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Article submitted by: RaeRae
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Parent,
I’d like to address you about your child and your parenting skills. Let’s start off with your child. This person who is: my classmate, my team mate, my acquaintance, and everything else. He/she continues to verbally, mentally, and physically harass me. They sometimes throw things at me, call me names, shove me in the hallway, beat me up, and publicly humiliate me upon other things. They’ve abandoned me, ignored me, and have wished away my existence. They treat me as if I’m not worthy of being a human being. As if, I’m some sort of monster.
Since this torment has begun, my grades have significantly dropped, I’ve had medical problems, my absenteeism in school has greatly increased, I’ve been deeply depressed, have acted out aggressively toward loved ones, dread going to school every morning, contemplate dropping out of school, cry to myself every morning before school, cry myself to sleep every night, have contemplated suicide, and have actually made attempts at it.
My fear is that if this continues to go on, my grades will continue to deteriorate, my medical problems will grow, I will become increasingly aggressive towards people I love and care about, I will drop out of school, and will eventually become successful in my suicide attempts.
Why does this all happen, you ask? This happens because I am gay. I love people of the same sex. This happens because I’m a good, kind, caring, compassionate, and loving human being who happens to be attracted to the same sex. I treat others the way I would like to be treated, I’m never mean to anyone, and never pick on anyone. Yet, I am constantly the subject of habitual torment.
Now, if I may, I’d like to address your parenting skills. With all due respect, I’d like to ask why this behavior is allowed by you. Why have you taught your child that it is ok to hate and torment someone because they are different? Why have you taught your child that loving someone is wrong? Why have you taught your child that it’s ok to make someone hate school? Most importantly, why have you taught your child that it’s ok to drive someone to killing themselves?
Is it because you believe it yourself? Is it because you’re not as well educated as you should be? Is it because you don’t care about other people? Or, is it because you’re just simply a bad person? If so, I forgive you. I simply ask in return, for you to teach your child tolerance, acceptance, kindness, and compassion for others. I simply ask for you to you think of this happening to your child. How you would feel if they were on the receiving end. How it would be heart wrenching to know that your child cries themself to sleep every night, how they dread school every morning, and how they feel that death is the better option. How it would feel to know that your child is in agonizing pain because of the teachings of someone else. If you do this, maybe my grades will return to my honor roll status, my medical problems will disappear, I will come out of my deep depression, I will once again not lash out at loved ones, I will no longer cry in the mornings, or cry myself to sleep, I will graduate high school with honors, and maybe, just maybe, grow old with someone I truly love.
If this does not happen, I will understand. I will understand that it’s not your child’s fault. I will understand that it may not even be your fault and most importantly, I will understand that it’s not my fault either. If acceptance and tolerance is not given by your child, I will fight within. I will fight to stay in school, I will fight being depressed, I will fight to graduate with honors, I will fight to stay alive, and I will fight to grow old with someone I love. I will fight. And I will win.
Kind regards,
The GLBT youth
*This letter is for all the GLBT youth who did not win*
(This article is simply a general statement of what a lot of glbt youth experience, however, it does not depict any one person's true life events.)
This article can also be found on the outSMACK editorial page!
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