Did you wear purple today?

[lacrosse_lady72]

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I had at least 4 people invite me to wear purple day. It was all over FB from what I saw

Same here. I had lots of people telling me but I also had lots of people have no idea.

 

[pixiewings71]

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I had at least 4 people invite me to wear purple day. It was all over FB from what I saw

I didn't see it on FB at all....like I said, I did wear purple but I did not realizing people were being asked to. The purse thing, the bra color and even the shoe size thing have been all over my FB but not the purple thing.

 

[Sparx]

I did but I didn't hear about wearing purple until this afternoon. I put on a green shirt this morning and then managed to spill a flood of water on myself when I tried to make coffee and had to change. I just grabbed a shirt and it was one of the few purple ones I own. I figure that it must have been fate or karma or something!

How come Facebook spread "tell what color your bra is" and "post where you put your purse" like wildfire but no mention of this at all? I have a pretty diverse group of friends, I am really surprised I didn't hear about it. I'd have made plans to do more stuff out of the house in my purple shirt!

Because teen suicide isn't sexy.

We've sexualized and gendered breast cancer awareness and thats all we hear about. I've never seen a more exclusive overtly sexual marketing ploy as, "Save the ta-tas" or "feel your ****ies" in breast cancer awareness.

MEN get breast cancer too, and men don't wear bras, men don't "feel their ****ies", men don't have purses. And breasts that have suffered from breast cancer aren't sexy either, just young perky, healthy breasts.

We exclude men with breast cancer, and we shove young, healthy breasts and the thoughts of healthy breasts in the faces of every man and woman who's endured the loss of one or more breasts.

Breast cancer "awareness" is pinkwashed and covered in sexy, female breasts.

Nothing in october can be sexier than "ta-ta's", so everything else is swept under the rug. Cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, domestic violence awareness, bullying awareness, etc. All of these are ignored for the wide spread "awareness" of cancer of a woman's secondary sexual organ. Not cancer of breasts, cancer of female secondary sexual organs. I've never seen an "awareness" campaign geared at men.

So, in short, you didn't hear about this because teenage suicide isn't sexy.

 

[NMAmy]

I wore a purple sweater and DS (12) wore a purple Hurley shirt. He has been called gay slurs and says the kids use them everyday to belittle someone.

I'm so sorry to hear that.

Yep, I wore purple today. I also found out about this through Facebook--in fact, I got the first note about it a few weeks ago and had to put it on my calendar so I'd remember.

 

[DisnyMama]

I did!

 

[PrincesCJM]

I did! I'm a teacher and many of my co-workers did too. At least 25% of the student body participated. Many of those didn't wear it said that they didn't know about it - despite the fact they are constantly on facebook.

 

[bicker]

I did!

 

[MzDiz]

I wore a purple Disney shirt - it's the only purple shirt I own.

 

[vgrandy]

I don't see why we need a special color, or a special day, to worry about only a particular subset of teen suicides.

YMMV, of course.

Because 12 gay kids have died in the last 6 weeks!! It's about letting these youth know NOW that it will get better, that there is support. Before another one dies.

 

[bonnaroomama]

Yes, the suicide rate among LGBT teens is very high (not as high as the 30 percent stat that makes its way around online, but incredibly high compared to teens that don't identify LGBT). Additionally, those are just the teens that are identified...there is no way to tell if a kid is homosexual unless they have told us, so the number may be higher than the stats indicate. Does that make sense?

Anyway, we wore our purple, even my little boy. I like teaching him that there's no "boy" or "girl" colors...we try to avoid gender role indoctrination, even with colors. Besides, guys look cool in pink and purple!

 

[LuvOrlando]

I did!

 

[DISNEYSIX]

Because 12 gay kids have died in the last 6 weeks!! It's about letting these youth know NOW that it will get better, that there is support. Before another one dies.

Who says these suicides were the result of bullying? Many gay people will tell you that they hate being gay and would love to be "normal". Don't you think the high suicide rate among gays in general (not just teens) could be related to this? You could ask my gay brother who would attest to this fact but he committed suicide 9/9/09.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Who says these suicides were the result of bullying? Many gay people will tell you that they hate being gay and would love to be "normal". Don't you think the high suicide rate among gays in general (not just teens) could be related to this? You could ask my gay brother who would attest to this fact but he committed suicide 9/9/09.

I am so sorry you lost your brother.

I think the point is that if people would realize there really isn't such a thing as 'normal' and be more accepting of ALL our differences tragedies like this could be avoided. For example, if your brother never felt he was different at all wouldn't life have been easier on him?

 

[Holly]

First I heard of it was when my daughter came home from school today all disappointed that she'd forgotten to wear purple. She says she's right in there next year!

I thought it was just something her school was doing - I didn't realize it was bigger than that until I saw this thread.

And FWIW - I don't think the "I won't wear purple because bullying hurts everyone not just gays" argument holds water. Well, not unless those same people would also refuse to wear pink ribbons for breast cancer awareness (after all, cancer hurts lots more body parts than just breasts), or red on Fridays to support our troops (what about civilian employees of the military?), or any other sort of "awareness" campaign. If they opt out of them all, then I can understand. Some people just aren't joiners.
Me, I would have worn purple, if I'd known.

Well said.



We all wore purple here.

 

[SAHDad]

Because 12 gay kids have died in the last 6 weeks!! It's about letting these youth know NOW that it will get better, that there is support. Before another one dies.

Yes, but 2/week is about 100/year. Even if we take the 30% of teen suicides are gay as fact (and there is some debate about that), then, sadly - 12 in the last six weeks is not exactly abnormal. There are about 275 teen suicides per year - each one a tragedy, but until there was a "trend" (which may nor may not actually exist), no one cared about teen suicide.

IMO, we really need to get away from the idea that high school years are "the best years of your life." If I had fallen for that, I certainly would have killed myself. (And given serious though to taking as many with me as possible.)

 

[BELLE1109]

wore my purple yesterday!!

 

[Sgt Mickey]

yes I did wear purple

 

[HOGFAN]

Ive got a purple mickey head on my ankle..does that count?

 

[MsLeFever]

Absolutely I did - and so did my 12 year old son and I was SO proud of him.

 

[disneyplanningdad]

Unfortunately I didn't know about it. My wife wore her only purple shirt without knowing about it. When she got to School (she's a teacher) the music teacher (a gay man) was wearing lavender and took note. She told me she that she had a long conversation with him because our 13 year old son has had problems this year being bullied. Our older son has also experienced insults along these lines. The other teacher shared his own experiences growing up.

For all those on this thread who do not understand why there should be a special day for gays I ask you to think about how teenage boys taunt each other. More often than not it is with words like gay and ******. I don't know if my sons are gay or not. It doesn't matter. The fact that our society teaches our young men to disdain others because they do not fit into a single "tough" masculine image that so many seem to value is disgraceful. If a boy is smart, sensitive, caring, artistic or any other of a number of qualities he seems to attract insults from a segment of the population. This in turn can isolate the victim even from friends who do not neccessarily share the aggressors opinions but who are scared to stand up for what is right. All too often the shame associated with being bullied prevents victims and witnesses from reporting incidents.

By dedicating just one day to these issues we are saying that it is OK to stand up to intolerence. It is OK to label the aggressors as bullies and to proclaim that what they do is wrong. That it should be stopped.