Anti-gay bullying leads to two more suicides
These crimes have always been out there, but in the past they were hushed up and not pursued to “protect families from embarrassment” and other things. With the heightened awareness from anti-bullying campaigns spearheaded by SPLC and other groups these are now reported as they should be. Hopefully this will bring about a change in the way we treat these issues, because the way we do things now results in needless and tragic deaths.
Anti-gay bullying has led to two more suicides. In Houston, Texas, the parents of eighth-grader Asher Brown have said that their son shot himself in the head after constantly being harassed at Hamilton Middle School, according to an Advocate.com item. His mother and stepfather, Amy and David Truong, said that other students verbally and physically bullied Brown, and said that the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District ignored their complaints; the district responded that it never heard from parents, school officials or other students.
Also, a freshman at New Jersey’s Rutgers University committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge after other students broadcast the freshman making out with another man ( without the victim’s knowledge ) , according to a release from Garden State Equality. The Wall Street Journal reported that the student was Tyler Clementi and that his roommate, Dharun Ravi, and another student, Molly Wei, have been charged with invasion of privacy for using a webcam to broadcast the footage.