My gay middle school bigotry story, for the kids out there who might be reading it.

[originalpckelly]

When in middle school I was picked on for being gay. The moment that took the cake was when I ran for student council. One day we all were giving speeches before the student body in the lunchroom and when I got up to give mine, some little motherfuckers at a table started coughing, then the little punks started saying "gay" and "fagot" under their breathes.

I had been called gay before as an insult, but this was about the most humiliating moment of my life. Up there in front of everyone in my grade, it was so bad.

I know what probably happened. I had an electronic organizer that I sometimes used as a journal/diary thing. I let one of my friends read it. I thought all of the entries that were private were in the secret password protected memory. Well, I had entries about a guy I liked in there. The only reason I let him read the organizer was that I had stuff in there from Edgar Allan Poe and other writers. Well, that asshole was one of them making fun of me. :-(

Our people are treated terribly sometimes, we need to band together and keep each other safe. :grouphug:

[dsc]

1. I am so sorry

that sucks. For me it was just caught looking where I shouldn't have.

[originalpckelly]

3. If that's you in the picture, you could have been caught looking at me...

and I wouldn't have minded. :-) On the other hand, if you were looking at me, you would have had nightmares for the rest of your life.

Oh yeah, I must say, there were teachers in there watching the speeches being given, and they didn't do shit. I'm 24, that was eighth grade so it must have been about a decade or so ago. That wasn't that long ago really. I bet the other gay people on our site who are older probably have even worse stories.

[RKP5637]

9. In the 50's you didn't even dare think of gay things - where I grew up the

local police probably would have come and dragged you to the nearest psychiatric hospital for being very mentally ill. That's how it was back then.

[originalpckelly]

13. Fuckers.

:-(

[dsc]

16. that isn't me

It is Jason Aaberg who is one of the suicide victims from September. I wasn't nearly that cute sadly. I graduated in 86.

[NMMNG]

2. I'm sorry you had to endure this

We need to put an end to bullying.

It's not "boys will be boys" or "kids just do that". Bullying is not merely a rite of passage.

Anti-gay bigotry is not an alternative viewpoint that must be endured because others hide behind their religious beliefs when lobbing it at others. "That's so gay" is not just an expression.


Words hurt, and even kill. There's no excuse for people who tolerate and even perpetuate bullying.

[originalpckelly]

5. It was all about being gay too.

The kid in question who probably started all that was a religious nut, BUT he knew me and knew I was a wiccan. He was cool with what he probably perceived to be devil worship, but he wasn't cool with me being gay. What a little dickhead.

[NMMNG]

8. It just goes to show how arbitrary they are

They blather about their "faith" and how they're only defending their "religious beliefs". Yet 90% of them only seem to care about gay people and abortion. You never see them picketing outside divorce lawyer's offices or Red Lobster. You never hear them clamoring for adultery to be made a felony, or for constitutional amendments to ban divorce. Go figure.

[originalpckelly]

14. Indeed, they are arbitrary.

[d_r]

4. I'm sorry you guys went through that

I'm not gay but still got picked on sometimes and I know it sucks. I hate bullies.

[exboyfil]

6. What did the administration do?

I had teachers and administrators witness crap and do nothing (burning of my property, physical assault on my person, etc)

While not gay I was bullied mercilessly in middle school as well to the point of almost committing suicide. I was also stabbed in the back by a trusted friend.

I find it interesting how children pick up these traits. In my household we never make any sort of racist or gay slur, but I found recently that my girls were less tolerant of gays than myself. I had the talk with both of them, and they told me they liked boys. They are aware that I am in favor of state recognized civil unions for gays (I don't think the state should be in the business of sanctioning marriage which I view as a religious state). They may have picked it up from their mother who rolls her eyes when I tell her how I feel about it. I had a gay friend in High School who died from AIDS. I grew up around gay people in California.

My girls are aware that I will never tolerate bullying against anyone, and that they should always try to get along with everyone. I have told them to stand up for the underdog, and find close friends among the outcast. My closest friends came from their as well.

[originalpckelly]

10. It's really bad, I wonder if the guy who I liked found out...

We had a mutual friend who might have told him about this all (his name was in the entry.) She told me he was bi when we were in high school, but when I tried to track him down on MySpace a few years ago his profile said straight. I contacted him, and all I got was an indirect hello through the mutual friend. I wonder if he knew about my little middle school fiasco. It feels like he was trying to avoid me. I was pretty sure he liked me, we used to spend a lot of time in class just staring into each others eyes. Unfortunately, I will never get a chance to know the truth, as I pretty much nuked the friendship with our mutual friend (and the dude is married now, with a kid. :wow: ) Oh well, that's life. I was just curious to know, but I can definitely see how it would have been awkward for the poor guy.

[originalpckelly]

12. I forgot to say that there were no consequences for anyone...

this was a public middle school, but there was a too much religion hanging out.

[Barack_America]

7. And can you imagine if Twitter and Facebook had existed back then?

:scared:

I'm so sorry you went through that. :hug:

[originalpckelly]

11. Well, there was instant messaging...

This was the same school where we had one of the teachers preaching Christianity in the classroom. Not just exploring religion, but specifically saying we would go to hell if we didn't convert. I remember going home to pray to God, apologizing to him for being gay.

[Odin2005]

15. I'm straight, but I was constantly harassed by being accused of being gau.

It didn't help that I was the "Sensitive Kid", straight young men that are kind and compassionate and not macho and crude often get accused of being gay.