9:30 p.m. 2003-08-23
The Bitch says: Fight the Hate
A couple of days ago I was doing one of my "just keep clicking on links and see where you go" marathons and I found the site dedicated to William "Bill" Clayton. It was set up by his mother, Gabi Clayton, as a memorial to his life. I found it by clicking on a link from Matthew Shepard's page at gentletouch.com. Gentle Touch has done an amazing job with the memorial to Matthew Shepard. There is an awesome poem written by a gay boy trying to be himself, like Matthew and Bill, and having to fight for the right to be himself with everyone including his family. Bill Clayton at least had his family. He went to a support group a few times and didn't go back saying he was ok with who he was. Unfortunately there was a different reason for his not going back that no one knew until later. Because of the gay-bashing and harassment of his non-gay freinds Bill sunk into depression. He was hospitalized for awhile, returned home and seemed to be better for awhile. Soon after that, without anyone knowing how depressed he was, Bill Clayton committed suicide. I think that it's a sad state of the human race that, in 2003, people can't be who they are. Harassment, religious discrimination, racial discrimination, gay bashing, gender discrimination......everyone who might be a little different is subjected to harassment. It can be subtle with a moving of your seat saying you can't see the program or very in-your-face prejudice accompanied by violence and even death.
It is truely sad that parents today (some) don't have a problem teaching their children to hate. I grew up in the 50"s (ok, now I'm dating myself...lol) when racial discrimination wasn't even a question, it was the norm. But, that is one thing my parents taught me. You never judge someone by religion or race. A pregnant 16-yr-old was to be stayed away from but whatever religion or race people were didn't matter.
The pregnant teen is a reference to a friend I had in high school who got pregnant. The boy who got her pregnant was ok, but most parents considered her a whore for getting pregnant. They made it sound like the immaculate conception and that boy had nothing to do with it......but that's another story.
http://www.youth-guard.org/gabi/
http://www.gentletouchsweb.com/home4/
The web addresses are above. Check them out......they really touch your soul.
I'M OUTTA HERE
