Do you remember being a teenager? Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, only now beginning to shape whom you will be for the rest of your life. Imagine if instead of those years being about growing and learning, they are about hate. Imagine walking into a school building every day and being taunted, yelled at, made fun of, called names, even hit. Imagine going home, a place that should be safe, and being assaulted on social networking and in text messages. And all of this hatred, anger, and intolerance, is simply because of whom you decide to love.
It’s estimated by the Give A Damn foundation (promoting tolerance) that 90% of gay and lesbian teens are harassed in school, whether physically or verbally, where as only 62% of straight teens feel they are bullied. Many adults take the viewpoint that “kids will be kids,” that bullying is a part of school and youth. But what happens when these teens being targeted day in and day out start taking their lives?
On September 19th, thirteen-year-old Seth Walsh hung himself from a tree in his back yard because of constant torment at his California middle school.
On September 22nd, Tyler Clementi jumped off of the George Washington Bridge in New Brunswick, NJ because a tape of him having sex with another male surfaced and spread around the Internet.
And on September 23rd Asher Brown, a thirteen year old Texas student, shot himself in the head after reported anti-gay bullying which eventually turned physical, which teachers and officials at his school did nothing about it.
Hate bullying is real. We can no longer pretend that this issue is not pressing. It is everywhere: media, politics, Internet, television. For some teens, there is no safe place for them anymore. School, a place students should be protected and allowed to learn, isn’t even welcoming. Two thirds of gay students report hearing homophobic remarks from faculty. And 1 in 3 kids have skipped a day of school in the past month because of harassment at school.
We are to the point when two thirteen-year-olds and an eighteen-year-old have taken their lives within a week of each other because they simply couldn’t take the pressure of the hatred anymore. Gay and lesbian teens are four times more likely to kill themselves than straight teens. What has to happen before we are all aware, before we all try to help? How many children have to die before we actually care?
For information about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender tolerance, visit:
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