Differences shouldn't be a crime. Hatred should. People have the right to be different; to be themselves. I can't stand it when stuff like this happens. People are people and deserve respect and to be treated just like everyone else regardless of race, sex, sexual preference, or any other such nonsense by which people judge others. This is why I have such a problem with the human race as a whole.

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I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.

I am the boy who never finished high school, because I got called a fag everyday

I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.

I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.

I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.

We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.

I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.

I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.

I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.

We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.

I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.

I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.

I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.

I am the woman who died when the EMTs stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.

I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I didnt have to always deal with society hating me.

I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don't believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind.

I am a warrior for my country serving proud, but can't be my true self because gays aren't allowed in the military.

I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.

I am the person ashamed to tell my own friends I'm a lesbian, because they constantly make fun of them.

I am the boy tied to a fence, beaten to a bloody pulp and left to die because two straight men wanted to "teach me a lesson."


This is the boy, Matthew Shepard. On October 7, 1998 Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson lead him to a remote area east of Laramie where they demonstrated unimaginable acts of hate. Matthew was tied to a split-rail fence where he was beaten and left to die in the cold of the night. Almost 18 hours later he was found by a cyclist who initially mistook him for a scarecrow. Matthew died on October 12 at 12:53 am at a hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. KILLED BECAUSE HE WAS GAY!!!

---IF YOU BELIEVE THAT HOMOPHOBIA IS WRONG... REPOST THIS
AS "HOMOPHOBIA."

---IF YOU ARE IGNORANT... IGNORE

Intolerance is ignorance and there's too much of it in the world. We're all people any way you look at it. And in this day and age you would think we would have evolved enough to find ways of making the world better and not finding new prejudices and wars to fight.

Sort of anyway. A childhood friend of mine died about two days ago. He was 16. During hockey practice he just keeled over and died. Doctor said it was due to undetected hearted complications. His sister was only two years older. They've also had a lot of other problems through out their lives.

Even with all of our medical advancements, our cures, our surgeries, people still die by something so simple. It's heart breaking.

I wasn't extremely close to him but he was apart of my growing up. I remember a lot fun the four of us (him, his sister, me and my brother) had when our families went to the lake together. It hurts a great deal. I hope his family comes out okay.

Okay, so my mom had to have a Spinal Tap today. I had to go with to drive back because there was the possibility of her killing herself if she had done it. On the way there we were driving down highway 40. On the inside shoulder was a woman driving down the highway GOING THE WRONG WAY! WTF!? My mom and I spent several minutes gawking, laughing and trying to figure out how the HELL she turned around on a four-lane HIGHWAY! I'm surprised she didn't crash. What the hell is wrong with people? It is not hard to get off the highway and get back on going the other direction. USE YOUR FUCKING HEAD PEOPLE! Jeez I hate bad drivers. I've nearly died due to bad drivers many times. How did they get their licenses? Fuck...

Anyway, the Tap went well, mom's home and safe, and it took freaking forever. I spent at least 3 hours in the hospital and I hate hospitals.

Gah...

Wow, I am actually putting a new journal entry out. Amazing, the world must be inverting.

So anyway, life is strange right now. I am still a lazy, procrastinating student, but now I am an almost 18, senior, lazy, procrastinating student. Soon, I shall shed my youth of teenage years and grow to the college freshman. Joy. I have overloaded my schedule this year and expect to have my brains draining out my ears by January. Emotional breakdown here I come.

My uncle is an ass. The story is too long to go beyond that so just take my word for it.

I can't believe I have to go to Iowa for Thanksgiving. Don't get me wrong, I love my family (though I dislike one specific person *coughGrandpacough*) but it is so boring in Iowa. Plus, I am missing my friend's Wii party which means I STILL WON'T GET TO PLAY TWILIGHT PRINCESS!! So yeah, not happy about that. Ah well. C'est la vie.

To all those out there that read this, get a life. Love you.

"Here's my suggestion.

On August 7th, DA turns five years old. Five years for a website like this should be a grand affair, one big event.

So don't submit anything on August 7th.

I'm talking a print, a deviation, a scrap...nothing.

Instead, just leave a comment. Visit a user's page and just say hi.

If someone wants to buy a subscription that day, I'm all in favor or it. It'll keep the servers going, and anything that keeps the hamster running is a good thing.

BUT...I think folks shouldn't buy any prints. No print subscriptions. That goes against the COMMUNITY theme for the day.

We want to put the COMMUNITY back into DA."

[link]

I agree. DA was community first. Then came theft and profit and it became just like the outside world. We come to the internet to escape reality, not to create it. For once people, stop thinking about image and money and power and fame and all that pointlessness and think about friends and expanding your horizons and learning new things, meeting new people, increasing your talents. Go beyond your comfort zone and become a new person.