It's Okay To Be A Bully, So Long As It's For Religious Reasons

Jacob Rogers

Yep, the good 'ol south - you gotta love'em. It hasn't even been a month since a local gay teen in Tennessee was buried that a new law allowing kids to bully is being proposed by the State Legislature.  I know, you're thinking I'm trying to push some liberal agenda, that no conservative would ever do such a thing.  But guess what, it's true!

As local news channel WSMV is reporting, the proposed law change by state lawmakers would allow students to speak out against homosexuality without punishment if that's what their religious beliefs call for. [source]

So in other words... if my child is walking through the halls, minding their own business, and a religious kid comes up and tells him or her they are going to hell, they're a sinner or sodomite, they will have every right to ridicule them and belittle them?  Yes, this new law will allow that.  You mean to tell me, if they tell my child "you're a fag and are going to burn in eternal fire," and my child might not even be gay - that will be okay? YEP.

It's true and it's sad, but this type of behavior is what led many of us to contemplate suicide when we were younger.  I would often find myself praying myself to sleep asking God to make me normal, asking him why would he made me this way if I was his child.  Depression kicks in, and everything you're taught to believe in this world turns out to be a lie. You start to believe that everyone, and every thing is a lie!

In correspondence with the Tennessee Equality Project, the state's main gay rights group, state Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, claimed gay people commit suicide at a higher rate than others and suggested Jacob's sexuality itself drove him to kill himself. Ragan asked whether the suicide could have had "more to do with his own proclivities and behavior than anything to do with schoolmate bullies ..."

Blaming the victim is necessary to prevent Jacob's death from damaging chances for passage of Tennessee's 2012 state legislative priority—a bill to make it easier for young bigots to mistreat gay schoolkids. This legislation brought by conservative Christians who oppose special protections for gay people actually gives special protections to homophobic bullies. [source]