Why I won't let up on the Catholic Church [View All]

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There are many reasons I won't let up on the Catholic Church in regard to their crusade against gay rights but one of the best is Robbie Kirkland. Robbie would be 22 right now. Had he followed his goals he would likely have an English degree and trying to find a way to write. Instead, he is rotting in the ground. He is forever the terrified 14 year old boy who hated himself for being different.

Robbie was a freshman at St Ignacious, the most prestigious Catholic high school in the Cleveland area. By the time he started going there he knew he was gay and feared he would be teased and harassed. Sadly the school lived up to his fears. On January 2, 1997, Robbie shot himself in his father's attic.

In the aftermath the school refused to discuss his being gay. The refused the request of the parents who feared another Robbie. In life, Robbie knew his church didn't accept him. In death, they refused to acknowledge him, nor its roll in his death.

I didn't know Robbie, but I was Robbie. I made the same fateful decision that he did. I decided that I was better off dead, than gay. I decided my family deserved better. I only didn't follow through due to not being able to keep my secret in death.

The church isn't entirely responsibe for Robbie feeling the way he did. They may not even been mostly responsible, but they are some. And for that alone, I won't forget.

Facts upon which this account is based

http://www.healthyplace.com/Communities/Gender/gayisok/kirkland.html

Photo and more facts

http://www.times10.org/kirkland22001.htm

A press release about students from the same school making fun of Robbie after his death.

http://www.antiracistaction.ca/cleveland01262001.html

Religious based homophobia is just as bad as non religious based homophobia. Kids who internalize and kill themselves based on it are just as dead. People who are attacked for being gay are no less dead if their attackers learned to hate gays in a church instead of at a neo NAZI rally. Civil rights laws which get killed in legislatures are no less dead if they are killed by the Catholic Church instead of Microsoft. The leadership of, and beauracracy of the Catholic Church considers me intriniscly disordered, I consider them heartless.