Caleb Laieski Continues To Fight Bullying

Caleb Laieski might have been found on this blog under the title "Another One." 

As a high school student, Caleb was bullied, followed home from school and threatened for being gay. He might have become another statistic, but, instead, Caleb left his school and pursued his GED, and became a symbol for standing up to bullies, and proving that it gets better.

See, now  Caleb Laieski is the youngest advocate on loan in the Phoenix Mayor’s Office and has begun working as a youth and diversity liaison to raise awareness about bullying and diversity and serve as a point of contact for youth issues.

Caleb Laieski: “I am honored to have the opportunity to work for one of the largest cities in our nation, and I look forward to continue making Phoenix a safer place for our entire community. Being a youth myself, I feel that this opportunity will allow me to bring a young person’s perspective to the administration. During my time in this office, I will strive to see the dropout rate lower, intervention by school administrations steadily increase and the suicide rate rapidly decline.”

He has worked for the last five years--and he's just seventeen now--to fight bullying in schools and decrease the suicide rate among teens by:

• Founding the organization Gays and Lesbians United Against Discrimination.
• Successfully petitioning his former high school district to add sexual orientation to their list of protections.
• Testifying his support for the Arizona Safe Schools Act and SB 1462, an anti-bullying bill.
• Meeting with President Obama and Vice President Biden to ask them to appoint an adviser on LGBT Youth Issues.
• Being named Echo magazine’s Man of the Year in 2011.

We need more Caleb Laieskis out there, to show other LGBTQ youth that you can overcome the daily taunts and the bullying, that you can make a difference, that you can stand up.

Caleb Laieski might have become "Another One" but he chose to stand up instead.

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