Another Suicide in Gay Community

This article was published in the Eastern Echo on October 11, 2012.  It hasn't made it to the online edition as of the publishing of this blog, however it was in the print edition on Eastern Michigan University's campus, along with various outlets in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor.

Another Suicide in Gay Community

by Casey Wooley

Guest Writer

As I woke up October 4^th to start my daily adventures, I turned on my iPhone and scanned through my news-feed on Facebook. The usual posts were there - “Romney this,” and “Obama that,” and of course the subtle flow of continuous Internet memes filled my mind with delight.

But unfortunately, my daily ritual was quickly cut short, as an eerie number of posts centered on the same horrible theme – suicide. As it turns out, the gay community lost another teenager to suicide the night before, and many of the friends on my feed were expressing sadness, guilt, regret, and every other conventional feeling one can think of in moments such as these.

I personally didn't know this individual. And as it turned out, many expressing such feelings through Facebook didn't necessarily know him either. But, as ripples travel through water, so did news of this horrible tragedy spread through the gay community at such rapid speed, that by the end of the day, many had heard and expressed their condolences to his family and friends.

Hearing such sad news brings back memories of Rutger's University freshman Tyler Clementi. A few years ago he was videotaped by his roommate having his first intimate relationship with another man. That video tape found itself online, and unfortunately he felt it was just too much to bear and he killed himself because of the shame he experienced.. His suicide was the start of the very popular “it gets better” campaign. And while the suicide a few days ago did not have anything to do with bullying, it certainly sparked those conversations once more.

Ironically, the Twitter-verse also lit up on October 2^nd with a completely different scenario, but also centered around the same concept of bullying somebody because of their differences. As it turns out, WKBT-TV reporter Jennifer Livingston out of La Crosse, Wisconsin had received some very hateful emails about her weight. In those emails, the writer indicated that he is surprised that her “physical condition hasn't improved for many years,” and that she is not a “suitable example for this community's young people.”

But Ms. Livingston did something that many are afraid to do. She stood up for herself. She stood up to the bully attempting to make her differences more important than they really are.

And she did it in a very public way – as an editorial at her local station where she reports. She called out the writer of the email and called him for what he was – a bully. And she demanded that he stop his hateful rhetoric.

In the wake of this horrible tragedy of a young person taking his own life, it's important for all of us in the community of human beings to recognize that bullying has to stop. While this most recent suicide may not have been the result of bullying directly, bullying in the gay community is a huge issue. It represents a larger problem across many divides – that those who do not understand the differences we all have, seek to use those differences as hateful, stereotypical attacks.

This is unacceptable. And we all collectively have a responsibility to recognize when such prejudicial attacks exist and to stop them immediately. Stand up for somebody when somebody else seeks to tear them down. Make your voice heard that such language and actions are unacceptable. And affirm to those who are being bullied that they are loved and respected because they too are human beings, just like everybody else.