Archive for soapbox

Hop Against Homophobia

 

Today starts the Hop Against Homophobia. There are over 250 blogs involved, and most of them are offering prizes for your comments. But mostly what the hop is about is bringing awareness to the pervasive discrimination against a certain group of people in society. Normally I avoid political talk on my blog. Mostly because I’m not naive enough to believe that just because you read my books, you share all my same views. We’re all different in subtle and not so subtle ways, and that’s what makes this world so exciting and marvelous.

Yet I hope the one thing we can all agree on is that everyone has the right to their own happiness. As long as it doesn’t infringe or hurt others, then they have the right to be considered equal to me in every way. It shouldn’t matter who they love or who they want to marry. All that should matter is that they’re striving to be the best human beings they can be, regardless of sexual orientation. I’ve never understood hating someone because they’re different from you. Life would be terribly boring if we were all the same.

I’m sorry if my post isn’t that profound or earth shattering. I tend to look on equality for everyone as a no-brainer. And yet I understand that people struggle with it every minute of the day. I just hope we all become enlightened at some point in our journey through life.

I’m giving away a book from my backlist to two lucky commenters today. If I pick you, and you already have all my backlist, you can pick one of my up-coming releases. You’ll just have to wait until I get my author copies before you can get your prize.

Also, if you’d like to see who else is participating in the Hop, check out the Hop Against Homophobia blog.

And if you’ve stopped by for the next installment in They Walk Among Us, it’ll be up tomorrow. 😀

Serious moment….

Usually I try not to be too serious on my blog. I post eye candy and news about my writing, because really who needs to be serious all the time, right?

But a terrible trend is rocking our nation and it seems like lately it’s gotten even worse. Teenagers are killing themselves because of bullying. It’s not right that our young people feel the only way out is to die when other teens bully or harass them. No one, no matter whether you’re gay or straight, black, white, Asian, Native American…or Jewish, Christian, Muslim or other…should be made fun of or treated like less than others.

There are several causes out there we can support that help get the message out to kids that suicide isn’t the answer. The answer is to live and enjoy life. The best revenge against bullies is to go on and have a good life.

One blogger is looking for 500 comments on her blog…and she’ll donate a dollar for each comment up to $500 to two worthy projects. Here’s the information on her campaign:

Please help GLBTTQ youth by stopping by KatieBabs’ blog. For every comment
left, Katie is donating a dollar to the Matthew Shepard Foundation and to
The Trevor Project. Let’s help her raise 500 dollars for two desperately
needed organizations.

http://kbgbabbles.blogspot.com/2010/10/it-gets-better-my-500-pledge.html

Also, as is mentioned in the above blog post, Dan Savage has started the ‘It Gets Better’ Project. Where LGBT adults can post their own videos on youtube about how bully affected them and how their lives are better now.

To Write Love on Her Arm is another such cause to help people find other alternatives besides suicide, addiction, and self-harm.

Please if you get a chance today, go check out these sites. Because we’re all in this together. When one teenager (or adult for that matter) kills themselves, we are that much less.