The Modern World

I have been reading A Boys Life in Utah blog for a while and I encourage my readers to check it out, but a lot of what he’s been saying has got me thinking both about what he’s currently going through, what I’ve gone through, and what some other friends of mine have gone through in the process of coming out. It is said that we live in a modern society that we have advanced beyond primitive societies. In today’s society, racism is scorned with disapproval, burning someone at the stake is considered cruel and inhumane; the practices of the Nazi’s are considered detestable. But how far have we really come? It is ridiculous that in a so called modern and advanced society such an issue as who someone loves, sleeps with, is attracted to, can be such a big fucking deal to some people. It’s a shame when our society makes people so uncomfortable with themselves that they sacrifice everything they are to fit in, your too fat, your too thin, your gay, your too tall, your too stupid. People wonder why the youth of today are so fucked up at times, to me the answer is simple, the pressures being put on these poor kids by their own peer groups is getting to be overwhelming. You take a person who is coming to terms with being gay, and he has to worry about how will this person react, how will that person react, will I still have friends, will I still have a family, I know these questions I can’t blame anyone for asking them, I’ve asked them myself many times. Add on top of that religious nut cases who think homosexuals should be treated for mental disorders, or segregated from the population. It’s no wonder to me why so many teens, and even adults who are struggling to come to terms with being gay, both with themselves and their friends and families, turn to substance abuse as an escape from dealing with their lives. Even beyond that I’ve held a friend in my arms the night he tried to kill himself because he felt he had nothing left in this world after coming out to his friends and family, two churches petitioned the school to have him expelled, students threw staplers, erasers, and other objects at him, called him faggot and queer, all of this in front of teachers, teachers who are supposed to give a fuck about their students, and through it all no one said a thing. I’ve seen firsthand the power that bigots can have over someone, and I find it more amazing still that in a so called modern society this is allowable and considered to be a freedom of speech to call someone a faggot. I am a trained substance abuse prevention specialist, I work a lot with teens, and I see it get worse and worse each year. At the end of a lot cases I have dealt with, straight, gay, questioning, the root cause of most substance anuses cases has been the pressure from friend s or family to just be “normal”. For anyone currently going through these struggles I encourage you to find someone, no matter if it’s someone online, a close friend you unload on, find someone, Friendship is a powerful force and it can pull you through this. I know it’s hard, I know it aint easy, but hang in there, you can get through it, and it will be better later. If you people can’t handle you being gay, then to be perfectly honest, they were not friends to begin with.

BW