Comments on: The Nation: LGBT Youth Face Violence Behind Bars

By: Nelson blane

Nelson blane — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:52:04 +0000

I helped a gay youth who came out to his mom a few years ago. He was 14 or 15 years old. When he told his mon he was gay his mom said, “I hope you go to prison and get raped” before kicking her son out of his home.
The nephew, of a friend of mine, was in his first year of college when two men beat him to death because he was gay and threw his body into a dumpster. The men were caught and showed little remorse for killing the young man. When asked why they threw him into a dumpster they replied, “That’s where trash belongs”.
For an interesting read do a search on those incarcerated for crimes against gays and note the high percent of those who show little remorse because they felt homosexuality was immoral, against nature and condemned by God [and thus they felt justified by their actions].

By: Eddie89

Eddie89 — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 20:40:39 +0000

Which reminds me of my sister. My nephew is only 11 years old and she stricly forbids him from watching any shows or movies showing any amount of sexuality.

Yet, he can watch shows, movies and play video games that contain some of the most horrific crimes, gore and blood and that’s OK.

I’m sure my sister’s method of child rearing is not isolated. What kind of message must this be sending into kids heads?

By: Priya Lynn

Priya Lynn — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:04:42 +0000

http://slog.thestranger.com/2008/02/one_in_one_hundred_us_adults_incarcerate

By: Priya Lynn

Priya Lynn — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:38:42 +0000

Ben said “The US has 760 out of every 100,000 citizens in prison, higher than any other nation.”.

The last I heard it was 1000 out of 100,000 or 1% of U.S. citizens are incarcerated.

By: John Doucette

John Doucette — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:11:38 +0000

Heaven forbid that one be thought to be soft on crime. Much better that we are the most violent, crime-prone country in the world.

By: Jim Burroway

Jim Burroway — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:06:16 +0000

Dan L.

Excellent question, and a very pertinent one for fact checking. It’s possible he didn’t cite a source due to space limitations. Magazines often have strict word count limitations. But it’s definitely worth looking into. I’ll see what I can find out.

By: Dan L

Dan L — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:45:57 +0000

Does anyone know where those statistics come from? That one-quarter of all LGBT youth get kicked out of their homes or run away seems awfully high to me. Though I could probably believe it if it were changed around–that one quarter of all youth who get kicked out of their home or run away are LGBT. It just seems really odd that he doesn’t cite any sources for those.

By: Ben Mathis

Ben Mathis — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:33:23 +0000

Also there are over 200 rapes every day in the US prison system, and though it’s mentioned in the OP that prison is for “rehabilitation” I don’t think anyone with two brain cells to rub together thinks that happens in the overcrowded torture machine that is the US prison system.

By: Ben Mathis

Ben Mathis — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:32:12 +0000

The US prison system is the most broken in the world and this is just one more depressing aspect. The US has 760 out of every 100,000 citizens in prison, higher than any other nation. (for comparison, Germany has 150 per 100k). The US is also the only country in the world that imprisons juveniles with no chance of parole, currently there are over 2,500 of these, and zero in any other country because it’s barbaric.

If it’s any wonder with a race to privatize prisons for profit, rent them out to pick cotton or clean up toxic oil spills in the gulf for way less than minimum wage, allow crooked judges to accept bribes to imprison children who then get only slaps on the wrist, incredibly one-sided racial biases toward locking up non whites, that we also have horrible problems with the treatment of LGBT youth, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:43:39 +0000

Advocating for LGBT youth in prison, I guess, leads one to be exposed to the charge of being soft on crime.

Yes, true. But also, advocating for youth at all has been touchy for many gay activists. Unscrupulous anti-gay activists immediately suggest pedophilia as a motivation and try and twist the story to one in which the advocate is actually a predator on at-risk youth.