Thoughts on Discrimination

You've probably heard about Leelah Alcorn. The name might be unfamiliar, but the fact that she recently committed suicide is something you probably noticed. Leelah was 17 years old and despite being born male, felt like a woman in a man's body since she was 4. She killed herself because her Christian parents were too stubborn to believe that this was more than a phase and told her that she would never truly be a girl. Apparently God doesn't make mistakes. Today I read Leelah's suicide note. It saddened and angered me simultaneously. It saddened me because her story is a tragic one, and it angered me because it didn't have to be.

I am an anti-theist. I've said that many times both out loud and on this blog. When I tell people I'm anti-theist I'm often asked why I feel so strongly against religion. Leelah Alcorn is why. She is one of many LGBT people who have been driven to suicide by the real mental illness that is religion. I'm well aware that many Christians would feel as outraged as I am over this situation, but there's far too many who don't. When you call a book that calls homosexuality an abomination, yet sanctions slavery, the good book, you are deluded. The moderates aren't loud enough and their timid condemnations of the homophobic are pathetic.

I will also clarify that it's not only me blaming Christianity for Leelah Alcorn's death. Leelah blamed Christianity herself. In her note she wrote "My mom started taking me to therapists, but would only take me to christian therapists (who were all very biased) so I never actually got the therapy I need to cure me of my depression. I only got more Christians telling me that I was selfish and wrong and that I should look to God for help." What if Leelah was taken to a proper therapist and not one the parents paid to spout the bullshit produced by the damn bible? How many deaths can be attributed to that fucking book? 

What if the damn bible was never written? There's an episode of Family Guy where Stewie and Brian visit different universes and the first one they visit is one where Christianity never existed. The consequence of this is that humanity is a thousand years more advanced due to the fact that the dark ages of scientific repression and christian dominance never occurred. Think what else would never have occurred. The Crusades would never have happened nor would the Spanish Inquisition have happened. The paedophilia carried out by the Catholic Church wouldn't have happened or have been covered up. Most of all, think how many homophobes use Christianity to justify their homophobia? While I'm not saying that homophobia would be eradicated, I'm saying it wouldn't be anywhere near as big a problem as it is today.

Leelah's parents say God doesn't make mistakes. Well if they're happy worshipping the petty, unjust, unforgiving, controlling, vindictive, blood-thirsty, ethnic cleansing, misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capricious, malevolent bully that is their god, who am I to say they can't? They just have to live with their daughter's blood on their hands.