I listened to Mr Savage on NPR yesterday while driving home from work. I found myself applauding his efforts with the "It gets better" campaign. He seemed measured, thoughtful, and by and large level-headed. To sum up: exactly the opposite of what appears below. Must be the audience he's speaking to. One is a national radio program, the other is "LR", the anonymous letter writer. That's telling I think.




Terrible way to open a discussion, but then, I don't think that was his point. Nonetheless, from an outside perspective, this looks bad. Where was that outrage on NPR I wonder?



Good question. I believe history shows the institution of marriage to be very fluid depending on culture, historical timing, religion, etc. I remember a prior post on the board covering this very subject, and demonstrating how the concept of marriage has changed over time. However, I believe (and I may be wrong) that at it's base marriage was always between a man and a women, no? Of all the above examples he gives, those marriages are between men and women. As I see the debate, the argument is against marriage of man and man, which has nothing to do with being atheist or interfaith.






Rant, rant, rant. I don't know, but attacking the person you're trying to open up to new ideas doesn't ever seem to work. I'm not religious, but to people who are, calling Jesus the "magic sky friend" likely carries the same weight as does condemning gay marriage. The odds of reconciliation based on these tactics are close to zero. Mr Savage has a lot of built up anger, most of it rightly justified I'm sure, but he gets nowhere with such rants. From an outside perspective, it just makes me shrug my shoulders.




I think Mr Savage has confused normal human behavior with catholic teaching. Children tease, they bully, they pick and pull, and none of it is done in the name of religion. Kids don't think that way, and likely never will. It doesn't have to have anything to do with mom or dad either, though of course parents can influence their children. Any kid who is different, or perceived as different, is subject to bullying. A cleft lip? check. A disheveled appearance? check. A speech impairment? check. Odd mannerisms and behaviors? check. Body disfigurement? check. Low cognition? check. Does Mr Savage actually believe that children, aged 6-10 or so, have any idea what "gay" is and so easily identify "gay" children? Do gay children even know they are gay that young? It's such a strange argument. With older kids in junior/senior highschool, you'll again find the same range of bullying based on any abnormal behaviors. And to be clear, bullying takes place both within and without social groups. There are very few kids who escape some form of bullying.

The point was raised about suicide rates being higher amongst gay children than straight children. I think it's a mistake to correlate this fact with religion, for the reasons I've noted above about bullying. This may sound harsh, but I think we have to accept that young gay children are not just dealing with peer pressure and bullying, but also with their own internal conflicts and confusions. I won't pretend to fully understand what it means to be gay and how that impacts development in youth, but if it was merely the act of being bullied that led gay children to suicide, then where is the similar findings about other types of children who are also bullied? Or is the position one that gay children are bullied to an x-degree level beyond anyone else? I find that hard to believe. In my experience, it was the poor kids who were bullied the worst in school....why were they not commiting suicide also? It can't be just about the bullying, and Mr Savage implies this as the root cause for all the suffering of gay children.

Does he factor in the gay childs own family/parents and his/her relationship with them? He appears to remove all responsibility from those closest to the gay child and how their actions and beliefs effect that child.

It can't be easy in our society to grow up as a gay person. They have internal conflict and confusion, they have family conflict and confusion, they have peer conflict and confusion. It can come at them from all sides, and that must be incredibly difficult to manage. I hope I haven't come across as minimizing this in any way. I feel that Mr Savage has chosen to label an entire group of people as the root offenders to the problems faced by gay children, and is calling them out as the sole cause of suicide amongst gay children. This clearly is not the case, and is a misguided attempt at solving the problem. As it is, as long as there are children, there will be bullying, IMO. I don't think we can root it out, I think we can only do our best to help those troubled kids, of all variety, to cope with life stressors and manage their emotions.