Tyler Clementi, 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman, jumped off of the George Washington Bridge after his roommate videotaped him in an intimate moment with another male student and posted the footage online.
 Vigil at Rutgers for Tyler Clementi |
Billy Lucas, 15, from Indiana, hung himself after being called an anti-gay slur over and over in school.
Seth Walsh, 15, from California, died in the hospital after he hung himself on a tree outside his house after months of bullying, for reasons including his perceived sexual orientation.
Asher Brown, a 13-year-old from Houston, Texas, shot himself after harassment from his classmates became unbearable.
Seven teenagers from Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin school district, including Justin Aarburg, have committed suicide in the past year. Justin and two other students were confirmed victims of anti-gay harassment. It is feared that the other students were victims of bullying as well.
Every single one of these tragic suicides occurred as a result of anti-gay harassment and bullying.
LGBT youth are four times more likely than their straight peers to commit suicide and nine out of 10 LGBT youth say they have been the victims of bullying at some point in their lives.
Anti-LGBT harassment and bullying is an expression of bigotry. All forms of bigotry serve the ruling class by weakening the working class with hatred and division. What is needed more than ever is struggle and solidarity against all forms bigotry. As tragic as the deaths of these young people are, these incidents have brought together people from communities throughout the country to stand against hatred.
Steven Goldstein, chairman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, condemned Clementi’s death as a hate crime. “We are sickened that anyone in our society, such as the students allegedly responsible for making the surreptitious video, might consider destroying others’ lives as a sport.”
After Clementi’s death at Rutgers, 100 demonstrators gathered outside the student center, where the president spoke to inaugurate a campaign to promote “civility” on campus. They chanted, “Civility without safety—over our queer bodies!”
It has been militant struggles led by the LGBT communities fighting for the right to live in dignity and with equality that has begun to shift attitudes in the broader community. While the young people experiencing bullying and harassment today suffer primarily at the hands of similarly aged peers, recent polls indicate that in general, young people are much more open to equal rights for LGBT people than older generations, reflecting the progress that has been made through struggle.
