LGBT Ally Week: Take a Stand for Love!

I sometimes wonder what my life would be like if I didn't have gay allies loving me and supporting me since long before the time I came out, until the very moment in which I am writing this article and I expect beyond the time that I transition into my next life. Then I coach myself to stop and simply bask in the gratitude of not having to know. The truth is I have had so much love and support that I have at times found myself having to work through embarrassment of not always being able to relate to the plethora of bullying, violence, and family ostracizing that others go through.

In September we witnessed five suicides by LGBT teens, and just this week on Tuesday evening the sixth was discovered. This LGBT teen was 19-year-old Corey Jackson on the campus of Oakland University in Southeast Michigan. According to the investigation, thus far this suicide does not seem to have been elicited by bullying.

Melissa Pope, director of Oakland University's Gender and Sexuality Center, said the issue points to a larger, hidden epidemic of suicides among LGBT youth.

We must look beyond the term "bullying" to the overall treatment of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community to begin to grasp the long-standing epidemic of suicide among our LGBT youth.

While the national press has picked up this issue over the last two months, we have been losing high numbers of LGBT youth to suicide for decades. In recent years, we've labeled the cause as bullying. But the root cause goes deeper, to the very core of our society that discriminates against the LGBT community on all levels, including the denial of basic human rights that are supposed to belong to every person.

This is why I think it is so important to acknowledge our LGBT allies. This past week GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) hosted National Ally Week, which occurred in schools and their GSAs (Gay Straight Alliance) throughout the country. "Allies" is the term we use to refer to people who do not identify as LGBT individuals but support the community by standing against homophobia, anti-LGBT legislation, violence, bullying and harassment.

I am calling on all people, along with GLSEN and our students, to both honor LGBT allies and to take a stand for love, in service to the ending of homophobic violence in our schools and in the world, misogyny, hatred, and fear.

Will you join me in taking a stand? If so, let us know in the comments section that you agree to the statements below:

I stand in the belief that all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression, deserve to feel safe and supported, living life fully expressed in their love and in their truth.

That means I agree to:

• Not use anti-LGBT language and slurs;


• Be compassionate and empathic, even when I don't fully agree with others;


• Support efforts to end bullying and harassment wherever I can (at work, in school, in my church, etc.).

Also, if you are LGBT, tell us your story of important allies in your life. If you're an LGBT ally, what's your story, why is it important?

 

Follow Jason Mannino on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jasonmannino

Comments

[flashnomad]

02:39 PM on 10/24/2010

What's the difference between a culture that stones a woman to death for loving who she wants and a culture that bullies a teen to death for loving who he/she wants? It's time all Americans demand Equal Rights and Respect for LGBT as for any other American.

[Dr. Judith Rich]

05:16 PM on 10/23/2010

Thank you, Jason. I'm standing with you and the LGBT community......

With love,
Judith

[Dr Carol LaBra]

11:49 PM on 10/22/2010

As a lesbian I know it is time to demand the right for my lesbian sisters and gay brothers to openly have the right to go half way around the Earth to kill children and other lesbians and gays. And I do not support the privileged of those who want their college education and other benefits before they kill others or blow themselves up or maim themselves in that process. Otherwise whether you are a member of AlQueda or the marines what would be the point of supporting the never ending war humanity is waging upon itself...and all life on the planet?

Or as planed and modern eugenics makes way for a hastened evolution of humanity into these fallen angels and victims of innocence:

http://www.google.com/images?oe=utf-8&q=depleted+uranium+baby+images&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=VEzCTIb9AsGBlAeinZkQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQsAQwAA

Or as my gay brother at the link below said after trying to obtain the release of all prisoners for drug offenses and an end to all war, ¨Those who claim to love others and in this day and age are in any military garb is as much of a contradiction in terms as is military intelligence and...of course I will not win the Nobel Peace prize for my 5 year sentence. This isn´t China.¨

http://bramin.wordpress.com/2008/04/14/buddhist-threatens-to-set-self-on-fireif-all-war-not-over-by-6pm/

[Jdaddy1951]

11:00 PM on 10/22/2010

We can't do it alone. Thank you, gay supportive people.