As a lot of you know I’m extremely anti bullying, pro gay, and a supporter of equal rights for everyone. This article really stuck me because of the hate this child received from anonymous people. I know at least a few of you reading this are guilty of sending someone anonymous hate via tumblr, form spring, ect, because of the hate mail that I personally have received through my ask boxes on here and TMS. The next time you feel compelled to say something nasty to someone, take a second to think about why you want to say something mean. If it’s simply to make yourself feel better, go outside and take a walk, or take a moment and send something kind to someone you love. Being a coward and hiding behind an anonymous button to say something cruel doesn’t help you grow as a person. It doesn’t help the world become a better place. It just continues to promote this awful cycle of hate that can lead to someone taking their own life, or even the lives of others as a way to end pain. Think about the words you use because they can damage people, and being cruel makes the world a harder place to call home.RIP: 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, a victim of relentless anti-gay bullying, was found dead earlier this week of an apparent suicide.
“I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens,” Jamey wrote on his Tumblr blog in a post dated September 9th. “What do I have to do so people will listen to me?”
The bullying got particularly intense about twelve months ago, when classmates started leaving homophobic remarks on Jamey’s Formspring page. “JAMIE [sic] IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND UGLY. HE MUST DIE!,” read one of the many vicious comments.
Friends were always there to defend him, however, and Jamey himself even appeared to be taking the abuse in stride, contributing a video to Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” project, in which he echos the words of Lady Gaga, telling other bullying victims to “hold [their] head up.”
Sadly, despite assuring his parents multiple times that everything was fine, all was not as it seemed. On Sunday, Jamey posted one final note on his Tumblr: “Thank you Lady Gaga.”
“He touched so many hearts, so many people,” Jamey mom Tracy’s told The Buffalo News. “I didn’t realize how many people he touched. He was the sweetest, kindest kid you’d ever know. He would give all his heart to you before he gave any to himself.”
As American servicemen and women across the globe celebrate the long-overdue demise of the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, Jamey’s untimely death offers a stark reminder that the struggle for tolerance is far from over.
[buffalonews / hausofjamey.]
The Tumblr page of Megan Thompson, a commercial photographer living in Los Angeles, California.
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