Commentary

Reading the news has turned me into a horrible blogger in that I read something and I want to talk about it. Terrible, terrible blogger I am. But then, there's nothing to read, as I'm out of books and the library's closed tomorrow, so I must read the paper and write boring blogs until the Harry Potter craze is over and I'm no longer afraid to approach the nearest Barnes & Nobles.
Today's reading (I do wish I read more in the art section, but it just doesn't catch my attention as much as things that have to do with social issues) included a very disturbing article, a link I won't include since I just read Maddox's rant about how people who put links in their blogs are stupid. I've only put in links once anyway, when my friend showed me a site about a horrifically ignorant college out in redneck territory (and yes, if they're that ignorant, I will call them rednecks). Er...drifted again. Well, the article is about an organization called Love in Action, which is a "Christian" organization down in Memphis where gay teens are sent in order to be reformed into "normal" functioning heterosexuals. From what I gather, it doesn't work. People come out just as they always were, or they're so emotionally distraught from the experience that they end up asexual and alone. Maybe one person came out with the intended results and he's running the place now. The article had a link to a myspace blog, a gay teen whose username is "specialkid" who recently stepped out of his closet and into the nightmare. His parents up and told him that he was a horrible person and they raised him wrong, and they took away all of his things, and now, he's currently finishing up being brainwashed at the camp or whatever they do there. Of course, a lot of people are outraged - I know I am. Even my mom was when I told her about it - "Those are very stupid parents" is a direct translation of what her opinion is.
And of course, my usual pessimism springs up and whispers to me, "What if they succeeded in changing him? Then all of this will be for nothing." I think I'll just ignore her for now and see what happens first.
Either way, my opinion (for those that actually care) is that if a person believes he's what he is, then we should let him be. Everyone has a reason for being what they are. And look, it's not like he's a homicidal maniac, he just has..a different expression of love.
Maybe I should stop reading the paper. All it seems to do is upset me and make me write terribly because there are just too many things that need to be said and all that comes out is garbled.