Gay+Bullying

Gay Bullying On the Rise[[image:LGBTQ_text_line.jpg width="169" height="169" align="right" link="LGBTQ Text Line"]]
In a new study, experts say that the mental health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) young people is severely compromised by bullying and harassment they receive in school. The study comes on the heels of the suicides of Asher Brown, a 13-year-old in Houston who fatally shot himself after his classmates reportedly made fun of him because they believed he was gay, and of Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University student who killed himself after another student posted video on the Internet.

There was 15-year-old Billy Lucas of Greensburg, Ind., who was allegedly the target of slurs about his sexual orientation and hanged himself in his grandmother's barn on Sept. 9. There was 13-year-old Seth Walsh of Tehachapi, Calif., the openly gay middle-schooler who died Sept. 28, several days after attempting to hang himself from a tree in his backyard. Walsh had reportedly endured years of bullying because he was gay. Though police questioned several of the kids who allegedly taunted him the day he died, none were charged. And on Sept. 23, there was 13-year-old Asher Brown of Cypresswood, Texas, who shot himself in the head with his stepfather's 9 mm Beretta. His family claims his school repeatedly ignored claims that the boy had been the target of anti-gay harassment. [|Watch a recent news broadcast on this story.]

Did you know suicide by 10-24 year olds is the 3rd leading killer of our nation's youth. Why do you think Gay Bullying and Gay Suicide is on the Rise?
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Do we need more proof than the suicides of teens as young as 13 that words like these can do unimaginable damage?
=Speaking before 20,000 people and broadcasting to millions more, Boyd K. Packer, the second-highest leader in the Mormon Church, said in a sermon broadcast to millions that same-sex unions are morally wrong and "against God's law and nature" – and that the church hierarchy would continue to support marriage bans like Proposition 8 (which was funded largely by Mormons). Comments like these are exactly what makes young LGBTQ kids think there's no way out but suicide – that their parents will reject them, that their communities will shun them, and that living openly will bring pain or violence. = **Help us speak out so young people understand the truth!**

What do you think of these kinds of comments?
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**There Is No Official Online Etiquette - CyberBullying**
[|Bonnie Rochman] at Time Magazine says that,"Maybe we are where we are because we've had no teachers. No one has instructed us how to use the Internet. We've learned on our own, pointing and clicking, blogging and tweeting. There are no rules of the cyber-road. In a lawless Facebook-Twitter-chat-room culture with scant etiquette and 24/7 saturation, it can be hard to know where to draw the line."

Do you think that teaching teens online etiquette will curb cyberbullying?
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