I feel like the movement to acceptance of the LGTB community has really begun to settle in during this generation. However, that's the word we need to focus on. It has still only begun, and the fight for human rights of all kinds is still difficult. Parent from religious backgrounds especially seem to showcase an unwillingness to allow gay rights. A teacher from Burnaby B.C. was sent a death threat supposedly from a parent that opposed an anti-homophobic policy in schools. "You want to destroy our children...You are our enemy... You will be shot,” the note said. I find it so disturbing that a parent, the person a child mostly sees as a role model, would do something like this. I know they grew up in a different time where gay rights were still not okay, but threatening a teacher’s life because he supports a policy to stop other students from bullying students of the LGTB community scares me.
Another issue I don’t agree with is the fact that in Michigan they have passed “Matt’s Safe School Law”. The outlines for this law are that “the law includes a section noting it doesn't abridge First Amendment free speech rights or prohibit expression of religious or moral viewpoints” ( From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20111102/SCHOOLS/111020427/Dad-‘ashamed’-of-anti-bullying-bill-named-after-son-as-it-passes-Senate#ixzz1cn6ahW6R ) This sets up dozens of situations where the perpetrators of discrimination against homosexuals can call upon loopholes, saying it wasn’t wrong because they were voicing their religions. This law can easily be exploited and it’s a disappointment, especially to the father of the boy they named the law after who wrote a letter, that they’d claim this was an improvement. If anything it’s making it worse by allowing situations where it’s acceptable for this behaviour.
We are still in urgent need of LGTB activists who sincerely want to make a difference. We need them in our schools as councillors; we need them in politics to make laws that are not phony excuses to make you feel good. We can’t leave our efforts with the hollow feeling of accomplishment that you might have discouraged bullying for a time. True LGTB activists are the type of people who are always striving to make a difference. They don’t stop after one contribution, they trudge on through, battle after battle for a difference for our generation and the ones to come after us.
We need things to change now, all the time. Activists and Gay icons like Rick Mercer, Ellen, Matthew Shepard, Harvey Milk and more are needed. They inspire change and affect in the world. Gay activists are the force that has saved so many lives without people even realising it. So many lives have been sacrificed; Matthew Shepard, Harvey Milk, Matt Eppling and Mayor Moscone all lost their lives because people couldn’t accept that they wanted people who were different to be just as equal and safe.
