more on the "dear mary" conundrum

okay, after reading this, i am even more convinced that the whole "dear mary" thing is just distasteful, although less distasteful than what happened to the woman i just linked.

in case you were lame and missed the news like i did, that's the girlfriend of conservative and homophobic republican alan keyes' (who is running against barack obama for senator of illinois) newly outed daughter, maya keyes. both young women, aged circa 19-20, were out in closed supportive communities, but their families were unsupportive and still have psycho ideas of gays and lesbians. in fact, maya's girlfriend wasn't even out to her fundamentalist christian family. who knows what will happen to her now. apparently, she has been banned from ever setting foot in the keyes home, as well as being virtually kicked out of her own home with her college tuition payments suspended. i've heard rumors that pictures were circulated all over the internet with slurs written all over them. and her parents... i don't even want to know the rest of it.

these were not "celebrities" who chose to be in the public eye. in fact, they were posting under pseudonyms and, due to their home environments, turned to the "anonymous" nature of the internet to get out their frustrations. the more personal posts were, in fact, hidden -- but then some "hacker" of sorts went in and retrieved them. and then the news spread like wildfire. my professor wrote an article on queers in cyberspace. the internet has provided a supportive environment for youths who would not normally have an outlet to have an outlet and to not feel so alone and isolated.

and now someone has burst the protective cocoon. ya know, fuck you, kos. seriously, FUCK YOU, KOS. and whoever you got that link form. and fuck you too, wonkette. i'm madder at all of you right now than i am at michelle malkin. i never thought that would EVER happen. jesus christ. i don't mind making public hypocritical activities of politicians themselves - hey, if you can find me a picture of alan keyes jacking off to a picture of a gay porn star, that would be SO UP IN A SECOND - after all, both parties would be public figures, and that type of "outing" would be related to his political platform. however, dragging innocent people through the mud isn't the way to go about things.

i am considering doing legal research and sending these women some information on possible courses of action, although my instinct is that they really don't have much legal recourse.

i only hope this is a hoax, although i suspect it isn't. i hope someone proves me wrong.