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.
