Rich Swier, a Tea Party activist involved with anti-muslim group ACT! For America who previously stated America was facing a "white extinction," responded to a study released from charity group Gulf Coast Gives which states that 77% of bullying victims were tormented based on their sexual orientation, real or perceived. His take? That bullying is a healthy means for peers to dissuade youth from following an unhealthy lifestyle.
So is racism a healthy method of dissuading people from being black?
"This is not bullying. It is peer pressure and is healthy. There are many bad behaviors such as smoking, under age drinking and drug abuse that are behaviors that cannot be condoned. Homosexuality falls into this category. Homosexuality is simply bad behavior that youth see as such and rightly pressure their peers to stop it. In Sarasota County over 70% of all HIV/AIDS cases are due to male sex with males."
He then goes on to compare smoking and underage drinking to homosexuality and calls the founder of GLSEN, one of the more respected gay organizations in the country, a "radical gay activist."
Let me be clear: shielding our children from anti-gay bias is not radical. It's necessary. I doubt the victims of bullying who have killed themselves to escape their tormentors would call the emotional torture they faced "healthy peer pressure." This guy is disgusting.
How ironic is it that so many teenagers drink and smoke due to peer pressure? Peer pressure tends to encourage negative behaviors not positive ones so that would make being queer a positive one, by his own logic.
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ReplyDelete@The Red 9
ReplyDeletePeer Pressure is neutral really. How it is most often used depends mostly on the situation and demographic,