Monday, October 4, 2010

Love IS Louder

Hey friends. So, there have been some disturbing things going on in this world and it makes my heart hurt. 

As of late, there has been a terrible epidemic of gay teens killing themselves because of bullying. It is so awful to see such hatred amongst teens and kids. I remember how hard it was to be a teenager; that is why I always say that I would never want to go back to my teen years. When I was a teenager we didn't have things like Facebook and Twitter to use as a means for communication. It was hard enough to be a teenager who could hear people talking about you or reading on someone's blog. Now in addition to all of that, you can see it in so many forms of social media and in real life. I feel like it is hard enough to be a teenager; you don't know who you are yet, and you're developing and not really knowing what is going on. You don't need to be made fun of for those reasons. 

I went to a performing arts high school. As a result, I went to school with a handful of gay and bi-sexual students. I was friends with these people and they were no different than the rest of us. I know that there was ridicule but nothing was worse than seeing many of the students being forced out by our school's administration. Isn't that horrible? I mean, how can we expect students to be tolerant if the adults in positions of power aren't tolerant? It's heartbreaking and disgusting. 

Moving on to college, I went to a school that had many gay and bi-sexual students. Emerson College was voted as the #1 school for GLBT students by the Princeton Review and with good reason. Emerson is a wonderful, open minded campus full of people who are committed to making this world a more compassionate place. 

This past weekend, ArtsEmerson produced a production of The Laramie Project. The Laramie Project tells the story of Matthew Shepard, who was brutally murdered because he was gay. It happened over ten years ago now but the story is still terribly relevant. After Matthew's death Fred Phelps and the members of the Westboro Baptist Church protested his funeral and the press coverage of the trial because of Matthew's homosexuality. As a result, Matthew's friends, lead by Romaine Patterson created a group called Angel Action to peacefully counter protest the members of Westboro. It was a beautiful display of people coming together for a common reason. When Westboro found out that ArtsEmerson was producing this production, they formed to stage a protest against the production. Upon hearing this Emerson students came together to form their own Angel Action. They staged a peaceful protest in the Boston Common, coming together to show that love is always going to be more powerful that hate. 

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the protest in Boston, I am so proud to be a member of the Emerson community. I think that we need to show the world that love really is stronger than hate. It is terrible that we still live in a world where people are discriminated against because of who they are. I want everyone to to come together and show the world that love is always going to be stronger than hate. Let's take a stand friends. There is no better time than now.