Category Archives: Youth
Four Suicides in one month…Gay Youth Tyler Clementi Suicide Because of Prank
This is ridiculous!
FOUR gay teen suicides in a week.
When will the madness stop?!
Feelings of sympathy, shock and outrage spread across the country yesterday after news broke that Rutgers student Tyler Clementi committed suicide. Clementi’s family say they believe the 18-year-old freshman jumped to his death off the George Washington Bridge Sept. 23 after being secretly videotaped by two classmates in a sexual encounter with another man.
Two other Rutgers students have been charged with invasion of privacy after they allegedly placed a camera in 18-year-old Clementi’s dorm room without his knowledge and then broadcast Clementis sexual encounter , according to the Middlesex County prosecutor’s office.
Just last week, Seth Walsh, a California teen who spent the better part of the last 10 days on life support after attempting suicide over relentless bullying because he was gay, died on the 28th . He was 13 years old.
Asher Brown’s worn-out tennis shoes still sit in the living room of his Cypress-area home while his student progress report — filled with straight A’s — rests on the coffee table.
The eighth-grader killed himself last week . He shot himself in the head after enduring what his mother and stepfather say was constant harassment from four other students at Hamilton Middle School in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District.
He was a teenager who didn’t quite fit in. His classmates said Billy Lucas was bullied for being different .
The 15-year-old never told anyone he was gay but students at Greensburg High School thought he was and so they picked on him.
“People would call him ‘fag’ and stuff like that, just make fun of him because he’s different basically,” said student Dillen Swango. Some students told Billy to kill himself. That day he hung himself in the families barn.
Why are parents raising their children to HATE?
“But sympathy is not enough – we all have a responsibility to take action, and to keep working until all young people are safe and respected, no matter what their sexual orientation or gender identity. We must push for laws on the federal level and in every state that prohibit bullying and discrimination. We must hold people accountable, and use the courts when necessary. And most importantly, we must love and teach all our children to be their best selves and to respect and support others to do the same.” – Lambda Legal Deputy Legal Director Hayley Gorenburg.
Writer Lyndon Evans says , “This week NBC and others have been hyping so much about education, even interviewing folks who are getting involved with their local school even if they don’t have kids in the school to help better education. But what are we (and I put myself into the collective) doing to get rid of anti-gay bullying and bullying in general ? All the “help websites” and wonderful videos do nothing unless we get to the root cause. In the home, in the classroom and the Board of Education. Are you yet tired enough of reading these stories to do something ? Why not run for Board of Ed, last I knew you don’t have to have a kid to be elected to one.
When will this stop?
Ivy League Schools Say Do Ask, Do Tell, to Gay Students
When students like 18-year-old David Kamins were in high school, they were a dime a dozen at the nation’s top schools: impossibly high GPA and SAT scores, leadership positions in extracurricular activities, well-written essays, great recommendations from his teachers and guidance counselors. But the lanky, dark-haired Kamins had an unlikely ace in the hole when it came to getting into elite universities: He’s gay.
While years ago it may have been traumatic to announce one’s coming-out before leaving High School, Kamins, tells Details.com about a new movement sending Ivy League recruiters after the LGBT community.
Jason and DeMarco Build SAFE House in Houston Texas
If you have followed Jason and DeMarco , the gay christion pop singers, than you know about their vision of S.A.F.E.
Jason says, “Last year a young man who I had been emailing with had been struggling after “coming out of the closet”. He had been kicked out of his home and was going from friend to friend, sleeping on their couch. He finally ended up with a friend who told him that he could stay there as long as he needed to. Unfortunately, a month later, that same friend of his emailed me letting me know that this young man had taken his own life and that she wanted me to know how much he had said that I meant to him. I knew in that moment that “IT IS TIME”.
For several years I have had a vision for a non-profit organization that would help kids who have been kicked out of their homes, or who were in foster care because of being kicked out or rejected by their own parents, or perhaps were aging out of the foster care system and had no support and nowhere to turn. After moving to Houston I saw the need for an organization like this more than ever before and it fueled my dream. That dream is finally being realized with the launching of our new non-profit S.A.F.E. (Safe, Affirming, Family Environment).
We officially received 501(c)3 non-profit status on June 22, 2010 and are in full force preparing and planning for the work that S.A.F.E. is to do. By January 1st 2011, it is our intention to open the very first “Safe Spot” in Houston which will provide a drop-in and resource center for “throw-away” youth and young adults who will be offered snacks, coffee, clothes, books and a computer station.
It is also our intention to begin forming a community of house parents and ‘Safe Houses’ who are willing to offer transitional housing to GLBTQ young adults and ‘Safe Houses’ run by foster parents currently certified through Child Protective Services or those wishing to get certified to foster GLBTQ kids. Our intention with the homeless community is to encourage GLBTQ kids to enter the Foster Care system and educate them on the benefits offered to them by the state, knowing that they will be placed with a GLBT friendly foster home found through our organization.
If you are interested in joining our online community, please visit Safe House For All . Our goal is to start with Houston and then help other cities create “Safe Spots” and form S.A.F.E. communities locally with S.A.F.E.’s mentorship and guidance.
We filmed a new music video to our song ‘Safe’, the title cut from our latest CD, also entitled “Safe (W/Dvd) “. We are in post-production with the video and are planning to release it by the end of the year. We believe that this video is powerful and is going to put a face to the issues that the organization S.A.F.E. is striving to bring to peoples’ awareness. Our hope is that we will strike a chord with talk show personalities who help get the mission and need for S.A.F.E. out there to America!
This new venture is going to take much time and energy, and with us beginning a family, it is the perfect opportunity for us to make this our focus while taking time off of the road to adjust to parenthood. Many of you have been along with us on our journey from the very beginning and we are so excited to get to share this next chapter with you.
We cannot do this alone. There are kids out there who need us. They are all OUR kids! So please visit Safe House For All to read more about our mission, our vision and be a part. We currently have a donor who is willing to match funds up to $25,000. We have raised $30,000 to date and our intention is to raise $100,000 by the end of the year so we can begin the work in the New Year.
deMarco and I will continue recording and releasing new music and we will continue touring occasionally through most of 2011. Please share S.A.F.E. with anyone you know and join our online community by visiting the website.
Together we will create a world where EVERY heart has a home!
Stay Tuned!
We have also launched a new online Radio Program called “The SAFE Spot”.
Tune in for updates on S.A.F.E. and the work that we are doing by visiting “The SAFE Spot Blog Talk Radio”.
LGBT Suicide – It Gets Better Project with Dan Savage
Chicago-born Savage Love columnist and author Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller have a message for all the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth out there: Whatever you’re experiencing now, be it family rejection, bullying and harassment in schools or even thoughts of suicide, it gets better.
Yesterday, Savage and Miller launched a campaign called the It Gets Better Project with an eight-minute YouTube video (embedded below) discussing their experiences as gay youth, segueing into a glimpse into their lives today including how they first met – introduced by a mutual drag queen buddy at a bar – and their decision to adopt a son, DJ, and start a family together.
In Minnesota and Indiana, a pair of 15-year-old boys have in recent months taken their own lives as the result of anti-gay bullying and harassment. Upon reading that news, Savage has borrowed a page from pioneering LGBT activist Harvey Milk, who famously said, “You gotta give ’em hope.” He hopes others will also create videos for the project, sharing messages of optimism about their own adult lives as open, proud queer people.
“Today we have the power to give these kids hope. We have the tools to reach out to them and tell our stories and let them know that it does get better,” Savage wrote of the project. “[M]any LGBT youth can’t picture what their lives might be like as openly gay adults. They can’t imagine a future for themselves. So let’s show them what our lives are like, let’s show them what the future may hold in store for them.”
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN)’s latest National School Climate Survey, released earlier this month, reports nearly nine out of 10 LGBT students experience harassment and nearly two-thirds of them felt unsafe in school. Only 11 states – Illinois included – currently specify LGBT students as a protected class in anti-bullying and harassment legislation.
Move Over Justin Bieber…Liam Payne is the New Hot Twink Singing Sensation Coming To Town
I always thought Justin Bieber was a overrated. He is like 16 and looks about 12. And his voice is OK….but Liam Payne! WOW! At 16, this twink can sing! He could be the next Susan Boyle ( I Dreamed A Dream) discovery!
The X Factor 2010: You might remember Liam from the 2008 auditions, when – at the age of 14 – he made it as far as Simon’s house in Barbados. However, Simon believed he wasn’t ready for the competition. With two years to improve on his voice – is Liam ready now? Y E S ! They called him BRILLIANT!
WATCH HIM SING CRY ME A RIVER .
He’s sweet, handsome, charming and the next big deal!
Best Gay News
NY Governor Paterson Signs Act To Protect Students
Charles Robbins, Executive Director of The Trevor Project, the nation’s leading organization focused on crisis intervention and suicide prevention for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth, made the following statement in response to Governor David Paterson’s signing into law the inclusive Dignity for All Students Act in New York:
“Today, Governor Paterson signed into law an assurance of protection from bullying and harassment for all students, regardless of real or perceived race, color, weight, national origin, ethnic group, religion, religious practice, disability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and expression, and sex in publicly funded schools in New York.
The law would make New York one of more than 40 states with anti-bullying laws, 14 of which plus the District of Columbia provide inclusive protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. When youth are threatened at school, or their property gets stolen at school, and they fight at school, the odds that they will attempt suicide more than double. Considering more than half of sexual minority youth in schools have been verbally harassed and one in ten is physically assaulted, the Dignity for All Students Act with the inclusion of gender identity and expression will be a giant step to reducing instances of self-harm and suicide that result from harassment by school peers.”
The Trevor Project is the leading national organization focused on crisis intervention and suicide prevention efforts among LGBTQ youth. Every day, The Trevor Project saves young lives through its free and confidential lifeline, in-school workshops, educational materials, online resources and advocacy. The organization was founded in 1998 by three filmmakers whose film, “Trevor,” a comedy/drama about a gay teenager who attempts suicide, received the 1994 Academy Award® for Best Short Film (Live Action). For more information, visit Trevor project .
