| It's hard for some to realize that
everyone means just that -- everyone. You don't get to exclude
anyone from that list.
Loving everyone means you must extend love to
those you hate. You must extend compassion to those who are
different. You must love the people you pity and the people you
ignore. You must love those who live on the other side of the
world as well as friends sitting in the next room.
It's easy to love those who look, walk, talk and
act like you, but you also have to love the people who are
different from you.
Our society is getting better at that sort of
thing. We've come incredibly far since Martin Luther King Jr.
stood near the Washington Monument to tell the assembled thousands
about his great dream of equality.
That's why I found myself absolutely sickened
and shocked by the awful situation reported in a recent Rolling
Stone magazine article. In the suburban school district of
Anoka-Hennepin near Minneapolis, nine teenagers committed suicide
over the past two years.
At least four identified themselves as gay,
lesbian or queer, the article said. Some were not but were
reportedly teased because they were believed to be gay or lesbian.
Other students in Anoka's high schools were
hospitalized for depression and also suicide attempts. Some said
these conditions were related to bullying toward gay students and
others.
Remember: God said to love everyone.
So why do so many think gays and lesbians don't
count?
Our schools and student bodies are growing more
mixed in everything from racial makeup to sexual orientation.
Sadly, history teaches us that whenever a society grows more
diverse, there is a backlash to that diversity. People are afraid
of change.
Yesterday, I was in a coffee shop when I saw an
interracial couple kiss. Nobody blinked. In the 1960s, when King
and others marched on Washington, black and white children
couldn't swim in the same public pools.
People were arrested, even murdered in the
struggle toward equality.
What people forget in today's heated discussion
over homosexuality, gay marriage and gay rights is that gays and
lesbians are human beings. They deserve the same compassion, love
and respect as heterosexuals.
It doesn't matter if you are a vocal part of
your school's gay-straight alliance or if you firmly believe in
the literal biblical interpretation that homosexuality is wrong.
God's idea of love doesn't fall along the lines of a special
interest group's social agenda.
God's idea of love is bigger than that.
Anti-gay bullying has grown from isolated
incidents to an epidemic that seems to be killing as effectively
as any disease.
The cure to this disease is love. What can you
do?
Don't use the word "gay" as a pejorative
adjective. Tell your friends that using anti-gay slurs is
unequivocally unacceptable. Tell trusted teachers or
administrators about Facebook pages that take bullying outside the
school walls or about any physical violence you see against gay
and lesbian classmates. Don't respond to peer pressure that says
it's OK to tease.
Treat gay and lesbian students -- and everybody,
for that matter -- the way you would like to be treated.
No doctor can administer the cure to this
epidemic -- only you, the boy or girl reading this. This kind of
bullying isn't happening in Anoka alone. This is happening in your
school.
It happened today. And it will happen tomorrow
if you don't decide to love.
END
02/10/2012 2:05 PM ET
Copyright (c) 2012 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops |
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