Kudos to Ms. Degeneres for shining a light on this sad, sad story.

Until we get over this idiotic, macho, war mongering, bud-swilling, truck driving, homophobic mindset, tragedies like this will continue to occur, with the blessing of the xtian right and all the righteous "god-fearing" men like Larry "Widestance" Craig and the late, unlamented Jerry Fallwell.

In light of this story, we lie to ourselves that we're civilized, yet this stinks of the Inquisition and the Holocaust, where gays were routinely tortured to death because they broke the laws of someone's vicious god.

Forget WMDs, hypocrisy is the most deadly force on the planet.

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I think this is the most horrible thing for a boy to be so hate filled toward another boy that he killed him. It is a very sad tragedy. I don't understand how this could have happened. What are young people being taught about love, acceptance, understanding? Somehow these things passed the murderer by.

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Thank you Ellen,
To remain silent about this is to condone an horrendous wrong. To speak out is an appropriate, humane political necessity. This kind of politics fosters compassion, understanding and love. I could almost hear your heart pounding with fear as you spoke out against intolerance. I respect your courage.

Bonnie Sheppard

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If Brandon goes to jail, maybe he'll be somebody's Valentine after all. Ironic, isn't it, Brandon?

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that the "Christians" are so opposed to hate crime legislation. I read the Time/CNN article associated with this and was a little annoyed at their references to reports of a low percentage of young LGBT people who are harassed at school and elsewhere, as if just we should not take action until the percentage is high enough to matter. The numbers are irrelevent, what matters is that no gay or transexual person should be subjected to abuse. I've read studies where males who look too feminine or females who look too masculine are targeted regardless of whether they are actually gay (sometimes they are not). There is just a problem in this country with the construction of gender roles so that anyone who does not fit into a neat little box is put at risk of physical/emotional harm. It's disgusting.

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I think that every reader can surmise the answer to this one. The fact that the answer is so transparently projectible betrays how perverse, how puerile, how emotionally, morally, ethically, legally challenged, and narcissistic the society has become. This morally bankrupt society will never get it because that is how its members are taught to deal with the world generally: when something doesn't agree with you, take it down, destroy it, kill it if you have to .... Thus speaks Pax-Americana; thus does Pax-Americana.

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Teach your kids not to beat other kids, please?

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It really saddens me that Ellen even needs to say these things.
But I sure am happy that we have someone as brilliant and courageous as her to say it. Her very presence gives hope that things have changed for the better. That she had say this, that she needed to be the one, is evidence that we have a long way to go.

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Check out the candidates' positions on the gay community.

On the democratic side, Senator Obama is in favor of reversing the entire "Protect Marriage Act" while Senator Clinton is only in favor of reversing part of it.

On the republican side, I think the positions are obvious.

Kudos, props and many thanks to Ellen for bringing this issue to attention.

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Thank you, Ellen! I saw her show yesterday & I cried when I saw this & I cried again today when I watched the video. Thank you, Ellen, for speaking out about this tragic hate crime.

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I'm one of those guys who would be seen as one of those stereotypical "jocks", etc.
I did/do all the "man" things including playing hockey, hunting, Vietnam and being accomplished with tools.

That said, who I REALLY am is a person who has no need to judge someone who is gay for their being gay.
The only way I can legitimately judge someone is by how they treat me.
I've been treated with respect by gay people and treated shitty by some "straight" people.

I've been around to see/hear someone being mistreated because they are agy and have told the abusers to shut the fuck up.
I'm no hero in any way.
Rather I am just who I am and demand that others treat me as I treat them.

I MY world, someone being gay is a non issue.

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I'm one of those guys who would be seen as one of those stereotypical "jocks", etc.
I did/do all the "man" things including playing hockey, hunting, Vietnam and being accomplished with tools.

That said, who I REALLY am is a person who has no need to judge someone who is gay for their being gay.
The only way I can legitimately judge someone is by how they treat me.
I've been treated with respect by gay people and treated shitty by some "straight" people.

I've been around to see/hear someone being mistreated because they are agy and have told the abusers to shut the fuck up.
I'm no hero in any way.
Rather I am just who I am and demand that others treat me as I treat them.

I MY world, someone being gay is a non issue.

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I'm one of those guys who would be seen as one of those stereotypical "jocks", etc.
I did/do all the "man" things including playing hockey, hunting, Vietnam and being accomplished with tools.

That said, who I REALLY am is a person who has no need to judge someone who is gay for their being gay.
The only way I can legitimately judge someone is by how they treat me.
I've been treated with respect by gay people and treated shitty by some "straight" people.

I've been around to see/hear someone being mistreated because they are agy and have told the abusers to shut the fuck up.
I'm no hero in any way.
Rather I am just who I am and demand that others treat me as I treat them.

I MY world, someone being gay is a non issue.

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It's obvious. The MSM GOP owners are afraid it will be the final nail in the coffin of the GOP, AS IT DAMN WELL SHOULD BE.

ANYONE, anyone at all who votes or supports anyone in the GOP will ANSWER TO GOD for what they have done.

ANYONE, anyone at all of fosters intolerance in any way, ESPECIALLY in the name of Christ, will be rooming with Hitler for eternity.

If they're LUCKY.

God bless you Ellen. And be ready for the Hate Rosie machine to come down on your head any minute. You can handle it, and them.

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Thank you, Ellen! You brought me to tears as you spoke about Larry King and the hate for gays that still pervades our society. I live in Massachusetts where gay marriage is legal. I am gay and married to my fabulous wife Kathy, since October 16th, 2006. We have a 15 y/o son that attends one of the local high schools in our hometown and is taunted by children because he happily tells people he has 2 Moms. He has lost friends due to their parents finding out we are gay and married. This school year it even became a "political issue" because one of my son's friends mother told the vice principal that we were gay and then made up a story that my son elbowed her son! We tried to work things out with the parents but when we called the kids mom yelled and screamed that she was going to file charges against my son! The school tried to intervene but encountered the same kind of irrational behavior from the mother that we did. The worst thing about all this is my kid and her kid were friends...they hung out together at school...his teachers told my wife and I what good friends the 2 were. That was until the mother actually took her son out of school and started home schooling him! The worst part about this whole thing is that 2 good friends can no longer continue their friendship because of a parents hate for something she doesn't understand.

Peace,

soul

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I am ready for the tirade. All those who are going to shout "unfair" and "baby with the bathwater" ripostes. However, there is no other single original and comprehensive source of hatred, intolerance, bigotry, and cruelty than religion.

Religion is, by its very nature, divisive. It promulgates an "us-against-them" attitude that consistently defeats rational, humanistic efforts to build bridges connecting all members of society from the global to the regional to the national to the local to the neighborhood to the family.

There are many religious icons whose words express this malignancy, but I'll cite the ones uttered by the one most familiar to those who are likely to read this.

Jesus said, "Either you are with me or against me...Either you are gathering or scattering."

Can these words be twisted from their original context to be interpreted as a message of hope? Certainly. However, I urge readers to remember what the putative consequences of being "against me" and "scattering" are: an eternity spent writhing in pain, tortured without the benefit of habituation, and all because of holding a different weltanschauung.

Education is the agent of meaningful change; however, the education must include an identification and repudiation of the message of hate fomented by religion since recorded history. Our children need to learn that the epoch of "us against them" has brought only suffering throughout history and may well bring about the end of all we cherish if not eradicated.

Be good for goodness' sake. Be the change the world so desperately needs. Don't sit silently as those who are "the others" experience humiliation, rejection, derision, violence, and even death.

I believe we have the capacity to effect meaningful change; I don't know if we have the courage.

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Dear Adam Howard . . .

I wish Ellen DeGeneres and all Americans would speak more about the broader issue the talk show host touched on. Lawrence King did not have his life cut short simply because he was gay. A Black person, someone of Latin descent, a Muslim, or a Jew are not a second class citizens either. Yet, each day members within each of these groups receive threats. At times, those who treat respectable souls with disdain act on the words of intimidation. Harassment in schools and streets is but a symptom of what we see in people's homes and have for centuries.

We cycle hate and then wonder why one collection of people or another are identified as objectionable. Those taught to loathe from birth have many targets. Characteristically, individuals filled with a distasteful abhorrence for a "type" of person are raised in circumstances where cruelty is common.

We cannot teach forbearance in schools or through community programs and expect our culture to change. Often, by the time a child enrolls the educational system it is too late. Young children develop habits before they enter a classroom.

The topic of tolerance, alone, is inadequate to solve societal problems. Restraint differs from reverence.

If we truly wish to end, all hate crimes, we must teach empathy to the adults and the children, together, throughout the globe. No day can pass without a class in acceptance.

I invite a discussion and offer further thoughts . . .
Homage to Lawrence King. Teach Tolerance To Adults and Children
School Shootings; Standards Kill Students and Society
Are African-Americans Black Enough or Anglo Americans Too White?
Race Relations in America; Colormute, Not Colorblind

Betsy L. Angert
BeThink.org

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...that Ellen is. She deserves more than daytime talk shows.

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