“This insanity must stop and all school districts must commit to making school safe for LGBT students. It is inexcusable and unconscionable that bullying is tolerated in this day and age. Those responsible for allowing such tragedies to occur should be held responsible.”

– Wayne Besen, Truth Wins Out

September has been a hellish month for gay or gay-perceived teens this month. (TWO):

  • Seth Walsh, the Bakersfield, CA 13-year-old who hanged himself from a tree in his back yard after years of being bullied, died Tuesday afternoon after nine days on life support. Police investigators interviewed some of the young people who taunted Seth the day he hanged himself. “Several of the kids that we talked to broke down into tears,” Police Chief Jeff Kermode said. “They had never expected an outcome such as this.”
  • Asher Brown, 13, an 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 in Houston Texas. Brown, his family said, was “bullied to death” – picked on for his small size, his religion and because he did not wear designer clothes and shoes. Kids also accused him of being gay, some of them performing mock gay acts on him in his physical education class, his mother and stepfather said.
  • Billy (William) Lucas, 15, a student at Greensburg Community High School in Greensburg, IN, was found dead in a barn at his grandmother’s home Thursday evening – he had hanged himself. Friends say that he had been tormented for years. “He was threatened to get beat up every day,” friend and classmate Nick Hughes said. “Sometimes in classes, kids would act like they were going to punch him and stuff and push him. Some people at school called him names,” Hughes said, saying most of those names questioned Lucas’ sexual orientation.

And we have one positive story — if you can call it that — of an 11-year-old boy who is standing up for himself after his arm was broken by bullies because he joined the cheerleading team at his school.

An Ohio mom is disappointed that her son’s school didn’t do more to stop at least two boys who allegedly picked on her 11-year-old cheerleader son until the bullies beat him so bad they broke his arm.

She says the beating didn’t break his spirit however. Tyler Wilson has vowed to continue cheering with hopes it helps him get into college some day.

“I’m going to keep going. I’m going to make a lifestyle out of it,” Tyler told ABC News affiliate WTVG.

Now as far as I know, cheerleading is one of the most demanding (and dangerous) things you can do – it’s not considered a sport, but it might as well be. And most competitive squads are co-ed. These ignorant bullies still have gender norm ideas about it, and its clear school administrators still don’t get it.

It’s disgusting that Focus on the Family portrays anti-bullying programs and laws as “promoting homosexuality to kids,” rather than tolerance and acceptance of difference. FOTF believes that to oppose such legislation depict Christians as bigots. Well, is there some other interpretation? When you’re talking about suicides, beatings and ill-informed school administrators, something has got to give.

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Watch this video from Dan Savage’s series of first person videos to tell young LGBTs or victims of bullying that It Gets Better if you hang in there. This one is from the Members of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus:

Members of the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus talk about their experiences growing up in high school and how life got better for them afterward. The video was inspired by the “It Gets Better” project started by Dan Savage in response to the anti-gay bullying and harassment that LGBT teenagers face at their schools, sometimes resulting in suicide. At the end of the video, the Chorus sings “Irish Blessing” in honor and memory of those who left us far too soon. Click here for the “It Gets Better” project. Look it up on Facebook as well.