“#ToMyUnbornChild if you turn out gay, I will burn you alive.” –Daborey Burrell (@Shityboy2Stainz).
#ToMyUnbornChild was a trending topic on Twitter on March 12 of 2012. The idea was that users could tweet to their future child, anything from hopes or aspirations to words of encouragement or even just a promise of love.
@Homophobes, a Twitter account that exposes homophobia by retweeting the hateful and often violent tweets that pile up on the web, compiled 100 real tweets that users sent out with the hashtag #ToMyUnbornChild.
“ToMyUnbornChild If your gay, I’ll kill you.” –Adrian Sanchez (@Mr_DirtySnachez).
“#tomyunbornchild the first time you experience your gay moment I’m stepping on your throat #fuckwitme.” –Marcus Wilson (@TheNewwGuy).
“#ToMyUnbornChild if you’re gay, I’m putting you down. No question about it.” –Alex Goodvin (@AlexGoodvin6).
As a heterosexual, white male myself, I’m not exactly the target demographic of this hateful antipathy. But it’s not unreasonable to assume most – if not all – of these tweets were posted by straight people.
So, to the 100 people who tweeted these inspirational messages, allow me to comment as a fellow straight person and potential parent; if my child is happy, I’m happy.
Simple as that.
How in the world can something so horribly hateful be the first message you want to send to your child?
Not something like “follow your dreams” or “never doubt yourself.” Not something like “I’ll always love you” or “don’t care what others think.” No; just a quick warning. “If you’re gay, I’ll kill you.”
“#ToMyUnbornChild if you ever become a homo.. Ohh shit ima kill your faggot ass.” –Alex Byars (@swag_Byars).
I can’t imagine what kind of background promotes such violence to a child. Is it a political belief? Religion? Just plain ignorance? Whether you’re liberal or conservative, deeply orthodox or an atheist, there’s no excuse. Any political platform or religion that preaches against homosexuality undoubtedly also denounces abortion and the killing of children. So how can these two mix here? You’ll kill a BABY if you suspect he or she is homosexual?
#ToMyUnbornChild twitter comments threatened violence on potential children. | Compiled from Twitter.com
Social acceptance is swinging unerringly toward embracing homosexuality; it’s happening, regardless of how you personally feel. Ten years from now, 20 years or maybe even sooner, homosexuals will have the same civil liberties and rights that heterosexuals enjoy. Would you rather have a dead baby, or a child that has equality?
I can’t even fathom how anyone would think violence and killing could be an acceptable action against their own child. This isn’t just about homophobia; it’s about threatening to murder your own baby if they turn out differently from what you want. How many people have turned out just how their parents’ wanted? I can guarantee I’m nothing close to what my parents were imagining when they decided to have children. That doesn’t mean they would have had the right to “put me down.” Will you kill your kid if he has different religious belief than you? If she supports a different political candidate from you? If he wants to play the piano or she wants to do anything you might disapprove of?
“#ToMyUnbornChild I will kill you if you Turn Gay , (I support the gays but I will never be one , neither nor my unborn baby).” –June 9th… (@_Lastaccia).
Maybe it’s because I figure that these tweets were made by straight potential parents. And because I’m a straight potential parent too, I wanted to speak up. I can’t even imagine bringing a child into the world with that kind of attitude. Why is that the most important thing? Why not, Are you happy? Are you safe? Healthy? Are you following your dreams?
“#ToMyUnbornChild if your gay… I will stab you to death. #sorrynotsorry.” –Mark Malm (@MarkMalm).
It doesn’t matter to me if my daughter brings home a man or a woman. As long as her significant other treats her with respect, then I’m happy. I could have six, nine, 12 children, and have every single one of them be gay and that wouldn’t mean a thing to me. I won’t love them any less or any differently. And I certainly would never advocate for their death.
Perhaps I shouldn’t be commenting at all; after all, I’m not a parent yet, how can I really say what kind of father I will be? But the theme is to unborn children; unless all these tweets were made by people with kids in utero, chances are they’re not parents either.
“#ToMyUnbornChild don’t choose to be gay or you will live a very short life.” -Adam Kusnyer (@AKusnyer).
How can that even be the most important thing someone wants for his or her baby? How can it even be close to saying, “I love you?”
Expressions of hate, threats of violence, anger and fear all expressed over people who haven’t even been born. For the record, if that’s how people feel about their unborn children, then I hope for those kids’ sake, and the world’s, the people behind those 100 tweets don’t have children. Harsh? Yeah. But so is killing a baby.
Rich Solomon can be reached at r.solomon14@gmail.com
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In Richard Solomon’s article from the online Minaret, “#ToMyUnbornChild If your gay, I’ll kill you”, the writer claims that a number of twitter users from violent backgrounds were sending out hateful and violent tweets with the hash tag #ToMyUnbornchild. The idea of this was for users to be able to tweet about their hopes and aspirations to their future children. However, according to Solomon, users turned it into a violent session by threatening to murder their future children if they turned out to be gay. I definitely concede to the fact that the individuals who sent out those tweets went too far making such harsh threats. However, I believe Solomon’s claim was a hasty generalization and too strong a claim to conclude that those people are violent. Twitter, just like many other social networks, is a place where people send out messages according to the trending topic. Others also usually tweet just to impress their followers. Therefore, not everyone who writes these messages really mean them and most of them are certainly not in the least bit violent. Reading one’s tweets is too little evidence to conclude that they are violent. Solomon should have used some sort of qualifier in his claim to make it sound less harsh.
How can they so proudly flaunt their ignorance and hate? Sadly, they will probably have children some day and teach them to fear and hate others too. Unfortunately, social media helps people like this find others with the same warped mentality.
You’re right–this is beyond religion or politics. These people are frightening and all too real. It doesn’t matter if one agrees with homosexuality or not. It’s here and has always been here. What matters is loving your child and wanting them to be happy, no matter what path life holds for them.