"As the country considers who to elect as the next President, the so called 'leader of the free world,' I wonder, where are our leaders? Who represents the LGBT community on a national and international stage?
"Is there anyone?
"Recent months have brought several disturbing events in our community. Lawrence King was shot in his classroom after being teased and harassed for being gay. Simmie Williams was killed while wearing a dress in Fort Lauderdale. Just yesterday, Duchy Trachtenberg, a Montgomery County Council member who authored a bill outlawing discrimination against transgendered people, announced that she is receiving death threats.
"And Joe Solmonese is running around telling our legislators to vote for a non-inclusive ENDA bill?
[For the full article, see here]
Sara Whitman wrote an excellent article about the LGBT movement being bereft of leaders who didn't even consider it important enough to take time out of their schedules and attend the funeral of fifteen year old Lawrence King who was murdered at the hands of a fourteen year old whom he asked to be his valentine.
In this connection, please see this video made by my friend, Dylan Scholinski, who wrote the excellent book, "The Last Time I Wore A Dress," that details his mental hospitalization at the age of 15 for "not acting like a girl" (he was born female; once called Daphne), and how he was treated there, and the ignorance of his psychiatrists regarding their understanding and acceptance of what they still unfortunately call "Gender Identity Disorder."
The very term, "Gender Identity Disorder," assumes that there is a "healthy" and an "unhealthy" way to express or present oneself in terms of gender. All traits, characteristics, and behaviors can be seen to be on a continuum, and one size doesn't fit all, regardless of what many, or even most, people may think or view as "acceptable" or "normal."
Just as no two snowflakes are alike, no two people are alike, and, save for preying on others, all traits and behaviors are to be embraced as part of the human condition and of God's creation.
God specializes in diversity! And we are to acknowledge, respect, and embrace that diversity!
It's a crying shame that the killer of Lawrence King, and so many others like him, never internalized that basic fact!
And it's a crying shame that those who view themselves as "leaders" of the LGBT rights movement didn't think it important enough to attend Lawrence's funeral, and both pay their respects to him and to his memory, and also galvanize and express outrage at this loss that mirrors the loss of countless LGBT people through the ignorance and hatred that infects so many people and institutions of society.
No comments:
Post a Comment