South Park and Gay Rights

Tonight's South Park dealt with an issue very important to me. Butters, one of the boys, got sent to a camp (Camp New Grace: "Pray the Gay Away") to turn him straight (he wasn't actually gay, butters is something of a patsy character, and because of a joke I won't describe his dad thought he was 'bicurious'). At the camp at least three children kill themselves. Eventually Bradley, Butter's "accountabilibuddy" becomes attracted to Butters, and runs off saying that he has to kill himself.

Bradley [hanging off of a bridge]: Stand back! I'm an abomination of God!

Counselor: Don't do it, we're fixing you!

Bradley: It's too late!

Butters: Bradley, don't!

Counselor: Get back, you're only making things worse.

Bradley: I'm not normal, I'll never be normal.

Butters: You're perfectly normal Bradley.

Counselor: Get back, you're just as confused as he is.

Butters: That's it, I am sick and tired of everyone telling me I'm confused. I wasn't confused until other people started telling me I was. You know what I think? I think maybe you're the ones who are confused. I'm not going to be confused anymore just because you say I should be. My name is Butters, I'm eight years old, I'm blood type O, and I'm bicurious. And that's OK, because if I'm somehow made from God, then I figure that God must be at least a little bicurious himself.

Bradley: I think, I think I'd like to come down.

Counselor: We did it! By the power of Christ we saved him!

South Park is well known for the lengths it will go to in order to satirize something, and in this case it is totally justified. Gay teenagers are several times more likely to commit suicide than straight teenagers (2-3 times according to the article in the previous post).

People wonder why people like me, who aren't gay, don't really have any gay friends or family, (hell, I don't even know anyone who's gay) fight for their rights. There's absolutely nothing in it for me personally. Except for the fact that thousands of kids kill themselves because they're told that their sexual orientation, which is almost always innate and unchangable, is an abomination, is evil, is wrong. They kill themselves.

They Kill Themselves

I don't think I can possibly emphasize this enough. Because of the stigma, people kill themselves. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine feeling so badly about being attracted to members of the same sex that you kill yourself?

That's why I will never stop supporting gay rights. Because every single person has the right to be unashamed or themselves, to be unafraid because of who they are, and to pursue their own happiness.

Some wise men once said, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." There are some people who want to deny these rights to others based on their sexual orientation. I will fight them. I hope you will be on my side.