Both young men took their own lives, but it’s the people’s hate and intolerance that pulled the trigger and pushed the other off a bridge. It’s heart breaking, but GAY = DEATH once more. These two tragedies serves to remind us of how vulnerable our gay youths are and I hope it impresses in all our minds the urgency there is to protect them, rid the world of homophobia and educate the ignorant whose actions are killing us.
Asher Brown (13) from Houston, America shot himself in the head last week after being "bullied to death” because of his religious beliefs, for being small and for being gay.
His mother Amy came home to police sirens and yellow tape at her house. "They called him different names for being homosexual," she says. "He just had enough."
His last words, posted on Facebook about 10 minutes before he died, were brief and to the point: "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry." The comment gave no hint of the torment and mortification that lay behind the decision of gifted 18-year-old violinist to kill himself.
In a statement, his family said that "Tyler was a fine young man, and a distinguished musician. The family is heartbroken beyond words."
ASHER & TYLER REMEMBERED ON FACEBOOK
9 comments:
It's completely horrible...and aren't there four boys who killed themselves?
2 or 4...all that matters is that they were killed because they were bullied for being gay...I'm seriously hoping Dan Savage's project brings forward a change and allows the youth to understand that it does get better and all this bullying definitely isn't worth pulling the plug!
Reading this made me terribly sad but also very angry. It is obvious with the first tragic story that Asher Brown had no one to turn to for help. The school let him down. His teachers let him down. His friends let him down. His parents let him down. Society, in general, let him down, and he saw suicide as the only way out ... at 13 FFS!! THIRTEEN!! What kind of parents raise kids to believe that bullying kids that are different is okay or acceptable? What kind of school allows it to carry on? If only one teacher, parent, friend, had stood up for him then he might not have taken his own life. My heart aches...
The two involved in the death of Tyler Clementi are guilty of murder. Nothing more and nothing less. They are guilty just as if they'd pushed him off the bridge themselves. It is sickening, gut-wrenchingly disgusting that these two revolting "people" saw fit to embarass him like that. They are twisted. Did it not cross their pea-sized brains what the consequences will be? Did they think it was funny? Amusing? Were they bored? They have robbed the world of a son. They have taken away from the world a talented musician.
Well done to Ellen Degeneres for speaking out on her show but her words will fall on deaf ears. The homophobia won't stop. Nor will the suicides until schools / parents / and government make a REAL effort to stamp this out!! In the mean time, we have to help each other. We just have to.
It is beyond me how on earth someone can film someone else having sex and then post it on Facebook, especially if that person is gay. It is absolutely appalling.
We as a society fail to learn lessons from tragedies like this. This is not the first kids to commit suicide due to being bullied for being gay. Nor will they be the last. It's time schools, parents and society in general take responsibility for the part we all play in not preventing bullying. It's time we all stand up against homophobia and speak out!
God all this needless death makes me sick. I've been crying all weekend over it.
Those of you who know me know that I've been passionate about stopping this since my best friend almost killed herself too over the way people in our supposed place of worship treated non-heterosexuals. We ran into someone from that place last night who saw nothing wrong about telling Gavi that the "real" reason she was suicidal is because she refused to admit that God wanted her to be straight.
Speak up, speak often, and encourage someone today.
I will never stop talking about this until there are no more suicides and no more homophobia.
meowingatthemoon, I won't stop talking about this either. Too many senseless deaths are occurring around the world. We should all be angry, we should all speak out & let us all prevent tragedies like this from happening again!
i hope those little shits get as much prison time as possible for the hate crime they commited. what century do we live in where people think this type of behavior is okay?
its very sad that in this day and age we must still deal with this type of utter nonsense!
@Paige, I agree!
@wozzel, the world will only change if we make it change.
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