Even In Death

A thirteen-year-old boy in Tehachapi, California tried to kill himself last week because he was being bullied for being gay. He hanged himself from a tree in his yard, and has been on life support since then.

His name is being kept from the news outlets.

He used to attend school, but was placed on independent study this year when it became clear that he could not receive the education he deserved without being taunted and ridiculed and bullied. Why the bullies were allowed to remain in school as though nothing happened, and the victim is removed, has not been explained.
But what it clear is that, while the young man did not attend regular school, thereby safely receiving an education, he was still taunted whenever he went outside, to the local parks or simply walking down the streets.
Police said they are investigating whether the attempted suicide was linked to bullying, but isn't that the norm? Blame the victim, and let the bullies keep on bullying.
District administrators have said they heard no reports of the boy being bullied at school, but they take bullying very seriously and address the issue multiple times throughout the school year.
How about not "addressing" the issue and doing something about it instead. How about making it an offense for which those students guilty of bullying any student for any reason, are the ones who go on independent study? How about protecting the kids at school?
Of course, it isn't just in school, or in the parks, or on the streets, where LGBT youth are being tormented. Some, like Billy Lucas, are being bullied, teased and tortured on the Internet.
Even after they're dead.

I'm sorry, I shouldn't hav [sic] called Billy a fag. Thanks to you all, I now belive [sic] "closet homosexual" to be the correct term. No, the real "fags" are the over9000 people who've crawled like maggots out of the woodwork to support a guy who never had any friends in real life. "OMG! My bff jus died! Brb, gotta go make a Face...book page!" You are the cancer, and you deserve everything you get. Fuck you.

I first wrote about Billy Lucas HERE and was horrified that this is happening again and again. But what is even more disgusting is the hate, homophobia, bullying and torture that has gone on since Billy Lucas hung himself.
A friend had set up a memorial page on Facebook for Billy Lucas, and suddenly it was overrun with homophobic messages and pictures. It was just a small taste of what this young man faced in life.
When do we learn that differences are all right; that differences are not to be taunted and tormented and bullied. We are, each and all of us, different, and one day, those bullies might run out of gay kids, or fat kids, or redheaded kids, to taunt.
Do you think that will stop them?
It won't. Blue eyes might become the next target. Skinny will be the next victim. Bullies need a someone to taunt and torture and humiliate to fill themselves with some warped sense of purpose, so they will always find someone new to victimize.
Even after their victims are dead.

wow this kid is a huge faggot thank god he ended his life... we dont need weak people like him.

Another One: Billy Lucas

I'm not saying he was a gay kid, because he never said he was a gay kid.

He was just different. And taunted and bullied for being different.

So, finally, Billy Lucas had enough, and the fifteen-year-old boy....take a moment and say it again....slowly....fifteen....year....old.........boy....took his own life rather than continue to be ridiculed and bullied.

Students at Greensburg High School say it was common knowledge that kids bullied Billy Lucas, and they said it was getting worse. So bad, in fact, that last week Billy Lucas' mother found him dead in the barn.

He'd hung himself.

"People would call him 'fag' and stuff like that, just make fun of him because he's different basically," said student Dillen Swango. "They said stuff like 'you're like a piece of crap' and 'you don't deserve to live.' Different things like that. Talked about how he was gay or whatever."

And, that of course, being gay, doesn't deserve to live.

Greensburg High School Principal, Phil Chapple, doesn't deny that students are bullied in his school, but he says he didn't know Billy was one of the victims. "We were not aware of that situation," he said.

Well, guess what, Prinicpal Chapple, it's your job to be aware of that situation, because it affects all of your students. How dare you casually say that you know bullying goes on? How dare you act like it's just kids being kids?

And then killing themselves.

See, Principal Chapple, on a memorial page created to honor the all-too-short life of Billy Lucas, it seems that many people knew he was being bullied and ridiculed and taunted because he was assumed to be gay. How is it that so many other people knew, yet you had no idea?

"We're discussing where we are going. Where we are looking to establish a committee," said Principal Chapple.

Yes, start a committee, have a few discussions, and then go back to business as usual until another kid gets bullied to death.

Wake up, people.

This shouldn't be happening.

Not again.