Today, through Tumblr and Facebook, over 3.5million people are wearing purple. Please join them in showing your love and support for teens who are bullied and harrassed, and to mourn the suicide of LGBT teens who were the victims of bullies.

Purple represents Spirit on the LGBTQ flag and that’s exactly what we’d like all of you to have with you: spirit. Please know that times will get better and that you will meet people who will love you and respect you for who you are, no matter your sexuality. Please wear purple on October 20th. Tell your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and schools. RIP Tyler Clementi, Asher Brown, Seth Walsh, Justin Aaberg, Raymond Chase and Billy Lucas. You are loved.

Our youth is a vital resource, and we should be fostering love, support and tolerance. Please avoid the use of the word “gay” as an insult as in “That’s so gay.”

And while today is to visibly support spirit and peace, every day we need to make the effort and set an example.

Today is International Draw Mohammad Day, and the government of Pakistan is pretty angry about the Facebook group and related YouTube channels. Actually some folks on Facebook are are a little disgusted, too. One guy wrote:

This is just primitive primate politics — one troop of monkeys looking for an excuse to fling poop at another. I understand wanting to show the radical extremists that we aren’t afraid of them, but what is the point in causing anger and disgust in the vast majority of Muslims who are just regular folks?

It is sort of poking a rabid badger with a stick, and I’d rather spend my time making fun of other things. Dentists like Orly Taitz and Don McLeroy for example.

The Washington Post reports that links to over 450 internet sites have been shut down by the Pakistani government:

An Internet clampdown in Pakistan widened Thursday as the government blocked access to the YouTube Web site, citing its “growing sacrilegious content.” The move came one day after the civilian government ordered Internet service providers to restrict access to the Facebook social networking site, which drew fire in Pakistan over a page encouraging people to post caricatures Thursday of the Prophet Muhammad….

Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, also appeared to be blocked in Pakistan on Thursday, but it was not clear whether the government had restricted access or there was a glitch in the system. Access from smartphones to Facebook, YouTube and other sites with “blasphemous content” was also blocked, according to one major cellphone company, Mobilink.

The Facebook group claims:

They can’t kill us all, there is safety in numbers

Okay. Sure.  And

In Islamabad, about 100 young men belonging to the Islami Jamiat Talba, the student wing of a religious political party, carried signs bearing slogans such as, “Death to Those Responsible for Blasphemy.” They called Facebook a tool for spreading anti-Islamic sentiments.

“If Facebook and other such tools continue to be used for blasphemy by the Western nations, then we will target their embassies,” said Faisal Javed, 21.

I think something is blasphemy if the person doing it is of that faith. How can you blaspheme against something you don’t believe in?  And if you’re a really good member of that religion you wouldn’t be doing anything blasphemous anyway–whether it’s looking at a forbidden website or frolicking illicitly–right Messrs. Ensign, Souder, Rekers and Sanders?

(all artwork: Dan Lacey)

So a lot of the kids from Itawamba Agricultural High ’10 seem to have gone to the same prom this weekend, judging by their public Facebook pages, captured here by an intrepid sleuth. Cassandra Lee Maier wrote on March 29 that she was

sick and tired of the damn prom being cancelled. what the hell happened this time??

but on Saturday she posted a smiley icon saying that she had an awesome time at the prom, and that

it was so pretty

Danthon Huddleston was really happy.

Had soooooo much fun lastnight thank you; all the parents whoade lastnight possible and a might to remember thank you. Seniors our year is back on track!!! :)

On Saturday morning, Angel Russell posted on Facebook

had so much fun last night………never knew I could dance that much :)…. BEST EVER!!!!

On a photo from Angie Byrd Sherrer’s Facebook page where she posted pictures of her daughter Holly dancing at the private no-gays prom (Mrs Sherrer has since made her page private), student Mckenzie Mina King posted this:

bahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. haha. waittt, i still dont think im finished laughing….

hahahahaha.

i just love youuuuuuuu.

Pam Spaulding reports that

Fulton not only displayed rank homophobia, it raised the bar of evil by sending learning-disabled students to the fake prom, clearly labeling them “others.”

Constance McMillen herself told the Advocate:

Two students with learning difficulties were among the seven people at the country club event, McMillen recalls. “They had the time of their lives,” McMillen says. “That’s the one good thing that come out of this, [these kids] didn’t have to worry about people making fun of them [at their prom].”

I can see some of the same dresses in these pictures posted by different students.

Just a reminder to the non-white kids , non-disabled kids who went to this event: Forty-five years ago, in Birmingham, Alabama the same stunt got pulled on a black girl.

Think about civil rights for moment.

And if that’s not fucked up enough, now there’s a FB group called Constance, Quit Yer Cryin

Okay. My work here is done. Let’s see what Sarah Palin has to say about this…