The Religious Right, what we are up against

[dsc]

They are now after suicide prevention programs. Lest one think they are worried about government waste it isn't that they don't work. No, it is that they have the audacity to make gay people, and some non gay people, think that being gay isn't evil. I know, you think I am making this up, so here are some links.

http://www.pamspaulding.com/weblog/2006/07/1-800-suicid...

With teenage suicide being the 3rd leading cause of death between 18 to 24 year olds - our government should not be duplicating prevention efforts but helping fund the many local organizations and non-profits with proven track records on prevention. In addition our government should not be in the business having access to this private and sensitive information!

Despite the fact that almost 2 million callers have reached help and hope over the last 8 years, and a government funded evaluation stating the benefits of 1-800-SUICIDE, the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA), a division of Health & Human Services, has decided to create their own government run system where they would have direct access to confidential data on individuals in crisis.
You might recall SAMHSA, which came under fire from the fundies back in February of last year. Agency officials were forced by the Bush admin (after the WH received hopping mad calls from Family Research Council's Tony Perkins) to remove all LGBT references from a federally funded suicide prevention conference in California and to kill gay-positive content from the SAMHSA site.

The Bushies also suggested a session on "faith-based" suicide prevention, and threatened the conference's funding. The wingnut admin functionaries backed down after an outcry for sanity from response from mental health professionals.

SAMHSA also took a big hit when its web site featured a section called "Celebrating the Pride and Diversity Among and Within the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations" which flew in the face of the flat-earth science often promoted in government under Bush that seems to either ignore or condemn homosexuality. The SAMHSA link above is to The Memory Hole, btw. My original post on this was called How long before a Bush drone puts a stop to this?

The answer was 12 days. That's how long it took for a Bush drone to scrub a government web site of gay-positive content.

end of quote

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

ACCORDING TO BRIAN, "In Massachusetts, anything labeled 'youth suicide prevention' is always a homosexual program in disguise. No one else is ever interested in youth suicide issues because it is not really a problem in the schools. In fact, there is no youth suicide 'epidemic' in Massachusetts."

Please do the right thing for parents and children - DO NOT CAVE-IN TO THE MURDEROUS RIGHT-WING BIGOTED AGENDA! THEY ARE CONSERVATIVES WITHOUT A CONSCIENCE!

end of quote

Brian is the head of the anti gay alliance of Massachusetts.

Let me be blunt this is pure evil. It is nothing less than the idea that Matthew Sheppard is the ultimate ex gay. These aren't, sadly, the Fred Phelps of the word. These are the supposedly reasonable anti gay zealots. We can't let these people win. If they are willing to sacrifice straight teenagers just so someone, somewhere who is gay won't get a positive feeling about him or herself. This is the type of Christian we are up against. Why should we believe for a minute they will entertain the notion of compromise? At best, they don't care if we live or die. At worst, they wish us dead. Compromise isn't an option.

[NMMNG]

1. They are heinous,

as well as full of crap claiming there is no suicide epidemic.




Teen (ages 15-19) Suicide Deaths, U.S., 2001

Suicide was the 11th leading cause of death in the United States.

It was the 8th leading cause of death for males, and 19th leading cause of death for females.

The total number of suicide deaths was 30,622.

<snip>

Suicides outnumbered homicides (20,308) by 3 to 2.

http://www.familyfirstaid.org/suicide.html




More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from all medical illnesses combined

Article





Furthermore, as with adults, about 90% of teens who attempt suicide have a mental disorder of some kind. To deny them the possibility of help is irresponsible and cruel. (And proselytizing is not help!)

[Occulus]

2. They're even worse than you're allowing

These are the selfsame "people"- and with them, I use the term meaning they have human DNA, and in that sense only- who drive these kids to it.

This exact risk group. I myself was almost a statistic, several times over.

They would have been there That Night to urge me to jump off that overpass.

Despicable.

[dsc]

3. It is easy to forget that there is a life past whatever horrible event

you are currently in at times. I am glad you remembered that there is a tommorrow.

[zonmoy]

4. I honestly am constantly surprised that fundies don't make everybody they

have the nastiness to interact with want to kill themselves.