SWOPblogger

It is sick! It is sick to think that some people are being treated like a disease or that they are perverted and a sinner. To most people this is called “being gay” but to me its called life. Being gay is not a disease. If being gay is a disease I might as well call in “queer” to work.

I was saddened and hurt when I received an e-mail from a good friend about a young man named Lawrence King who was shot in the back of the head. Lawrence was an 8th grade middle school student who was shot by his 14-year-old classmate. Why was Lawrence shot you ask? For no other reason than being gay.

It is sick to me that in our schools your kids are being bullied for such stupid reasons, ugly hair, wrong clothes or where they live. Schools are supposed to be a safe haven for children. I myself was abused at school for the same reason. I too am gay and a senior in high school. I was teased in middle school for being gay and on the third day of my freshmen year I decided that I would end the teasing and come out to everyone.

Once I came out to my peers I was surprised that I was not being teased anymore. This was something much different. I was not being teased, but I was given dirty looks and treated as if I had a disease. People no longer wanted to be around me. I felt like a wild animal let lose in a high school. People would stare at me and purposely take a different hall to miss me. I wished I had kept my mouth shut because at least before I came out I was getting human contact.

Then before I knew it, it was the fifth day of school. The school day had just ended and I was walking towards the buses when I heard some books fall and hit the ground. It was nothing to me so I kept on walking. Then before I knew it I was in pain and on the ground. All I could feel was warmth coming over me. I was on my hands and knees with no sight and no hearing. The warmth I felt coming over me was blood. After about 4 seconds on the floor I got my hearing back but still no vision.

I could hear kids cheering. Then I felt a blow to my side. I then knew that I was getting jumped. I was on my side taking blow after pain staking blow. I felt as if there were three or four guys hitting me at once. I screamed for help but all I heard was laughter. I finally got to my feet trying to find my attackers. Once I found him I realized he was alone. I felt as if my life were in danger. If you have never felt the rush of defending your life it feels as if you had been going to the gym your whole life. Your strength becomes impeccable and you use that to your advantage.

I fell to the floor and looked up .All I could see was a foot coming right at me. All I could do was cringe and wait for the foot of my attacker to slam into my face. That was the last thing I remember. The next thing I was at the hospital with two sprained wrists, a sprained ankle, a shattered nose and a couple of chipped teeth. Over the next few months of recovery I cried begging my mother to not put me back in school. I felt that school was not a safe place anymore but more of a mini community, where I was not welcome.

After about a month after the attack I decided that I would go back to school, back to the school where I had started my freshmen year. I wanted to go back so I could show all of the other students that I was not going anywhere and that I was going to fight back. The day I returned I was a changed person.

I managed to get my doctor bills reimbursed but I still suffer from that day. I’m now diagnosed with rental migraines, which means that my brain can’t process stress and I ether loose my vision or black out completely. It can last anywhere from 30 seconds to two days. I will never get rid of the problem and I will have this condition until my dying day. All because of one person who could not deal with me being gay.

In the story of Lawrence King, there are 2 victims. One being Lawrence and the second, Brandon McIerney, the shooter. Once I read the story I was come over with sorrow. Sorrow for not only Lawrence and his family, but sorrow because Brandon not only took Lawrence’s life, but he also took his own.

Our society has failed Brandon in terms of teaching him tolerance and non-violence. Many will say, “see, that’s why we need guns in school,” and what I say is no. This could have been prevented by having prevention programs that teach about tolerance of any and all peoples. Having prevention and intervention programs on anger management and problem solving skills so that no problem, disagreement or misunderstanding NEVER ends up like Lawrence King. I still stand by a No Guns in Schools Policy, and more so now on needing prevention and intervention programs.

I’m telling my story because I know that I’m not the only one that has been hurt by this issue. And the sad part is that I wont be the last. I do not have a disease. I’m a person just like any other. I think that the “disease” is within the people who do not agree with the “homosexual lifestyle” they are the ones filled with hate. Hate is passed on generation to generation. We need to do something. Women had a revolution, as well as the Mexicans and the African Americans. Now this is the start of the G.L.B.T.Q. revolution.