Fucking religious zealots almost killed my cousin

[Hugabear]

I have a cousin who is gay. Apparently, a few of my fundie relatives have been trying to "get him saved", as a result he tried to commit suicide. Fortunately, some of my more sane relatives managed to step in and take him to a mental health facility to get some help.

If anyone ever wants to know why I am so damned hostile towards fundamentalists, it's because of fucking shit like this. And the way that the church treated my mom, when she decided she had had enough, the way they kept harassing her and telling her that she was going to go to hell for "backsliding". It's an insidious, hateful, manipulative national cult.

I'm not really big on religion to begin with, but I really don't have a problem with people who practice their beliefs privately, who don't make it their personal goal to convert everybody around them, or push their beliefs on everyone else. I may not agree with their beliefs, I'll still debate them when necessary, but I can at least respect their decisions. It's this fucking extremist bullshit, this hate that's growing across the country, being pushed by hatemongers like Savage, Coulter, Beck, etc that makes me want to drive my fist through a wall. And when it almost takes the life of someone I know, someone whose only crime was being who he is, I just can't even begin to put into words how it makes me feel.

Fortunately my cousin survived his attempt, and hopefully he'll get the help he needs, and stay the fuck away from my batshit insane relatives. But this is not an isolated incident. We often hear cases about GLBT people being driven to the point of taking their own lives over this kind of shit. For the life of me, I cannot fathom the unhealthy fascination that fundamentalists have with homosexuality, but it's ruining peoples' lives.