Bully

The first time I was bullied I was in kindergarten. It continued to happen throughout elementary, peaked in junior high, and remained an anxiety-inducing problem for me through high school. To this day I deal with bullying. Just ask “Honest Sally,” one of my lovely readers, who goes beyond expressing his or her criticisms of me in the comments of this blog by often writing derogatory things about my views, where I come from (proud Prairie boy here — well, sort of proud), and how I look. Ms Sally is just one example. I experience homophobic bullying by the looks I get from people on the street when I’m wearing a more flamboyant outfit. I overhear it in conversations and am sometimes confronted with it by drunk Granville St douchebags on the weekends. Bullying exists on many different levels, and unfortunately, it exists in the gay community (internally and externally) more than anywhere else.

Harvey Weinstein, Oscar-winning producer, tried to get a PG-13 rating for Bully so that it could reach kids, but despite his best efforts, the MPAA has rated it R. Sad. But parents need to see it as much as their kids. Education doesn’t start in a school; it has to start at home.