Andrew Tobias claims this is the best thing he's read all year. Goddammit, you know what? I agree.

http://www.andrewtobias.com/newcolumns/000504.html



Sharon Underwood wrote a letter to her local paper, the Valley News (White River Junction, VT). In it she schools a few people on what hateful bigoted hypocrites they truly are.


Sharon Underwood, you are awesome. And I, for one Salute You.

And in Vermont too. We allow gay marriage here in CT as well. I guess we will always have idiots even in New England about it...and Maine has been disappointing.

Really, the mother is correct. Her son did nothing wrong, cannot chose his orientation, and the religious aspect is simply religion twisted to fit their views.

It is beyond excellent!

those morans don't read anything longer than a badly misspelled sign at a Teabagger rally.

No, shouted at them.

I hope a lot of Vermonters feel shame after reading it, but those who should are probably too blinded by their bigotry.

:kick:

Thank you Sharon Underwood for telling the truth to the bigoted and their followers.

They are the same people that condemn a book or movie without reading or watching it. They refuse to see any side except their own.

I don't know if I can imagine how bad it would to be gay.

That letter kicks serious ass!

but it is worth a read

Besides the 2000 campaign, or was it just general everyday bigotry?

in late April 2000

No DU then, though! Not until later in the year. :)

I've posted it a couple times myself.

historical artifact.

Unfortunately, it's still all too apt.

It's sad that some areas haven't really changed since it was written.

I don't know if my oldest brother ever contemplated suicide. I do know that he was constantly looking for ways to help fellow human beings while he was alive. He was also widely respected in his field and treated others with the respect due a fellow human being.

As so many others have experienced, he was threatened, made fun of and just generally treated by far too many "moral people???" as inferior and someone to be avoided.

He was so far above those hateful little reptiles that abused him that there's no way they would have ever seen his many fine human qualities since they posess none of the same qualities.

...enough of these so-called Christians. There's nothing Christian about them, except their unwillingness to accept anyone not just like them.

I know it hurts to know that people reject your son based on something he has no control over. But you accept him and that's what really matters.

support. A parent's support is one of the the most important actions that can make life bearable until one gets old enough to know that the bully's are the ones with the problems.

Welcome to DU!!
:hi:

Imagine that -- being so successful at teaching hatred and intolerance

that you can instill in parents shame and guilt and hatred for their own children.

Trust those days have pretty much ended --

It is the church and "Christianity" which is to be scrutinized, challenged and

examined for sins against humanity!

Think I will send this to our Bishop.

What a great letter. I think more and more people in this country are getting fed up with wingnuts--especially those who use religion as an excuse for hate.

letter! A righteous letter, in fact.

Rock On!

That's awsome.

well said!

...

They weren't back in town 15 minutes til they destroyed all of our marriages, and brought on a plague of locusts. :rofl: :rofl:

I'd say they probably caused the explosion in the Gulf, but they had already moved to Asheville before that!--------------------------------

Actually, we went to their very lovely reception when they got back. They said Asheville is the San Francisco of the East. Very progressive, and they wanted to get away from Redneck Central.

"I don't know why my son is gay, but I do know that God didn't put him, and millions like him, on this Earth to give you someone to abuse"

Bravo!!!!

:applause::applause::applause:

He'll probably declare Tobias a terrorist.

I almost didn't click on the link without the snippet. I'm glad I did, though.

...and since my 17 year old autistic son was bullied at lunch a couple days ago, I completely understand her rage.

Mean people suck.

The BBC did a series exploring possible causes of homosexuality, and this section features John Barrowman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sJnpEc2fZA

The short version of the most recent research: There is evidence that shows it has something to do with birth order and the son being bathed in the mother's hormones during pregnancy. The later a boy is in his family birth order, the more likely he is going to be gay, because his mother's hormones cause changes in his brain. Nothing conclusive is known yet (at least up to the time the series was filmed.). Also, there is very little research being done on lesbians, so not much is known about why they are gay. (this is all from my memory of the program; I might have misstated something. Please watch it if you are interested in the topic.)

Sharon Underwood :yourock:

sharing with others - thanks

The hate is so strong.

I've bookmarked the letter to send to an old high school friend--just in case he wonders why I unfriended him on Facebook--if he contacts me to ask "why"? Why? He put up some obnoxious, homophobic
crap from some right wing Catholic a$$hole criticizing the nomination of Kagan. It was bad enough
that he was teabagger--with a son who's organized an entire teabaggery group--but this was the last straw for me.

Good on Sharon Underwood.

Although if I had my way, I would ask for permission from the original author so I could print thousands of copies of that letter to be distributed among those hate breeding fields that they call megachurches.

I am very glad people like the person who wrote that letter exist. They restore my faith in what it is the core of being a human being.

It should be republished in newspapers around the nation.

K & R.

as 'mailbox unavailable'

I still have some of my hotmail email addresses from 10 years ago, but my main addresses have changed.

I imagine she was getting inundated with emails she just didn't have time to answer...either that or hate mail.

But given that you know where she lives and what her name is, it probably wouldn't be too hard to find an email if you did some research. Good luck.

That was absolutely heartbreaking and needed to be published.

Happy to give that a rec.

A must read for everybody - K&R

Just WOW!

Sharon Underwood - she's as good as it gets!

:applause:

Sharon Underwood is a REAL American.

Thank you for the post, it lends strength

With tears in my eyes and my jaw on the floor, I'm trying my hardest to memorize large portions of this amazing rant.

I'm stealing and using this every chance I get:

If you want to tout your own morality, you'd best come up with something more substantive than your heterosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you.


:applause:

It reminds me of Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" speech.

You use religion to abdicate your responsibility to be thinking human beings

The reverse side of obedience . . . it keeps you from having to exercise your own brain.

Hard to deny that hatred is so much easier to teach than love --

Well said, Sharon. I'm a straight guy who's watched his gay friends' struggles for many years. Nice to know someone else understands.