a parent throwing their child out of the house for being gay, either, but the fact is that 40% of homeless youth self-identify as LGB. Taking into account those who did not wish to come out to a rando with a clipboard or are transgender, estimates reach 60%. That's fucking nuts.

    I listened to the Bare soundtrack [um. twice] today at work, and this seemed relevant. It's so hard to KEEP COMPOSURE throughout this musical. omg. One of the best things I ever did was watch Vassar's production of this in 23486 parts on Youtube. The UGH of this story transcends the awful audio and video quality of the recordings.

    Anyhow, Peter (Matt Doyle, my husband) calling from Catholic boarding school on the official sountrack in "See Me": (link).

    Also, yeah the "love the sinner, hate the sin" mentality is not the best and kind of dangerous. I was definitely going to speak on that, too, Anonymous. However, I probably wouldn't frame it like that because of how jerkish tones work.

  5. I hope you can really support your friend in this time Tyler. This just plain sucks. =( religion = love, and this isn't either of those.