We are, we are, we are but your children

Finding our way around indecision

We are, we are, we are ever helpless

Take us forever

A whisper to a scream

-          Icicle Works

Edvard Munch’s The Scream is probably one of the most famous paintings in the world.

Smithsonian.com calls it “a Mona Lisa for our time.”

The BBC claims that The Scream “remains widely celebrated for capturing the torment of existence.”

Financial Times notes that The Scream “depicts a moment of psychic calamity, of shattered nerves.”

Slate writes that The Scream “represents the apogee of anxiety, the soul’s final breaking point.”

There are four versions of the painting; The Wall Street Journal has a side by side comparison of all four. All seem to depict agonizing despair. Is it a silent scream or a loud scream? In either case, the two figures in the background are apparently oblivious.

Such is life.

A pride version acquired from this year’s Indiana Youth Group art auction, a fundraiser for the local GLBT youth group, shows the screaming figure underneath a sky of rainbow colors. In this portrait, the figure is alone on the bridge.

Such is the life of many in the GLBT community.

Despite growing acceptance, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals continue to face discrimination.

A GLSEN survey of “8,584 students between the ages of 13 and 20” yielded the following results (PDF p. 16).

84.9% of students heard “gay” used in a negative way (e.g., “that’s so gay”) frequently or often at school, and 91.4% reported that they felt distressed because of this language.

71.3% heard other homophobic remarks (e.g., “dyke” or “faggot”) frequently or often.

No Homophobes, which tracks tweets with homophobic language like “faggot” and “dyke,” has tracked tens of thousands of tweets today alone.

The GLSEN study also reports that 63.5% surveyed youth “felt unsafe because of their sexual orientation, and 43.9% because of their gender expression” (P. 16).

Contrary to the “it gets better” campaign, GLBT individuals often face hardships because of gender or sexual identity in adulthood.

A recent case involving a man who was forcibly removed from his male partner’s hospital bedside probably doesn’t instill confidence in GLBT youth that they have a great life waiting for them once they reach adulthood.

Indiana Youth Group is a great place for GLBT youth to find others like themselves and develop an unshakeable identity in a safe environment; at IYG, youth can mold a sense of self-worth that will be essential in facing an apathetic and uncertain world.

Despite the need for a gay youth group in a homophobic state like Indiana, IYG had its license plate revoked by the state’s BMV in response to a letter by twenty state senators – all Republicans.

A recent setback in the battle over the IYG plate is discouraging.

[T]he Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles ended its negotiations with the three groups [IYG and two others that were “collateral damage”], citing passage of a new state law that creates a legislative commission to recommend specialty plates.

Rep. Ed Soliday claims that he played no role.

“I was certainly not part of it. That’s separation of powers stuff.”

This “separation of powers stuff” didn’t stop twenty state Republican senators – nearly half the entire state senate – from “persuading” the BMV to yank IYG’s specialty plate.

Gay people are apparently a persistent danger to the fabric of society; that danger escalates during election years.

Note the date of the letter to Indiana BMV. It’s dated March 9: my wedding anniversary that is still not legally recognized after 17 years.

Witch-hunts never go out of style. I just hope that those of us who have fought our way to equality do not close our ears to the vulnerable others.

Is the individual in the painting screaming audibly or silently? If no one hears the scream, what is the difference?