Click here for my essay on whether homosexuality is a matter of choice and what is the reason behind the high number of suicides among young homosexuals.
The essay, which discusses homosexuality, and touches upon bullying as well as social networking and its implications, was inspired by a group of Facebook users from Winnipeg, MB. Rebecca Fada, a Facebook “friend of a friend”, posted on her Facebook page a link to an e-video, which attacks those who “hate homosexual marriages” and raises funds for the fight of homosexuals to marry whoever they love.
My objection to the e-video unleashed an unprecedented online attack against me – at a personal level – from Rebecca Fada and her friends.
I dedicate this essay to victims of all kinds of bullying. Also to Eric, one of Rebecca Fada’s friends and all other “Erics”, who – like him – dare to come forward with reasonable questions about their homosexuality. Unfortunately, such questions – to their vast majority – remain unanswered, just like Eric’s questions in this case.
Click here to view the essay, which is preceded by the on-line “discussion”.
Update: February, 2022: Messages on Messenger from Rebecca Fada:
Feb 5, 2022, 9:27 PM
Hi Al,
Would you be willing to speak to me on a phone call by chance?
Rebecca
Feb 5, 2022, 10:01 PM
I’m not sure if you have rec’d my message from 2020 or today so I’m going to try and attempt to add you as a friend incase these messages are going in your junk/other box. I hope this is not too forward. Looking forward to hopefully talking if you are willing.
R
Feb 6, 2022, 11:16 AM
I completely understand that your lack of response is a response. I respect this and will not contact you further. I’m removing myself from social media permanently today. The exchange we had 12 years ago is something I think about periodically and was hoping before I shut down my accounts permanently we could speak and I could explain that day…. What was happening in my life….What happened that led to that moment etc. You don’t owe me that in the least but it was a hope/thought that perhaps we could talk. I accept that won’t be.
Wishing you nothing but good vibes as we all do our best to navigate this short life.
R
Update: September 17, 2020: Message on Messenger from Rebecca Fada:
Hi Al,
10 years ago you wrote on a facebook post of mine and I replied with some pretty embarrassing and degrading language. I wanted to apologize for this. I googled my name and saw your response from your personal website. I’m not writing this for you to take it down. I’ve accepted a long time ago this will remain part of my digital footprint. Nonetheless, despite contradicting beliefs, its language and a type of engagement with another human being that wouldn’t happen today. When I read my message to you, I feel sad seeing what an angry and hurtful person I used to be. It’s true that hurt people try and hurt people. It’s not a justification or an excuse but it is what it is. I am grateful for my growth and I hope you accept my sincere apology for the foolishness of my previous self.
All the best.
Rebecca
The latest on this is that Rebecca Fada has now approached my wife and she is pulling her into this using lies and by spreading fear about a lawsuit for libel.
Rebecca Fada, you did come out as “apologizing” to me through your letter to my wife, who believed you! Little did she know that the same time you were “apologizing” the thread was still on your facebook page! All of it, except the link to my response/defence-essay! Still you told my wife “I have deleted this sillyness off my facebook long ago but he chose to copy and paste it for everyone to see for all eternity…”. It’s a tragedy that you are not even aware of how devious you really are! Thanks to the freedom of the Internet, my response is found here (click on the PDF button above). Human rights. Freedom of speech. Yes? No? Maybe, Rebecca Fada?
She still wants to silence me, but keep the rest of the thread. She still wants to emerge as the winner. THERE ARE NO WINNERS HERE, YOU FOOL!
Rebecca Fada is now threatening to take legal action against me for libel – she says – unless I remove my essay from my blog. Or, I think, she wants me to keep the essay but remove references to her last name. Or keep the essay but not have a reference to it in her facebook page. Or remove her last name from the essay, and then refer to it from her facebook page. Does she want to apologize? Or does she want to provide answers to Eric’s questions? Or … really, I don’t know what she wants!
What libel, you fool? I call you an idiot, a moron and a fool, and you called me “redneck, ignorant fascist”, “sexually obsessed with fucking my mom” and “my love for nazi science is not surprising” and that “maybe the only time someone used me for pleasure was a dog humping his leg”. Most importantly, along with your facebook friends you BULLIED a stranger. And on top of it all YOU want to sue ME for libel? You are such an idiot!
My blog is open for everyone. Thankfully, we live in a free society. (Don’t we?) Feel free to use it Rebecca Fada, and as I have promised Kim I will post anything you have to say, good or bad.
One moment Rebecca Fada says she is just a 25 year old and doesn’t know how to protect herself from the “bad publicity of the Internet” and her own foul language (what?) and next moment she is waving thunderbolts of powerful Law Firms and a powerful family, who wants all this erased and gone, as if it didn’t happen. Oh dear Zeus! “Protect me from …myself!”
Apparently, Rebecca Fada discovered that my essay comes up at the top of search engines when one searches for her name. Complain to Google for that. Rebecca Fada, if your concern is that your kids will discover in 25 years about your foul language, you need to do other things to offer substantial, proper and ethical remedies to fix this towards me and towards the Erics of the world, instead of feeling that 3rd parties (Kim, my wife, your family and Law Firms), will make this go away. Of course, your kids in 25 years from now finding about your foul mouth and bullying in 2010 is not where your problem is! YOU are holding the keys.
It’s okay – Rebecca Fada claims – to call people names on her private facebook page, but it’s not okay to do the same publicly (i.e. on my blog.) Please define “private” and “public” for me. One could argue that your 508 facebook friends who see your post bullying me and calling me names (my FULL name is listed there) IS the Public. Similar “discussions” happen daily in clubs, in pubs, at the bus stop, in a class, and during all sorts of other social gatherings. There is no difference whatsoever. Read my essay – all answers are in there. You haven’t responded to Eric either, have you? All you really care about is for your facebook friends never to find out that you didn’t really “win” that day, that – really – you don’t know what you are talking about on the issue of homosexuality, and that you are the biggest bully of them all. Correct? And YOU want to sue ME?
What I have done was to respond to an entry I saw under MY facebook login. That’s how facebook works. Take it up with Mark Zuckerberg, not me. What YOU have done was to bully me and unleash an unprecedented attack in front of 508 people, calling me a “redneck, ignorant fascist”, “sexually obsessed with fucking my mom” and “my love for nazi science is not surprising” and that “maybe the only time someone used me for pleasure was a dog humping his leg”. Then, I defended both myself and my thesis (isn’t that anyone’s right?) through an essay posted on my personal blog. You decided to hide my defense/response from your 508 friends and block me out.
Unlike my defense and my thesis, your vicious attack is STILL on your facebook page. In essence, among so many other things, you are insisting on denying my right to defend myself, or present the “opposing” view. And you want to sue me for libel, because I called you an idiot. Or have I misunderstood perhaps? Do you want to sue me because the bad things you said are posted on my blog? You said those things, not me. Therefore, you should sue … yourself, not me!
You are SUCH a fool! Read my essay. All of it.
At last, Rebecca Fada decided to engage intellectually, debate the issue and provide answers to Eric’s questions!
On October 30, I posted a new entry on the thread (see this article’s PDF for the complete thread) saying:
“Now that you are all done: http://www.poullis.com”
No more than 20 minutes later she sent the following private message on Facebook:
You are SUCH a fool!