Lgbt Children

The challenge for moms and dads is complex. Will they support their LGBT children unconditionally and bring on the rejection of their churches, workplaces, and family members, or will they adopt Pastor Sean's methods and hope for a "conversion"?

It had never crossed my mind that a teacher would not be accepting of a student because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Why would an educator bring their personal beliefs into the classroom?

All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names: "queer," "dickhead," "fruit," "fairy," "faggot," "ho-ho-homo," "retard," "douche," "gay," "tranny," "pussy," "sissy boy." They hit him and shoved him, and spit their reindeer spit on him.

I do not believe that straight and gender-conforming people are any less caring or are any less concerned about our youth. Yet there is too little said and done to save the lives of LGBT youth.

I know how you feel -- six years ago, I was where you are now. I felt isolated, scared, damaged; I thought the only way out was by ending my life. I'd been hiding who I was for years by that point.

This article is my third in less than three years about teen bullying and the tragedy of suicide among LGBT youth. Today, I write an almost identical article with practically the same statistics that I have written for the past two years.

For Jamey, and potentially many more young people in a similar situation, being told and believing that "it gets better" is not enough. For Jamey and these other youth, the situation must be made better -- now.

LGB youth really, really need to hear about the good stuff. Because while it's not awesome to be queer in most places of the world yet, it's less and less scary and sucky than it used to be.

Against my better sonic judgment, I believe that artists such as Lady Gaga have the electromagnetism to gift my gay brothers and sisters with the inspiration and tools they need to cultivate self-love and respect.

We now have a generation of gay kids who have always known they are not alone, and they can't go back into the closet; they were never there to begin with. Even before dealing with their own sexual orientation, they knew there were others.

I wrote about my son and his crush on a gay character on Glee and how this led to him telling me he wanted to kiss boys. What I thought was a simple story has clearly struck a chord with a lot of people.

What is needed to create real change is real action on the part of our heterosexual citizenry. After all, these are your children who are driving other kids to suicide. Where are they learning that it's "OK to hate"?