Hate Speaks for Itself. #tomyunbornchild
I WILL KILL YOU,
IF YOU ARE GAY!
In early March, the hashtag “#tomyunbornchild” became a worldwide trend
on Twitter.
By and large, these tweets were loving, hopeful messages to
the next generation — but many people saw it as an opportunity to
express hate speech towards LGBT children:
http://storify.com/homophobes/100-homophobes-who-would-kill-their-gay-child
Charlotte Moore says, “Reading their bile, the
only thing I could think was: how would we feel if we heard actual
parents saying this to actual children? I got the idea on a Thursday. By
Sunday, we — me, my boyfriend, and whatever friends we could find to
help us — had it filmed.
It’s easy to dehumanize hate speech
online because we’ve gotten so used to seeing it. We tell ourselves that
it’s the product of trolls, of random, anonymous strangers. Except
they’re not. They’re real people. Many of them will be parents. And some
of their children will be gay. But what can we DO about it? I don’t
think there are any easy answers.
Whenever you believe life
begins, I hope we can all agree: life is essential, and rare, and
precious. We can’t stop anyone from having kids. But we can resolve to
stop this toxic cycle. We can wish better for our own children. And we
can support the kids who weren’t so lucky.”
