Dynamite in gay teen psyches

The news -- most definitely the gay news sources -- have noted the number of kids, both gay and accused of being gay, have committed suicide in the last month.

That prompted Rob Tisinai of Box Turtle Bulletin to post a simple recipe for how to kill a kid:

1. Damn gays by saying they displease god, they're going to hell, they're unfit to be around other kids, and their love is all wrong,

2. Degrade gays by saying they killed themselves because they recognized their own shame.

3. Deny that their own nasty rhetoric has anything to do with gay suicides.

4. Repeat endlessly.

In other words, be a bully.

Dan Savage has a response to someone who objected to him blaming Fundies for gay suicides. I'll let you read the response because he says it well. Savage ends by noting that the Fundie organizations very much want those gay suicides to continue. They sure are doing all they can to make sure anti-bullying legislation is made meaningless, if any of it passes at all. Fundie -- supposedly Christian -- groups like suicide? Yeah, because it proves their talking point that gay life is miserable -- so miserable that gay kids kill themselves. Big reason not to be gay! Never mind that the reason these kids are miserable is because of the recipe given above -- exercised vigorously by these same Fundie groups -- goes off like dynamite in gay teen psyches.

Because of these suicides, Dan Savage has started a YouTube channel titled It Gets Better. He and his partner started it off with the message that while high school (and college) may seem like the depths of hell, life as a gay adult can be much better. So don't kill yourself. Savage has asked other gay adults to contribute their own videos to the channel about how their lives have improved after school.