Ellen Degeneres- Hate Must Stop!
 

I LOVE this article about Ellen saying "Hate Must Stop"! She's SOOO right, and IMO, it's not just this level.. I think it goes a lot deeper with a lot of different prejudices.. Right-On Ellen!!!:blob1:

http://www.people.com/people/article...s-topheadlines

Ellen DeGeneres: The Hate Must Stop
By Stephen M. Silverman

Originally posted Friday February 29, 2008 09:50 AM EST
Ellen DeGeneres

Photo by: Reed Saxon / AP
Ellen DeGeneres took a rare political stance – though she was careful to call it a personal stance, because, she said, "this is important to me" – on her show scheduled to air Friday, regarding the murder of 15-year-old Lawrence King, shot in the head on Feb. 12 by a classmate in a suburban Oxnard, Calif., junior high school.

King was killed because he had asked another boy to be his Valentine, DeGeneres reminded her audience about the news story that sent shockwaves across the country.

As the 50-year-old show host, emphasized, "To be gay you can get killed for it ... we need to change the message." (To see the clip from her show, click here.)

Choking back tears, she added, "Larry is not a second-class citizen. I am not a second-class citizen. It is okay if you are gay."

DeGeneres said the country must change the subtext of hatred aimed at certain groups as is found in jokes, movies, speeches and other elements of the culture. "All of it is unacceptable," she said. "Laughing at someone because he's gay is just the start of it."

Noting that change is on the minds of people this political season, DeGeneres said, "We can do it with our behavior ... Fight hate."

More information will be made available on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Web site, she also said.

Good for Ellen to make a statement. This wouldn't be swept under the rug if it were a racial or religious bias. I had never heard of this story. How tragic. Why do people in this day and age continue to remain so ignorant? My prayers are with this boy's family.

Hey Ruth,

I know, right? I hadn't heard of this story either until I read this, this morning.. and was like wtf? It is a very sad story, and my prayers too, are with this poor kid's family.. What a sad thing to happen..

I thought times had changed since I was am openly gay high school kid in California in the late 1970s.I never even sustained a bad beating or anything and this was nearly 30 years ago!I think these damned right wing evangelicals are responsible for alot of this hatred..If there is an afterlife these people will come back as dungflies.

I think that things have gotten much better since I was a kid and certainly over the last 100 years. For example, the Feds, states, and/or municipalities have passed civil partnership laws, same sex marriage, resolutions disallowing firing based on sexuality (the main one was an Executive Order signed by Clinton that W never rescinded - kudos to him for that) - etc. So, while there is much work to be done, the burden is less than it was.

As for Ellen's stastement ""Laughing at someone because he's gay is just the start of it." - I think there a limit to that. After all, Will and Grace made fun of gay people in, I think, a positive way and IMO certainly brought gay people much more into the mainstream :shrug: So, I think a little good hearted levity on the subject is fine.

Finally, what a tragedy for all the people involved in this. I have to wonder what the murder's parents taught or did not teach him so that he had so much hate.

When I was at Syracuse University, they had these signs all over the place in the Student Center - it had the word "HATE" with a bar crossing it out, and surrounding that word, it said, "Not here, not ever."

I liked that a lot - nice, simple, heartfelt message that conveys, "We're NOT going to tolerate this. Period."

That's AWESOME!! What a great message!!:thumbsup: