STICKS AND STONES MAY BREAK MY BONES...

To be gay bashed is a horrible experience. But you know, at least, who hit you. And that they did it because they hate you. Just for being gay. And, hopefully, you will know that they are wrong. You know it’s a crime and that, in the UK at least, the law and the system - finally - are on your side.

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...BUT WORDS MAY NEVER HURT ME

Really? How about ‘pathetic fag’? or ‘disgusting shirt-lifter’? even ‘filthy dyke’? Who the fuck tried to tell us that these words didn’t leave deep scars on our tender, impressionable minds. 

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In an age when our youth are even using ’gay’ as a synonym for useless or lame, Gross Indecency: Sticks and Stones takes 144 (a gross) genuine photos of children who were born gay and contrasts their vulnerable innocence with the words used against us.

 

Words used sometimes by enemies, sometimes by friends, sometimes by family, sometimes even by ourselves. Words spoken in hate, words spoken for a laugh, words used in ignorance. Words whose combined effect hurts us and damages us far deeper and often far longer than any superficial cut or break.