Ellen Degeneres did something brilliant, brave, and heart-gripping today. She found a story about an 8th grade boy killed (that's right, KILLED) by another 8th grade boy, whom he had asked to be his Valentine. Ellen didn't let this story slip through the cracks, nor fade away. She talked about it on her daily afternoon talk show, sharing it with an audience that might not have heard about this tragedy otherwise. She said she wasn't a political person, but she made a plea for everyone to stop the hate and truthfully said that, even in this day and age, we are still not treating our fellow humans equally. "He was not a second class citizen, I am not a second class citizen," she said, doing something unusual for her and talking openly on her own show about her homosexuality. She refused to let this story pass by because it is terrible that one boy should be so horrified by being asked to be another boy's Valentine that he thinks the only thing to do is commit murder. My heart truly goes out to the families of both boys.
Even as horrible things happen, sometimes good things happen as well. Last night at my first P.R.I.D.E. meeting (I'm usually at Curtain Call), my mom came and spoke to the group about herself and how she deals with my bisexuality. By the end of the night, I think most of the kids who didn't have such supportive parents wanted her to adopt them. My mom came out as bisexual herself, something she only previously told my brother and myself. Yet another brave thing. She raised me to accept people, no matter what colour, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, age, or whatever else might be another stripe in the rainbow of human existence.
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