Even if Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell has a right to harass university students because of his hate, he should not be an Assistant Attorney General.

Tyler Clemeti, was by all accounts a fairly shy freshman at Rutgers University. He may or may not have been gay, but we know for sure that he had at least one sexual encounter with a man. How do we know that? Well after the spy video that his roommate and another student made was released to the internet it became a matter of public record. Tyler had sex with some guy. Surely he thought it was a private thing, but there it was on the internet and would always define him.

This seems to be the proximate cause of his suicide by jumping off of a bridge. This is what the so-called “family values” conservatives railing against the “radical homosexual agenda” leads to. Yesterday I posted a slightly light-hearted look at what they claim this agenda is. The reality is that they don’t want any cultural acceptance of gay folks. It all comes down to that, they want to be able to use gay people as a stalking horse for all the ills of society.

I am pretty sure they don’t think about the consequences, but situations like Tyler Clementi’s suicide are a direct result of this shaming and relentless vilifying of gay citizens. Think back to when you were 18 or 19 or 20. Do you remember who desperate you were to be cool? How you were not sure what the world would hold and just finding out that you really had the choice to be who you are, as scary as that thought can be?

Now imagine what is must be like for those who are gay or bisexual. Gay jokes are everywhere. People are called fags if they don’t conform to the norm, regardless of their sexuality. There are still some kids in this younger generation who are not accepting of gay people being openly gay. For all that polls show there folks under 25, as a group, don’t care if gay citizens marry or serve in the military openly, there is still a good size portion of this population who has bought into the lies and vilification of gays and is not shy about speaking out about it.