Friends:

Judaism places the highest value on Pikuach Nefesh - saving a life. In this highly charged political environment, the chances of discrimination against the LGBT community are higher than they have been in a while. In addition, the Clementi suicide shows how social media can be used as an instrument of bullying and discrimination.

Here at Temple Emanuel, we are and will continue to be welcoming of LGBT’s and we will continue to advocate on their behalf for full civil and legal rights. We are disappointed that Congress did not overturn “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” but our efforts will not stop with what we believe is a momentary setback on the road to full equality of LGBT’s.

Below is a wonderfully written letter concerning the recent bullying, gay bashing incident at Rutgers. The letter was written by a minister in Maryland. The content of the letter is too important to ignore.

Rabbi Fred Guttman


September 30, 2010

Dear Congregation,

I am overwhelmed by a story reported on the news last night about Rutgers University freshman, Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide the day after two fellow students recorded him having sex in his dorm room and broadcast it over the Internet. Was it just a coincidence that he was targeted because he was with another male student?

The night before I listened to a Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell defend the blog he has started called, “Chris Armstrong Watch,” an attack on the student assembly president at the University of Michigan. Shirwell attacks what he says is Armstrong's "radical homosexual agenda," and posts Photo shopped pictures of Armstrong with rainbow flags and swastikas and picks apart the student's Facebook page. Armstrong is the first openly gay student assembly president at the University of Michigan.

Are any of you suspecting that we are spiraling down into a muck of behavior that has moved beyond demeaning, demoralizing, and ridiculous to dangerous? What makes us think that it’s okay to put out personal stuff about someone else on blog pages, Facebook, or other Internet sites? Just because the technology is available does that mean we have to use it? It seems to me that a hidden camera in someone’s private bedroom is more than an invasion of privacy which is all those students have been charged with at this time. Are public officials such as attorney generals such as Shirwell not held to a higher standard than his “I have freedom of speech” statement?

These young adults are among many young adults and teens who are being taunted, mocked, and bullied by classmates. Some choose to commit suicide when confronted with such hatred from their fellow classmates. Where are the other classmates who witness these acts of bullying? Where are the adults who are charged with creating safe environments for students? What kind of nation have we become that an officer of the state, an attorney general, can go after a student because he believes he is promoting an agenda he doesn’t approve of or like?

Now is not the time for apathy or silence. It is apathy and silence that have allowed this ugliness and hatred to permeate all parts of our lives these days or so it seems. Please join me in praying for peace and for the courage to name the violence in our midst. Please join me in paying more careful attention to bullying and mean behavior in our midst. Please let us join together in speaking up and out so that our young people don’t think their only option is suicide.

Barbara

Barbara Kershner Daniel
Evangelical Reformed Church, United Church of Christ
15 West Church Street, Frederick, MD 21701