Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The Color Purple


In case you don't know: Today people are wearing purple to honor and respect the recent suicides of homosexual teenagers, and to raise awareness against discrimination, hate, and bullying directed at the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community.

It's been a while since I've last written in this thing. I guess it might say a lot if I am actually taking time out of my extremely-busy-life to make a serious-blog-post about something.Today, I am contributing to the growing pool of Internet posts defending this purple movement.

I'm not holding it against you if you were completely out of the loop and were genuinely baffled when you saw that everyone decided to wear purple today. But I am kind of holding it against you if you have decided to express this GREAT DISDAIN that many people seem to feel towards this.

I know that in the same way I feel that you Negative Nancy's should not be expressing so much (exaggerated?) opposition to this, you can say that purple-wearers shouldn't be all up in your face about wearing purple. Who cares about only seven juvenile suicides when people commit suicide everyday? There are so many other much more important global matters! It's so dumb, really dumb, for real, to suddenly care about the LGBT community!

Except it is not. What's wrong with raising awareness? Everybody knows about breast cancer, but people still wear pink to "raise awareness" for a disease that affects thousands of people. I don't think everyone is aware of the "social disease" if you will, that is discrimination and hate towards the LGBT community. This can be said for every other group of people that is discriminated against, of course. The fact of the matter is that this is current and these suicides were all publicized within the same time frame and this has struck many people as tragic.

According to GLAAD:
Spirit Day honors the teenagers who had taken their own lives in recent weeks. But just as importantly, it's also a way to show the hundreds of thousands of LGBT youth who face the same pressures and bullying, that there is a vast community of people who support them.
Hypothetical Quote From A Hater: "Man, that is super threatening to my life. This is a stupid way of showing awareness. I am so mad everyone is wearing purple. No one cares about any global issues EVER but now they care about this?"

I suppose the way I am going about this is "super immature." I am mocking people's opinions and all that. But this is what it comes down to, and this is all you have to read: Discrimination and bullying is awful, and this fact has been brought to light due to the suicides. People have banded together to show support. If you are arguing that there are much more important things to raise awareness and be active about, you should be comforted by the fact that some people actually care about something.

Of course there are many other things that are "worthy" of activism, but that is all relevant to your perception and what is important to you. Right now, people care about this. Apathy only perpetuates more hate. If you have no interest in this, being a "player hater" doesn't help anyone. Collectively wearing purple indirectly does.

Important Fun Fact: I hadn't even considered wearing purple until yesterday. So there you have it, my self-imporant two cents. I hope you all continue to be irritated or inspired by the amount of purple surrounding you today!

Today's post was brought to you by excessive use of italics.

3 comments:

  1. I wholeheartedly agree.
    Myself personally, am wearing purple to help out the LGBT community. I have lots of friends who are part of this community and I would hate to see them bullied and abused by others to the point that they commit suicide. I will admit, I have made more than my own share of gay jokes in good fun, but never have I expressed discomfort or discrimination against any individual for the reason of homo or bisexuality.

    The fact of the matter is, this shit is real, everyone gets bullied around for something or other, and sometimes while it's something as mediocre as a bad hair cut, it can become about something really serious like your sexual preference. And I'd argue that we need to focus on ELIMINATING social disease, so that physical disease can be our only worry. It's sad to live in a world where people are only "sick" or "in pain" in a physical sense. Humans are so much more complex than that.

    But I digress. I <3 you and I enjoyed reading this. Stay gorgeous gal.

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  2. My biggest reason for not wearing purple is not that I have any problem with the movement, or that I disagree with it at all, I totally agree and am all for raising awareness for respect and tolerance of others. My biggest issue is that we are only focusing on the suicides of LGBT teens and young adults. What about all the other teens and young adults who lose their lives to suicide, but do not get the memorial and rembrance and support that these teens are getting. I have no problem with LGBT people - I have countless friends who are LGBT, and I'm all for equality, but when we say we're for "equality" that should actually mean equality. Suicide is not sexual-orientation specific, and it is a serious problem that affects ALL young adults and teens in our current society. To say that any one of those teens deserves less support and memorial merely because they are not LGBT is unfair and mars those teens memories.
    here is a link to my original post about this. (http://iwillstaygold.tumblr.com/post/1355383359/intolerance)
    I hope that people can see my point of view... I am not trying to offend or say anything against LGBT support - I fully support the movement and I have no problem with people wearing purple. I just think we should do even those who are not LGBT the same justice.

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