GAY SUICIDES -- IS ANYONE GETTING THIS?

Can somebody tell me: Are we all in this human-race-to-wherever thing together or not?

Why the hell do we even still talk about "tolerance" when it comes to minority groups (even that term bothers me because we're all in the same big group, in my mind)? Shouldn't we be so far beyond not just tolerance, but acceptance, that we don't even have to think about it anymore?

But no. Many people still love to demean the outsider, persecute the loner, mock someone who is different in some way.

As you probably know, there has been a spate of gay suicides in the U.S. in the past few weeks. Why? WHY? These were all young people. Bullied at school or college. How does this happen?

Here's my guess: It happens largely because we let it happen. We block gay marriages, we're still loopy over gays in the military, we often don't show understanding when our own kids tell us they're gay, and we have a society of stereotypes that makes coming out an incredibly stressful, mountainous event for gays. And it's...2010.

And we don't talk to our kids about these things and teach them blind acceptance of others.

We can split atoms and put a squillion songs into a plastic gizmo not much bigger than a match book, but that's not progress. We can't even look after each other. This is why we have so much to learn from the more compassionate "primitive" cultures. (There's a hoot: We call them primitive.)

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Act humanely. Be accepting. Read about these recent tragedies. Change your thinking if necessary. Talk to your kids. Lobby the politicians to pass kind, accepting laws -- including gay marriage. Hell, you work it out! Get on the Net and sniff around. Make some noise to the media and Congress. Make a bloody effort!

If it's kids doing the bullying, ask yourself: Where are they getting their thinking from? Probably from the phony version of society perpetuated by a consumerism-fueled media showing images of the hot heteros we all should be. And throwing in the token caricature of a gay person here and there.

As adults, it is OUR RESPONSIBILITY to fill young people's heads with good ideas. Ideas of compassion, love, unity, progress, creativity.

If we are going to change the world for the better, we are going to have start at square one. Square one is this: We're all human beings, we're all in this together, and if you can't accept diversity on the team then you'll get the future you deserve.

I dare say I grew up in a world that was about as macho as it gets. But time has taught me that there's nothing more manly than doing the right thing. Standing up and being counted, whether it's popular or not. And showing love and compassion.

Check this out: The 5 Things You Need to Know About Gay Teen Suicide

DON'T GET ME STARTED ON RELIGION VS. GAYS

I'm a spiritual man. But if you believe in a god who says gays are a scourge, well that isn't any "heaven" I want to go to. That's the kind of god that would bitch that you're lucky to be there with him/her, get drunk and beat some women or kids, and take heavyweight campaign donations so he can stay in power. Whatever happened to "God is Love"?

TEEN GAYS: YOU CAN GET HELP!

Call The Trevor Project, 24 hours a day, from anywhere in the country, toll free. They can be reached at 866-4-U-TREVOR (866-488-7386). You can learn about this invaluable organization at The Trevor Project.

THOSE WHO DIED RECENTLY

We should know their names:

Asher Brown and Seth Walsh -- 13 years old
Billy Lucas -- 15
Tyler Clementi [pictured] -- 18
Raymond Chase -- 19


May they be at peace... finally,
Adrian Zupp

FOOTNOTE: I invite you to also take a look at my blog entry of Saturday, June 5, 2010:
NEWS FLASH: MCDONALD'S IS PROUD TO LET GAYS EAT ITS CRAPPY FOOD and the one I wrote on July 17, 2010, NO TIME FOR BULLIES

The Swiss go Cuckoo

Posters of the far-right Swiss People's Party depicting a woman wearing a burqa against a background of a Swiss flag with several minarets. It reads in French 'Stop - Yes to the ban on minarets'

Switzerland’s popular democracy with the right to call referenda looked far less attractive today as it descended into racism and intolerance. The country voted to ban the construction of new minarets, in a surprise result certain to embarrass the neutral government and which the justice minister said could affect Swiss exports and tourism. The Swiss news agency ATS and other media said about 57.5 percent of voters and all but four of the 26 cantons approved the proposal in the nationwide referendum, which was backed by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP).

The government and parliament had rejected the initiative as violating the Swiss constitution, freedom of religion and the country's cherished tradition of tolerance. The government had said a ban could "serve the interests of extremist circles". "Muslims in Switzerland are able to practise their religion alone or in community with others and live according to their beliefs just as before," it said in a statement. Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said the outcome of the vote reflected a fear of Islamic fundamentalism, but the ban was "not a feasible means of countering extremist tendencies".



A group of politicians from the SVP, the country's biggest party, and the conservative Federal Democratic Union gathered enough signatures to force the referendum on the initiative. Its campaign poster showed the Swiss flag covered in missile-like minarets and the portrait of a woman covered with a black chador and veil associated with strict Islam.

This is not the SVP’s first run at a deliberately racist campaign. In 2007 it launched a poster campaign depicting three white sheep standing on the Swiss flag, with one craftily kicking away a black sheep, which was plastered on to billboards, into newspapers and posted to every home in a direct mailshot. The poster was, according to the United Nations, the sinister symbol of the rise of a new racism and xenophobia in a country where one in four, like the black sheep in the poster, are now foreign immigrants to this peaceful, prosperous and stable economy with low unemployment and a per capita GDP larger than that of other Western economies.

This latest referendum is a disgrace in a state which found no problem in being bankers to the Nazis and handling stolen goods from around the world generally. Let's go the whole hog and bar steeples, roadside shrines, crosses on the skyline and Stars of David on Synagogue windows? Still, Switzerland’s Cantons were the result of vicious sectarian warfare? This should serve as a warning that the world is still building barriers and stigmatising people based on race and religion. It is surely the mark of a mature and confident society that it welcomes diversity and the contribution of different cultures to enriching society for everybody? It seems the cuckoos in Switzerland are not just in the clocks.

The Swiss go Cuckoo

Posters of the far-right Swiss People's Party depicting a woman wearing a burqa against a background of a Swiss flag with several minarets. It reads in French 'Stop - Yes to the ban on minarets'

Switzerland’s popular democracy with the right to call referenda looked far less attractive today as it descended into racism and intolerance. The country voted to ban the construction of new minarets, in a surprise result certain to embarrass the neutral government and which the justice minister said could affect Swiss exports and tourism. The Swiss news agency ATS and other media said about 57.5 percent of voters and all but four of the 26 cantons approved the proposal in the nationwide referendum, which was backed by the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP).

The government and parliament had rejected the initiative as violating the Swiss constitution, freedom of religion and the country's cherished tradition of tolerance. The government had said a ban could "serve the interests of extremist circles". "Muslims in Switzerland are able to practise their religion alone or in community with others and live according to their beliefs just as before," it said in a statement. Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said the outcome of the vote reflected a fear of Islamic fundamentalism, but the ban was "not a feasible means of countering extremist tendencies".



A group of politicians from the SVP, the country's biggest party, and the conservative Federal Democratic Union gathered enough signatures to force the referendum on the initiative. Its campaign poster showed the Swiss flag covered in missile-like minarets and the portrait of a woman covered with a black chador and veil associated with strict Islam.

This is not the SVP’s first run at a deliberately racist campaign. In 2007 it launched a poster campaign depicting three white sheep standing on the Swiss flag, with one craftily kicking away a black sheep, which was plastered on to billboards, into newspapers and posted to every home in a direct mailshot. The poster was, according to the United Nations, the sinister symbol of the rise of a new racism and xenophobia in a country where one in four, like the black sheep in the poster, are now foreign immigrants to this peaceful, prosperous and stable economy with low unemployment and a per capita GDP larger than that of other Western economies.

This latest referendum is a disgrace in a state which found no problem in being bankers to the Nazis and handling stolen goods from around the world generally. Let's go the whole hog and bar steeples, roadside shrines, crosses on the skyline and Stars of David on Synagogue windows? Still, Switzerland’s Cantons were the result of vicious sectarian warfare? This should serve as a warning that the world is still building barriers and stigmatising people based on race and religion. It is surely the mark of a mature and confident society that it welcomes diversity and the contribution of different cultures to enriching society for everybody? It seems the cuckoos in Switzerland are not just in the clocks.