I’m taking a deep breath before I start writing this post, because Linda Harvey is probably the single most consistently disgusting, hateful, pigheaded person on the entire Religious Right when it comes to her writings about LGBT people, and the fact that she has decided to piss on these children’s graves may send me over the edge. But we will do this together, and we will be strong.
Her piece is, of course, on WorldNetDaily, home to all of the nation’s greatest conspiracy theories — they’re the biggest birthers on the internet — so it fits right in.
The headline:
Is ‘gay’ agenda to blame for teen suicides?
Yeah, Linda, it must be us. It’s the people who are trying to send the kids a message that they’re good, that they’re worthy of life, and that they’re loved. What villains we are.
Details are sketchy in the recent rash of homosexual-related teen suicides throughout the nation, but already the “gay” lobby is ready to exploit our children one more time.
I think you need to take your predatory hands off of our children, Linda. Do not use the word “our” when referring to gay children.
How do families and school communities cope with such tragedy? As a parent, I cannot even imagine the heartbreak.
Which is strange, since you’ve had a hand in inflicting it.
Would widespread community embrace of homosexuality and gender-switching prevent some of these suicides? Or is misinformation actually a contributor to the despair embedded in these tragedies?
The answer is “both.” If people, in light of all of the science [the grown-up science, Linda, not your fundamentalist moron "science"], grew to understand that homosexuality is a very, very normal part of humanity, these tragedies would be few and far between; moreover, if the Religious Right closed up shop tomorrow, the suicide rate among gay teens would drop precipitously, as the Religious Right is the originator of basically every lie about gay people that exists in our national discourse.
Linda then spends a paragraph bitching about GLSEN and claiming that their study which shows that nine out of ten gay kids are harassed in school is “flawed,” because facts like that are inconvenient for hateful women like Linda.
As the pressure groups scream for pro-homosexual policies, they simultaneously seek to prohibit all speech opposing homosexual behavior, which is viewed as harassment or contributing to it. Compulsory re-education is the only solution, because saying “no” to homosexuality always leads to such tragedy, or so they claim. In the fantasy world of these child-corruption advocates, there’s an unbroken line connecting the actual bullies to any and all who stand up against sexual deviance.
In other words, it’s not sufficient to punish the individuals involved. No, everyone must pay because traditional heterosexual culture is guilty for daring to believe homosexuality is a negative, not a positive.
Correction, Harvey: Backwards bigots believe homosexuality is a negative. Do not try to impute your poor education, your mental anguish, your inner hatred and your complete lack of a tether to actual reality onto “heterosexual culture.” Straight people are, by in large, making the transition into understanding their gay and lesbian children, brothers, sisters, friends and co-workers just fine, thank you. It could happen faster, but as with most issues of “other” in American culture, there is tension between the younger generations, who get it, and the older generations, who will have to die off before the transition is complete.
Moreover, anti-gay speech IS harassment. If these children went to anti-gay churches, what they heard from the pulpit was bullying, pure and simple. Any gay kids reading Linda’s words right now are being bullied. It doesn’t mean the professional bullies aren’t protected under the First Amendment, but it does render us responsible to call them out for it.
Could there be another answer, one that deals with reality?
Always beware when a fundamentalist kook uses the word “reality.” It means we’re going to CrazyTown.
Recent trends in public schools might provide some clues. “Gay” advocacy is growing, now aimed at kids at younger and younger ages. Over 4,000 homosexual clubs have been formed in the past decade, some now at the middle-school level. New, often sexually graphic fiction urges children to explore alternate sexual behavior and gender norms. GLSEN’s explicit book recommendations come to mind. And the Human Rights Campaign’s “Welcoming Schools” program reaches down to grade schoolers to normalize aberrant lifestyles.
Kids are urged to “come out” early. That’s exactly what several of these young victims did, and such actions are often associated with subsequent early suicide attempts.
AND NOW she’s being completely intellectually dishonest, because her readers are stupid and she knows it. Yes, kids are coming out earlier. Many of them are doing just fine! The gay-straight alliances in schools are a big help, because they give kids a safe place where before they might not have had one. However, because there is still a disease of religious fundamentalism in this country, many of the kids accept their sexuality earlier and come out DO indeed find themselves more vulnerable to a cruel society, where many members have been indoctrinated into the sort of mindless and ugly beliefs that Linda is espousing today.
Now watch the toad just start cold making shit up:
The already troubled youngster is often the one drawn to homosexuality or gender compromise and is extremely vulnerable. For many reasons, the grand experiment is crashing before our eyes. But it’s our precious young people, the targets of the double barrels of cruel words as well as cruel sexual manipulation, who are paying the ultimate price.
That’s right, Linda. The entire scientific community has just been waiting for Linda, expert on nothing, to explain how kids become gay. You shameless fool, these kids are not “drawn” to homosexuality. They’re gay. As in, attracted to members of the same sex. It happens at puberty.
One wonders if any of these kids ever heard a clearly articulated warning against homosexuality.
OF COURSE THEY HAVE! Unfortunately, we still live in a society where irrational homophobia like Linda’s trickles down into all corners! They hear it from their predatory pastors, sometimes from their parents, from the nelly leaders of the Family Research Council on television, from kids in the schoolyard who are being raised by bigots…they hear it everywhere!
How DARE she stomp on these kids’ graves by suggesting that if only they had heard more of her Phelps-ian hate speech, maybe they’d be alive? HOW DARE SHE?
Watch her dig it even deeper:
Or were they faced with a continuous onslaught of pro-homosexual diversity lessons, novels and events like the “Day of Silence”? Were they surrounded with liberal teachers as role models and the bad example of a homosexual school club? What part did any of this play in the sad belief that homosexuality was an inevitable destiny, instead of a wayward yet changeable sexual inclination? Under almost continuous pressure to accept a lie – confusion and then despair may be the predictable result.
Yes, they were faced with an “onslaught” of people telling them that they were okay the way they are, faced with teachers and schools which gave them a safe gay club in an otherwise cruel world, and they just offed themselves. Newsflash: gay kids don’t have any reason to hate themselves if adults and other children don’t tell them they should!
She finally mentions the bullies at this point, but almost as an afterthought, because Linda is in full damage control mode. Nope, for this deranged woman, it’s all the Human Rights Campaign’s fault.
But there’s a solution. First and foremost, kids should be told the truth that no one is born gay. Despite any budding feelings he or she may have, many people who felt similarly at that age went on to change both their feelings and behavior, and to be well-adjusted adult heterosexuals, some married with children. The gay lobbyists actively prevent kids from knowing this option. Why can’t they be “pro-choice” regarding homosexuality?
Linda’s solution is to keep telling gay kids that they’re worthless and evil. She doesn’t say it that way, but because in her pig ignorance she refuses to accept the reality that homosexuality simply exists, gay kids simply exist, she would have you tell the kids that “no, you’re really not gay, you’re not who you know you are…in essence, you do not exist.” For quick reference, these kids do exist, and here’s the suicide note from one of them who survived. Read that and tell me that the only thing these kids need is to hear more anti-gay hate and bile from Linda Harvey.
Nice, Linda. It’s a wonder she hasn’t offered to hold the gun for one of these kids.
By the way, Linda is a troll in more ways than one, so if she shows up in the comments section trying to defend herself, let her have it.










She’s vile and ignorant. She’ll get both verbal barrels of cogent reasoned response.
It’s the very lie that ‘no-one is born gay’ that hurts gay kids the most. That statement marks the start of a journey downwards into despair for a kid coming to a knowledge of sexual attraction. If they can’t be born that way then they must be guilty of something or to blame for something or they just have to not BE.
I sent you a youtube link a few months back about a 13 yr old who contemplated suicide. I didn’t know when I watched it that his words at the end would come so true and so dreadfully in the last few weeks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08pK-YQYmEw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08pK-YQYmEw
Can anyone out there tell me why these f*****g christians like this b***h spew forth the lies and hatred that she does???
And furthermore, why is it that the “christians” refuse to believe that one is born gay??? What have they got to loose by simply being honest???
Vile people!!! Vile religion!!!
Gay kids are dying. And you spew forth this venom. Lady, you’re a b***h!!!
To call her a b***h is offensive to sweet female dogs everywhere.
It’s also offensive to stray, rabid curs.
Linda has a choice in her actions. Stray, unloved dogs do not.
Sorry sweet female dogs everywhere, (and to stray, rabid curs): Linda Harvey is the mother of all bitches!
(All human bitches, that is!)
Linda is about as full of bat guano as anyone can be. It infuriates me to no end when non-gays presume to tell *me* ABOUT *me*!, my life, my childhood and my parents. Contrary to what this arrogant bag of pus says, I was NOT a ‘troubled child’, I had great parents and a very happy childhood and NO Linda, I was never ‘confused’ or questioning. I had crushes on boys and was attracted to men BEFORE I even knew what sex was and there is no way in hell I would have ever in any way, shape, or form become a heterosexual, no matter what diabolic machinations you and yours may have devised for me. And then you have the CHUTZPAH to blame US for the deaths of these gay teenagers and children?!?!!!!
Linda: F U C K O F F !!!!!!!!!!!
So what she is saying is that bullies will be bullies and the victim just needs to morph into something more acceptable to appease the bully so she can be comfortable?! How very foul!
“How do families and school communities cope with such tragedy? As a parent, I cannot even imagine the heartbreak.”
You need to have a heart to imagine (or feel) heartbreak.
“Why can’t they be “pro-choice” regarding homosexuality?”
Funny. You guys aren’t–unless people are “choosing” your side.
She ought to drop all this cant draped in verbiage and just say straight out exactly what she means: that she doesn’t actually WANT gay kids to be bullied or to kill themselves – BUT if the alternative is for them to realise that there’s nothing wrong with being gay and that they’re just as good as anyone else, and for everyone else to realise it too, then it’s a price well worth paying.
I’ve been dreading Linda Harvey’s response, because I knew it would be vile, thoughtless, stupid, insensitive, illogicial, worthless, insensitive, repulsive, insulting, ignorant…
I read the suicide note and it brought tears to my eyes. I don’t think I ever considered suicide really. Probably thought of it a couple times though. Thank God the bullying I suffered was mostly verbal and it wasn’t widespread because I managed to hide it. 30+ years later I am out to most of my old classmates through reunions etc. The amazing thing is even my 95 year old Christian Great-Aunt loves me. To people like Linda Harvey, I don’t even want to waste my breath. To all the young kids,it really does get better. Be strong and proud. Like The Desiderata says,” You are a child of the universe and you have a right to be here.”
How can Linda Harvey possibly believe that gay teens have NEVER heard homophobic rhetoric? I heard TONS of it growing up, from peers, from public figures, from religeous figure, from family members.
And there were plenty of books in the school library that addressed the topic, and most of them wewre published in the 60′s*, before every reputable medical group in the US declassified homosexuality as a mental illness. The “information” found in those books was utterly useless. I can’t begin to list all the crap they said, but I can bottom-line it for you: gay people are sick, evil predators, and you should stay away from them. But if you have reason to believe you might be gay, then you’re wrong because you’re too young to be gay. But you should tell an adult, so they can drag you to a doctor to be “cured”. Nearly all of them were vague on what the cure would consist of, but one I did find alluded to electroshock therapy.
Now THERE’S an invitation to open up.
Any message that I was okay was far and few between.
And when I was 18, I tried to kill myself.
Linda Harvey doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about.
One more thing: I never once felt guilty about being gay. I just felt isolated, because there didn’t seem to be ANYBODY I could talk to. If everybody I knew was homophobic to some degree(at least that’s how it felt at the time), who could I trust?
Read the suicide note. Too stunned to cry.
[...] alive from people like you, Bam Bam. The ones pouring salt in the wounds are people like you and Linda Harvey, who seem to believe that if only these kids had heard more extremist hate speech, they’d [...]
I think if I ran into her today I would punch her in the face..bully the hateful b***h.
Seriously, could we bring ACT UP back to throw a pie in her face everywhere she gives a speech?
She needs a new scarf – looks like some old housewife from 1967.
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Typical conservative, thank the real God (the one that loves us all) that America truly is the land of the free, cause if her and other morons like her got what they wanted, America would become the new Africa. You think war is harmful, conservatives are the most dangerous thing on the planet, far worse than any war.
[...] agenda,” is evidence of their full-blown denial. And the pathology came full circle when Linda Harvey blamed the suicides on the “gay [...]
[...] You will remember Linda from several months back, when after the spate of gay teen suicides, she reacted so callously, so soullessly, that you could almost smell the blood under her fingernails and [...]
Alright guys don’t attack Christians. In this time we have many Christians allies who remember Jesus as he was. It’s a disgrace to Christians to lump this women in with them.
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[...] haven’t been paying attention to my life’s work. I mean, one of my favorite hobbies is pissing on the graves of recently deceased gay teenagers. I would do it even if I didn’t make money off of it. I am [...]