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carolinecraneTHIS.* This is the reason that I write the kind of fiction I do, with the happily ever afters and the love and the 'we will get through this together' message.
The above link will take you to a youtube video of Fort Worth, TX City Councilman Joel Burns telling the story of his own coming out and experiences with bullying as part of the It Gets Better Project. It's moving and beautiful and he's a brave, brave man to do it. No braver than any kid who's owned his own differences in spite of the shit he or she takes for it from the people who want everyone to conform, of course, but he has been one of those kids, and I am glad to see a politician taking a stand.
It's one thing for celebrities, who get special dispensation for their Otherness, since that's what sets them apart from 'regular people', but it's something else entirely when one of those regular people stands up and says 'this happened to me too, and it is never okay'.
I haven't said anything about the recent rash of suicides or the Trevor Project or It Gets Better, mostly because what am I going to say that hasn't already been said, and also because it just makes me so unbearably sad. I have been that suicidal kid, not knowing what to do with the things I'm feeling and standing on the outside being called a freak and a 'lezzy' (do kids still use that charming term? I'm so old.)
I recognize exactly how lucky I am to have been raised by parents who love and accept me for who I am, even though it took me a long time to figure that out, but it's still really hard to grow up in an environment where your peers will beat you down for being the slightest bit different from them, and I've certainly lived with that pain. I get it from both sides, actually, because being bisexual means both the gay and straight communities pretty much just treat you like you can't pick a side.
I like to think that everyone reading this knows exactly how wrong it is to hate someone just because you don't understand them, so I don't lecture and I take the easy way out by not talking about it. But I was allotted a natural ability to tell a story by God or the collective unconscious or the genetic lotto or whatever you want to call it, and what I can do is tell stories where people who don't quite fit the mold get the happy fucking ending that everyone deserves. Over and over and over, if that's what it takes to finally get people to see that love isn't something that you should ever be afraid of.
And that's all I'm going to say about that. On a lighter note, the day that I started writing about Finn and Will fixing up Will's Camaro, a blue Chevy Camaro pulled out in front of me during my drive home. This morning, after posting a story featuring Kurt's Navigator, I found myself driving behind a shiny black Navigator on the way into work. It's a strange and wonderful world, my friends.
_______________________________________________
* With thanks tobitchygrrl for the link.
The above link will take you to a youtube video of Fort Worth, TX City Councilman Joel Burns telling the story of his own coming out and experiences with bullying as part of the It Gets Better Project. It's moving and beautiful and he's a brave, brave man to do it. No braver than any kid who's owned his own differences in spite of the shit he or she takes for it from the people who want everyone to conform, of course, but he has been one of those kids, and I am glad to see a politician taking a stand.
It's one thing for celebrities, who get special dispensation for their Otherness, since that's what sets them apart from 'regular people', but it's something else entirely when one of those regular people stands up and says 'this happened to me too, and it is never okay'.
I haven't said anything about the recent rash of suicides or the Trevor Project or It Gets Better, mostly because what am I going to say that hasn't already been said, and also because it just makes me so unbearably sad. I have been that suicidal kid, not knowing what to do with the things I'm feeling and standing on the outside being called a freak and a 'lezzy' (do kids still use that charming term? I'm so old.)
I recognize exactly how lucky I am to have been raised by parents who love and accept me for who I am, even though it took me a long time to figure that out, but it's still really hard to grow up in an environment where your peers will beat you down for being the slightest bit different from them, and I've certainly lived with that pain. I get it from both sides, actually, because being bisexual means both the gay and straight communities pretty much just treat you like you can't pick a side.
I like to think that everyone reading this knows exactly how wrong it is to hate someone just because you don't understand them, so I don't lecture and I take the easy way out by not talking about it. But I was allotted a natural ability to tell a story by God or the collective unconscious or the genetic lotto or whatever you want to call it, and what I can do is tell stories where people who don't quite fit the mold get the happy fucking ending that everyone deserves. Over and over and over, if that's what it takes to finally get people to see that love isn't something that you should ever be afraid of.
And that's all I'm going to say about that. On a lighter note, the day that I started writing about Finn and Will fixing up Will's Camaro, a blue Chevy Camaro pulled out in front of me during my drive home. This morning, after posting a story featuring Kurt's Navigator, I found myself driving behind a shiny black Navigator on the way into work. It's a strange and wonderful world, my friends.
_______________________________________________
* With thanks to
bitchygrrl for the link.
