WeGiveADamn.org - Awesome site/movement promoting LGBT equality.
76 replies, posted
What the fuck, It takes more than 5 minutes to register? fuck that.
[QUOTE=Enishi;21133937]i give a damn [IMG]http://www.facepunch.com/fp/rating/rainbow.png[/IMG][/QUOTE]
Dude what the fuck is your avatar.
[QUOTE=BagMinge101;21134333]I would try to talk some sense into you, but your head is so far up your ass that I think sound waves can't penetrate.[/QUOTE]
Go ahead. Do it. you'll be just as effective as trying to get gay marriage legalized by complaining about it to the wrong people.
ATTENTION GAY PEOPLE: IF YOU WANT TO GET MARRIED, DON'T TELL ME, TELL THE PEOPLE WHO LEGALIZE IT. THE PUBLICITY WILL COME AFTER THEY START TO TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY. UNTIL THEN, YOU'RE JUST WASTING YOUR BREATH.
[quote]My First and Best Friend Dusty
We met – my first and best friend Dusty and I – at a day care center in Baltimore. The year was 1985; we were 4 years old.
Pushed together like two pieces of puzzle, we instantly bonded over our similarities – fiery red hair, teenage mothers, a passion for Care Bears and their Cousins. We had something else in common, too – a shared secret that neither one of us would know about ourselves until much later and about each other until it was too late.
Dusty and I remained close friends even after I had moved to another county, another school in 1988. Our parents had become friends because of us, so we saw each other regularly with play dates and sleepovers until we hit puberty. It was about that time that we lost touch. Our lives had become fuller – after-school activities, adolescent dating, life in general had consumed our time – and slowly we drifted apart.
A few years passed without any contact before we ran into each other at the mall near my new home. I didn’t recognize him at first, but a few more seconds in his blue-green eyes erased the shaggy hair, the premature stubble, the inner angst, to reveal the little boy I fell in love with long ago.
We briefly regained contact that summer – I was a rising sophomore in high school then – by exchanging letters and the occasional phone call. But, as we had before, we allowed the lines of communication to disconnect to concentrate on more important things, like becoming men.
While Dusty was always in the back of my mind, life continued. I graduated with honors from high school and started my freshman year at a small private college in southwest Virginia. I hadn’t heard from him in about three years by that time – the longest we’d ever sacrificed our friendship.
Sadly, I would never hear from him again.
When I came home for Thanksgiving break that year – it was 1999 – my mother delicately delivered the news that Dusty had died, that he killed himself one weekend while his parents were away. Naturally, I cried and pined for my friend to whom I didn’t say goodbye, whom I hadn’t been able to save. But I also wondered why – why did such a seemingly happy kid commit the ultimate act of self-violence? What drove him to end it all?
I visited his parents while I was home, equally to offer my condolences on their loss and to find out the truth about Dusty’s death. The story I received from his mother, however, wasn’t what I expected. She told a tale of drunken friends and a prank gone wrong, suggesting that they had hanged him – murdered him – and left his body for his parents to find when they returned from vacation two days later.
If that was the case, I thought, why aren’t these criminals in custody? How, if this was as cut-and-dry as she presented it, are these people not behind bars?
Her story stuck with me that day – and everyday after – and as I retold it to my friends at a pool hall later that evening, the first of two divine interventions occurred.
Before I continue, mostly so you don’t think I’m some crystal-worshiping or Bible-wielding kook, you should know that I’m not religious, I don’t put much stock in the idea of a higher power and I generally don’t believe in fate. But what Dusty did for me after he died is, in a word, extraordinary. He brought me his truth in incredible ways – and it saved my life.
As I recounted the harrowing tale of Dusty’s alleged murder to my friends at the pool hall that night, one of Dusty’s friends – whom I had never met before; in fact, I had never once met any of his friends since moving to a new town 11 years prior – stopped me mid-story to tell me that she knew him and she knew what really happened: He was gay and he couldn’t handle the consequences of coming out.
Her understanding of the circumstances was that Dusty had told his mother that he was gay and his mother told him that if he was going to be “like that” that he would have to tell his grandparents.
His mother knew what she was doing – through her anger she delivered this ultimatum to assert her power, to reclaim a child that she was losing to the realities of the world – though she didn’t realize the impending repercussions.
You see, Dusty and his grandparents were a team. They did everything together. As a kid, I witnessed firsthand the sort of doting this elderly couple impressed upon their grandson. He was the apple of each of their eyes, and by insisting that Dusty tell his grandparents his mother was hoping that he would “change his mind” about being gay.
Her plan backfired. Instead, Dusty sank into himself, and through desperation and despair he came to a conclusion: If his own mother couldn’t love him for who he was then no one else would either.
He couldn’t bear the prospect of coming out to his grandparents and having them deny him as his mother had. So he decided to save them – save everyone – the hurt and pain of having a gay son, brother and grandson by committing suicide.
Why this revelation is remarkable is that I didn’t know Dusty was gay – and he didn’t know I was gay either, because for my entire life it was something that I was secretly fighting within myself, something I was trying to hide, something I was afraid to tell anyone else. To have this unexpected girl deliver this message – why, how was she there among my own separate friends on this particular night? – was more than a coincidence. She was a vessel, his voice of reason telling me that he was OK – and that I would be, too, if I could learn from his mistake.
A few years later, after I had accepted my own sexuality (through Dusty’s ethereal assistance) and come out to my family and friends, Dusty came to me a second time. He must have felt, from wherever he was, the sudden sadness and sorrow that ravaged my heavy heart. My parents, much like his, didn’t greet my admission with open arms. Like Dusty’s mom, they were angry, embarrassed and otherwise unwilling to accept – or respect, for that matter – that I am gay. On the brink, with thoughts of suicide swirling in my head, he made another visit.
It was a sunny, sticky June afternoon in 2005 when a few friends and I volunteered to serve beer to festival-goers at a local gay pride celebration. It was the second year I had signed up for this particular position because once the festival was over the beer reps allowed us each to take a case home. The reward was always worth our time – and this year, even more so.
As the festival concluded, hundreds of cars lined up to depart from the single exit out of the park. My SUV was parked about a quarter-mile away from where our beer stand stood and we didn’t have the energy after a half-day on our feet to lug the cases of beer the total distance.
About halfway to our parking spot, I knocked on a random car that sat in the exit queue. The guy inside rolled down the window and I politely asked if he would mind driving us the rest of the way. He obliged, and on my way out of his car upon reaching ours I invited this stranger, Kevin, to an impromptu cookout I was hosting at my house later that evening.
Kevin arrived, and after dinner we sat on my back porch shooting the breeze about life and our experiences. Another friend, who had joined us for dinner, asked about being gay and coming out. I told her the trouble I had coming to terms with my sexuality as a teenager, the positive experience I had coming out to my friends, and the negative experience I had coming out to my parents. I told her, too, the story about my friend (I didn’t mention Dusty’s name out loud during the conversation) who had killed himself because he was gay and how his suicide somehow helped me cope with coming out.
As Kevin digested the details of my story, his curiosity piqued and he posed one question, the words of which I will never forget.
“Are you talking about Dusty?” he asked.
Stunned, my shaky voice provided confirmation.
Then he spoke the only statement to ever rock me to the core.
“I was his boyfriend,” Kevin said.
I absorbed this information with wonder and utter disbelief. My jaw was literally hanging open. Twice?!, I thought. How was this possible? And why is it happening to me?
After the party, I retired to my room and laid down on the bed. The emotions flooded in with purpose and force. I cried like I had never cried before.
It was at that moment that I could physically feel Dusty’s presence. He was there. Above me. Below me. Wrapped around me. As he had been – protecting me from the world and myself – since the day he took his own life.
That was also the night that he left me. In some manner of speaking, his work was done. He had spent the past six years guiding me, interrupting me, to ensure that I didn’t meet the same demise that he did. Dusty stood by me – admittedly not physically – through the degradation, suffering, hurt and pain that often comes with being gay, and it’s because of him that I made it through. It’s because of him that I’m here and I’m happy.
Still, part of me wishes that Dusty could share in my happiness today – that we could share each other’s happiness. If only we had been confident in our sexuality back then, perhaps we could have confided in one another.
That’s where so many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teens and adults get it wrong – like he did. They think they’re alone. They think that no one understands, and that if mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, brother and sister don’t accept it that no one will.
That couldn’t be farther from the truth.
I gave a damn about Dusty, and I give a damn about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals contemplating suicide.
When you feel like hope is lost, remember Dusty and think of me.
My friend taught me how to love myself. He taught me how to love others, too. He taught me that whether or not it seems like it, there will always be someone who has unconditional love and support to give, someone who will always be by your side – no matter what. You just have to let them.
Take the chance. Talk to someone. And if it doesn’t go well, don’t sweat it. Resolve to be strong enough to stand – especially when others are hell-bent on knocking you down – and declare that you’re deserving of love, acceptance and respect.
Because – and don’t ever forget this – you absolutely are.[/quote]
How touching.
[QUOTE=ProboardslolV2;21134359]Go ahead. Do it. you'll be just as effective as trying to get gay marriage legalized by complaining about it to the wrong people.
ATTENTION GAY PEOPLE: IF YOU WANT TO GET MARRIED, DON'T TELL ME, TELL THE PEOPLE WHO LEGALIZE IT. THE PUBLICITY WILL COME AFTER THEY START TO TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY. UNTIL THEN, YOU'RE JUST WASTING YOUR BREATH.[/QUOTE]
This post is full of truth, don't know why you people can't realize it. Especially [url=http://www.facepunch.com/member.php?u=253847]this guy[/url], he's hardcore gay I tell you.
[highlight](User was banned for this post ("Trolling" - Dragon))[/highlight]
[QUOTE=BagMinge101;21134403]How touching.[/QUOTE]
Most people won't even care enough to read this.
The problem gay people are facing is that they're in a sea of uncaring people who claim they care but won't do anything. America is so fucking lazy we won't even read a paragraph
[QUOTE=BagMinge101;21134403]How touching.[/QUOTE]
I don't even wanna know how that June afternoon got so sticky.
[QUOTE=Kakek;21134453]I don't even wanna know how that June afternoon got so sticky.[/QUOTE]
high humidity.
[img]http://chadt4.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/shocked-1.jpg[/img]
Glad those guys got banned, now the thread may continue in peace.
mods are watching the thread, if any of you want to try and troll you can go ahead but youre pretty worthless if it has to be done over this
[quote]So I’m walking down the street in Phoenix about 15 years ago when I lived there, just walking down the street. Suddenly a big blue truck (the kind with big tires and a lift kit) squeals over and a guy jumps out of the truck holding a two-foot pipe wrench. He starts screaming at me, he’s drunk so the only word I can understand is “faggot” and he takes a swing at my head with this pipe wrench, fortunately I was able to get out of the way or I’d be dead instead of writing this.
I ran like hell, lucky for me, he ran after me (he was short and fat, I was tall and thin) and didn’t get back into the truck right away so I was able to get away from him. Had he gotten back in the truck and drove after me or connected with the wrench, I wouldn’t be here today.[/quote]
I felt bad for laughing a bit.
[QUOTE=Strongbad;21134094]Hurf durf pleez sign up on dis site for pepole who liek to put their junk in peepoles butts thnx :downs:[/QUOTE]
Hey, some of us like to have people's junk in [i]our[/i] butts!
This is funny cause I am watching "I pronounce you chuck and larry".
I tried to browse the site, but some woman started talking at me and i got scared and left
[QUOTE=Triumph Forks;21134734]I tried to browse the site, but some woman started talking at me and i got scared and left[/QUOTE]
It's not like you have to talk to her.
[QUOTE=PrismatexV8;21134660]Hey, some of us like to have people's junk in [i]our[/i] butts![/QUOTE]
*fistbump*
[editline]01:47AM[/editline]
Oh, and don't worry, I'm already very much for LGBT rights
[QUOTE=Ub3rMesa;21133908]Signing up on a website isn't going to change people's opinions about homosexuals[/QUOTE]
A virtual version of MLK's March on Washington. It shows the HUGE backing for LGBT rights. That might open people's eyes and see that a lot of people want gay rights.
Ugh, I'm getting annoyed by this.
Why do everyone feel the need to yell out their "private" lives on the roofs by bothering with such trivial things like marriage? Most marriages end up in divorce anyways.
I hate that kind of gays. Actually, I hate that kind of people (applies to furries, gays, otaku, etc etc). We don't give a damn what you want to fuck, keep it to yourself. When it will affect us, we'll know about it. If you wouldn't yell everything around, you wouldn't need to gather and fight for stuff.
[QUOTE=Killerhurtz;21135495]Ugh, I'm getting annoyed by this.
Why do everyone feel the need to yell out their "private" lives on the roofs by bothering with such trivial things like marriage? Most marriages end up in divorce anyways.
I hate that kind of gays. Actually, I hate that kind of people (applies to furries, gays, otaku, etc etc). We don't give a damn what you want to fuck, keep it to yourself. When it will affect us, we'll know about it. If you wouldn't yell everything around, you wouldn't need to gather and fight for stuff.[/QUOTE]
So if gays kept themselves in a mentally and physically unhealthy state of sexual repression society would magically overturn all of it's prejudices, hate, and laws against LGBT people?
kk.
Let us know when you decide that gays should be able to live their lives out loud like heterosexual people.
[QUOTE=ProboardslolV2;21134025]Don't mind me, [b]I'm annoyed by anybody that complains[/b], but I think the only way to get people to stop complaining is to do the right thing, which is why I'm pro-gay marriage.
If I wasn't so annoyed about people complaining I wouldn't give 2 shits[/QUOTE]
Lol irony.
[QUOTE=BagMinge101;21135559]So if gays kept themselves in a mentally and physically unhealthy state of sexual repression society would magically overturn all of it's prejudices, hate, and laws against LGBT people?
kk.[/QUOTE]
Also the divorce rate in heterosexual couples is around 50% so there is no majority of the turnout of marriages.
[QUOTE=BagMinge101;21135559]So if gays kept themselves in a mentally and physically unhealthy state of sexual repression society would magically overturn all of it's prejudices, hate, and laws against LGBT people?
kk.
Let us know when you decide that gays should be able to live their lives out loud like heterosexual people.[/QUOTE]
Where did I mention sexual repression? And where did I say it was alright for straight people to do the same? I just say it like this: "Fuck what you will, but keep me out of it. If I must know it, I'll know it in due time."
What does it do to me when I meet you in the street to know that you're straight, gay, furry or into midget tranny porn? Nothing. You're someone, that's fine. I don't want to know what I'm not really supposed to know anyways.
And it would not magically overturn it, it would essentially get rid the need of it. How can there be prejudice and hate if there is no knowledge of who is what? Why need laws when you keep your bed stuff in bed?
I don't even see why people would fight for marriage. They're essentially fighting for the right to pay for a contract that's going to tie them together up until they pay MORE to get rid of it. While they can live just as happily without it.
[QUOTE=Killerhurtz;21135495]Ugh, I'm getting annoyed by this.
Why do everyone feel the need to yell out their "private" lives on the roofs by bothering with such trivial things like marriage? Most marriages end up in divorce anyways.
I hate that kind of gays. Actually, I hate that kind of people (applies to furries, gays, otaku, etc etc). We don't give a damn what you want to fuck, keep it to yourself. When it will affect us, we'll know about it. If you wouldn't yell everything around, you wouldn't need to gather and fight for stuff.[/QUOTE]
Well if that's your attitude, why have equal human rights at all? We're just gonna die in the end, so who gives a shit?
[QUOTE=BagMinge101;21133823][url]http://www.wegiveadamn.org/[/url]
A movement backed by people like Elton John and Jason Meraz, I'll let the site explain for you:
If you do anything first, I say read through the personal stories. They are really touching, sometimes saddening stuff. It's awesome to see a mainstream movement that are trying to get more straight people involved in this issue, and to have it back by well-known people.[/QUOTE]
By the way, it's Jason Mraz.
[QUOTE=Killerhurtz;21135750]Where did I mention sexual repression? And where did I say it was alright for straight people to do the same? I just say it like this: "Fuck what you will, but keep me out of it. If I must know it, I'll know it in due time."
What does it do to me when I meet you in the street to know that you're straight, gay, furry or into midget tranny porn? Nothing. You're someone, that's fine. I don't want to know what I'm not really supposed to know anyways.[/QUOTE]
It puts it out there in plain sight so that you know it's there and can't ignore it, and shows that they aren't going away.
[QUOTE=Killerhurtz;21135750]Where did I mention sexual repression? And where did I say it was alright for straight people to do the same? I just say it like this: "Fuck what you will, but keep me out of it. If I must know it, I'll know it in due time."
What does it do to me when I meet you in the street to know that you're straight, gay, furry or into midget tranny porn? Nothing. You're someone, that's fine. I don't want to know what I'm not really supposed to know anyways.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Killerhurtz;21135495]Ugh, I'm getting annoyed by this.
Why do everyone feel the need to yell out their "private" lives on the roofs by bothering with such trivial things like marriage? Most marriages end up in divorce anyways.
I hate that kind of gays. Actually, I hate that kind of people (applies to furries, gays, otaku, etc etc). We don't give a damn what you want to fuck, keep it to yourself. When it will affect us, we'll know about it.[b] If you wouldn't yell everything around, you wouldn't need to gather and fight for stuff.[/b][/QUOTE]
You guys fail to get the point. The point is, if people stopped even caring for such things (This applies to both sides, actually), we wouldn't need to spend money on trivial matters like these. Gays need to stop flaunting how fabulous they are, and people need to stop caring who does what where. If a behavior hurts no one, it deserves no attention whatsoever.
People should also stop acting like there is only one guilty party.
And with that, I'm tired and it's getting late, good night.
[QUOTE=Killerhurtz;21135888]You guys fail to get the point. The point is, if people stopped even caring for such things (This applies to both sides, actually), we wouldn't need to spend money on trivial matters like these. Gays need to stop flaunting how fabulous they are, and people need to stop caring who does what where. If a behavior hurts no one, it deserves no attention whatsoever.[/QUOTE]
I think the impression you have of homosexuals is that of the flamboyant kind. The thing is, most gays try to fit in with society and act like anyone else, and treat it like it's nothing special, but again and again, society rejects and ridicules them. So that is why they are speaking out. A quiet majority doesn't change things.
gays are disgusting
[QUOTE=Killerhurtz;21135495]I hate that kind of gays. Actually, I hate that kind of people (applies to furries, gays, otaku, etc etc). We don't give a damn what you want to fuck, keep it to yourself. When it will affect us, we'll know about it. If you wouldn't yell everything around, you wouldn't need to gather and fight for stuff.[/QUOTE]
Oh, fucking this.
A lot of the "weirdos" love to advertise whatever is they're fucking doing, and I fucking hate that shit.
i gave a damn
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