FACTS

>>1 out of 10 people identify themselves as gay, lesbian, transgendered, or bisexual. BUT, the more correct ratio would be 1 out of 5 people, since many GLTB's don't admit it.

>>The bible does not say that homosexuality itself is a sin. What it says is that homosexual prostitution is a sin.

>>Homosexuality is not a form of mental illness and can not be cured.

>>The American Pshychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of official mental illnesses in 1973. The American Psychological Association followed suit in 1974. And so have most Psychiatric and psychological associations around the world.

>>It is impossible to convert heterosexuals to become homosexuals as it is just as impossible the other way around.

>>Statistics have shown that paedophelia or child molestsation is perpetrated by mainly heterosexuals.
In fact, over 90% of all reported molestations are carried out by heterosexual males.

>>To date there has been no real conclusive research that shows the causes of either homosexuality, bisexuality or for that matter, heterosexuality. Some believe it is predetermined genetically or hormonally. Others believe that we are all predisposed to all variations of sexual and affectionate behaviour and learn our sexual orientation.

>> Most gay and lesbian couples work to develop relationships based on principles of equality and mutuality where they are loved for who they are and not for the roles they play.

>>Many gay and lesbian people have had early heterosexual experiences but identify as gay or lesbian. This can be said the same for many heterosexual people who have had sexual experiences with a person of the same sex but continue to define themselves as heterosexual.
Sexual orientation for most people goes well beyond just sexual acts.

>>Historians tell us that homosexuality has existed since the earliest of human societies. Anthropologists report that homosexuals have been a part of every culture.
One study of non-western cultures, reported that 64% of the respondants considered homosexuality as "normal and socially exceptable".
It is also a well known fact that same sex behaviour is "natural" between animals.

>>The only place where choice seems to come into play is when they decide how they will acknowledge their identity. Choosing if and how to 'come out' and choosing who to tell.

>>Lesbians, transgendered, bisexuals, and gays are tortured and humiliated every day because of their orientation. They loose friends, loose trust, are mocked, and become an outcast from society.

>>On October 4, 2002, a seventeen year old girl named Gwen Araujo was at a party in Newark, California. Her supposed friends thought they knew her. She had had sexual relations with many of them. But one of the friends knew something the rest didn't. Paul Merel's girlfriend was at the party. She somehow checked Gwen's genitalia in the bathroom of the house, though the court account doesnt record how. She discovered that Gwen was, in fact, Eddie Araujo, a transgender. She told her Paul, who in turn told Jason Cazares, Mike Magidson, Jaron Nabors and  his younger brother, Jose Merel. They forcibly checked Gwen's genitalia, and after discovering this was true, became enraged. Mike Magidson began to choke her in the hallway.Other guests that had been there began to leave. Once everyone had left, three people began to assault Gwen Araujo. Jose Merel struck her over the head with a frying pan and again with a can of tomatoes, leaving a gash in her head which bled profusely. Jaron Nabors hit her with a barbell weight. Mike Magidson kneed her head into the living room wall. The blow was so forceful that her head caused a dent in the wall. Araujo was taken into the garage of the home, where she was strangled by a rope. (Stories conflict on whether she was strangled by Mike Magdison or Jaron Nabors). She was then hog-tied, wrapped in a blanket and put in the bed of Mike Magdison's pickup truck. They drove her body to a parkland in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada called Silver Fork and buried her in a shallow grave. Almost three weeks passed. Finally Jason Nabors slipped a word to a friend. The friend called the police, a Jason Nabors was arrested. The police were led to Gwen's grave on October 16, 2002. The rest of her assailants were charged for murder and hate crime.

>>On October 7, 1998 a boy named Matthew Shepard was in a bar in a town called Laramie, Wyoming. Matthew was 21. Two boys, Aaron McKinney and Russel Henderson, decided to pretend to be gay and lure him into their car. Matthew was very innocent and gullible for a person his age, so he trusted the men. McKinney and Henderson drove just outside of Laramie. Feeling they were safe, they suddenly turned on Matthew. They beat him and took his shoes and tied him to split-rail fence. Almost 18 hours later he was found by a cyclist who had just happened to turn down that road. The man mistook him for a scarecrow untill he saw Matthew's hair. Matthew was taken to the hospital, where he died on October 12, 1998. The attention to his murder was nation-wide. Though Matthew's death was a tragedy, it opened the world's eyes to the fact that hate crimes happen every day, and every town has people who hate.

>>Gay male adolescents report becoming aware of a distinct feeling of "being different" between ages 5-7; they also report that they did not yet connect this feeling to the issue of sexuality.

>>The median age at which lesbian and gay youth become aware that their feelings of "difference" are linked to a same-sex sexual orientation is 13.

>>9% of high school students identify as "gay, lesbian, bisexual or questioning."

>>The typical high school student hears anti-gay slurs 25.5 times a day.

>>80% of gay and lesbian youth report severe social isolation.

>>53% of students report hearing homophobic comments made by school staff.

>>80% of prospective teachers report negative attitudes toward gay and lesbian people.

>>1/3 of prospective teachers can be classified as "high-grade homophobes.

>>52% of prospective teachers report that they would feel uncomfortable working with an openly lesbian or gay colleague.

>>77% of prospective teachers would not encourage a class discussion on homosexuality; 85% oppose integrating gay/lesbian themes into their existing curricula.

>>Two-thirds of guidance counselors harbor negative feelings toward gay and lesbian people.

>>Teachers fail to intervene in 97% of incidents involving anti-gay slurs at school.

>>19% of gay men and 25% of lesbians report suffering physical violence at the hands of family members as a result of their sexual orientation. 11.5 % of gay and lesbian youth report being physically attacked by family members.

>>26% of adolescent gay males report having to leave home as a result of conflicts with their family over their sexual orientation.

>>42% of homeless youth self-identify as gay/lesbian.

>>Homosexuals are probably the most frequent victims [of hate crimes] in the U.S.

>>45% of gay males and 20% of lesbians report having experienced verbal harassment and/or physical violence as a result of their sexual orientation during high school.

>>19% of gay/lesbian youth report suffering physical attacks based on their sexual orientation.

>>15% of LGB youth have been injured so badly in a physical attack at school that they have had to seek the services of a doctor or nurse.

>>20% of LGB youth report skipping school at least once a month because of feeling unsafe while there.

>>42% of adolescent lesbians and 34% of adolescent gay males who have suffered physical attack also attempt suicide.

>>68% of adolescent gay males use alcohol (26% or more at least once a week); 44% use other drugs.

>>83% of adolescent lesbians use alcohol and 56% use other drugs.

>>31% of LGB students have used cocaine as opposed to 7% of non-LGB students.

>>30% of gay and bisexual adolescent male attempt suicide at least once.

>>Gay and lesbian youth represent 30% of all completed teen suicide: extrapolation shows this means a successful suicide attempt by a gay teen every 5 hours and 48 minutes.

QUOTES

"On reflecting about homosexuality, I've learned that: my religious tradition taught me to believe that my son was a sinner; my medical support system taught me to believe that my son was sick; my educational system taught me that my son was abnormal; my legal system views my son and his partner in an unsanctioned relationship without legal rights and protection that are afforded my married daughter; my family, immediate and extended, provided no acknowledgment or support for having a gay relative in its midst; my major communications sources treated homosexuality as deviant."

"We were picked on. We were called 'queer' and 'faggot' and a host of other homophobic slurs. We were also used as punching bags by our classmates, just for being different."

"I just began hating myself more and more, as each year the hatred towards me grew and escalated from just simple name-calling in elementary school to having persons in high school threaten to beat me up, being pushed and dragged around the ground, having hands slammed in lockers, and a number of other daily tortures."

"Due to societal fear and ignorance, my teachers and counselors labeled my confusion as rebellion, and placed me in the category of a troubled discipline problem. But still I had nothing to identify with and no role models to guide me, to help me sort out this confusion, and I began to believe that I was simply alone. A few weeks into my sophomore year, I woke up in a psych hospital after taking my father's camping knife violently to my wrists and hoping for success."

"I realize that children can be very cruel, but when teachers and adults encourage or do not discourage mean and cruel behavior it makes me angry and very sad."

"I'd rather be black than gay because when you're black you don't have to tell your mother."

"The Bible contains six admonishments to homosexuals and 362 admonishments to heterosexuals.  That doesn't mean that God doesn't love heterosexuals.  It's just that they need more supervision."

"When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one. "

"Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?"

"Who would give a law to lovers?  Love is unto itself a higher law."

"You know what they say:  You can't teach a gay dog straight tricks."

"No government has the right to tell its citizens when or whom to love.  The only queer people are those who don't love anybody."

"War.  Rape.  Murder.  Poverty.  Equal rights for gays.  Guess which one the Southern Baptist Convention is protesting?"

"Everybody's journey is individual.  If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy.  The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality."

"What is straight?  A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it's curved like a road through mountains."

"My own belief is that there is hardly anyone whose sexual life, if it were broadcast, would not fill the world at large with surprise and horror."

"I'm a supporter of gay rights.  And not a closet supporter either.  From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community.  There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant."

"Why should being gay matter? When your at a job interview, do they ask "Hi. Are you gay?"? And if they do, the sentence would end in "Because if you are, then your job will be in great jeopardy, that is, if you even get the job.""

"Equal rights are not special rights."

"Homophobia is a social disease."

"I am reminded of a colleague who reiterated "All my homosexual patients are quite sick." - to which I finally replied "So are all my heterosexual patients.""

"The degree and kind of a man's sexuality reach up into the ultimate pinnacle of his spirit."

"One should no more deplore homosexuality than left-handedness."

"Soldiers who are not afraid of guns, bombs, capture, torture or death say they are afraid of homosexuals.  Clearly we should not be used as soldiers; we should be used as weapons."

"It always seemed to me a bit pointless to disapprove of homosexuality.  It's like disapproving of rain."

"There's this illusion that homosexuals have sex and heterosexuals fall in love.  That's completely untrue.  Everybody wants to be loved."

"Straight Americans need... an education of the heart and soul.  They must understand - to begin with - how it can feel to spend years denying your own deepest truths, to sit silently through classes, meals, and church services while people you love toss off remarks that brutalize your soul."

"What are you trying to protect heterosexual marriages from?  There isn't a limited amount of love in Iowa.  It isn't a non-renewable resource.  If Amy and Barbara or Mike and Steve love each other, it doesn't mean that John and Mary can't."

"People sometimes think I'm gay because I once played a gay in a movie.  It's funny.  Audiences don't think you're a murderer if you play a murderer, but they do think you're gay if you play a gay."

"I get sick of listening to straight people complain about, "Well, hey, we don't have a heterosexual-pride day, why do you need a gay-pride day?"  I remember when I was a kid I'd always ask my mom:  "Why don't we have a Kid's Day?  We have a Mother's Day and a Father's Day, but why don't we have a Kid's Day?"  My mom would always say, "Every day is Kid's Day."  To all those heterosexuals that bitch about gay pride, I say the same thing:  Every day is heterosexual-pride day!  Can't you people enjoy your banquet and not piss on those of us enjoying our crumbs over here in the corner?"

"In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality:  the ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint, or obligation."

"Labels are for filing.  Labels are for clothing.  Labels are not for people."

"I can't help looking gay.  I put on a dress and people say, "Who's the dyke in the dress?""

"As long as society is anti-gay, then it will seem like being gay is anti-social."

"The diagnosis of homosexuality as a "disorder" is a contributing factor to the pathology of those homosexuals who do become mentally ill.... Nothing is more likely to make you sick than being constantly told that you are sick."

"An engineering professor is treating her husband, a loan officer, to dinner for finally giving in to her pleas to shave off the scraggly beard he grew on vacation.  His favorite restaurant is a casual place where they both feel comfortable in slacks and cotton/polyester-blend golf shirts.  But, as always, she wears the gold and pearl pendant he gave her the day her divorce decree was final.  They're laughing over their menus because they know he always ends up diving into a giant plate of ribs but she won't be talked into anything more fattening than shrimp.
      Quiz:  How many biblical prohibitions are they violating?  Well, wives are supposed to be 'submissive' to their husbands (I Peter 3:1).  And all women are forbidden to teach men (I Timothy 2:12), wear gold or pearls (I Timothy 2:9) or dress in clothing that 'pertains to a man' (Deuteronomy 22:5).  Shellfish and pork are definitely out (Leviticus 11:7, 10) as are usury (Deuteronomy 23:19), shaving (Leviticus 19:27) and clothes of more than one fabric (Leviticus 19:19).  And since the Bible rarely recognizes divorce, they're committing adultery, which carries the rather harsh penalty of death by stoning (Deuteronomy 22:22).
      So why are they having such a good time?  Probably because they wouldn't think of worrying about rules that seem absurd, anachronistic or - at best - unrealistic.  Yet this same modern-day couple could easily be among the millions of Americans who never hesitate to lean on the Bible to justify their own anti-gay attitudes."

"While many minority groups are the target for prejudice... and discrimination... in our society, few persons face this hostility without the support and acceptance of their family as do many gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth."

"God has given you one face, and you make yourself another?"

"Never be bullied into silence.  Never allow yourself to be made a victim.  Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself."

"The plague of mankind is the fear and rejection of diversity:  monotheism, monarchy, monogamy and, in our age, monomedicine.  The belief that there is only one right way to live, only one right way to regulate religious, political, sexual, medical affairs is the root cause of the greatest threat to man:  members of his own species, bent on ensuring his salvation, security, and sanity."


IS THIS HOW WE VIEW SOCIETY? THERE ARE HATE CRIMES GOING ALL AROUND THE WORLD BECAUSE OF PEOPLE BEING GAY. NOW TELL ME, IS THIS HOW WE SHOW OUR LOVE?