GROWING UP GAY

Chris at The Verge of Jordan writes an excellent post about the difficulties of growing up gay.

I hated gym class. Skinny, uncoordinated and myopic, I knew that whatever activity they dreamed up, I wasn't going to be good at it. Some things, like crab soccer and pillow polo, were okay, because they really didn't require much skill. But I dreaded anything where some kids, invariably the jocks, got to pick teams, because I was certain to be damn near last, and with good reason.
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But I guess I was lucky; I didn't go to the school in Decatur, Ala., where the teacher invented a game called "smear the queer" in which a single student is singled out to be slogged by volleyballs by the entire rest of the class.
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I was lucky to have enough of a support system to reach adulthood and understand that people who act this way are saying more about themselves and their own insecurities than they are about you.

Not every young person is fortunate to have such a support system as Chris.

Chris documents the recent suicides of gay teens who have been bullied or worse, in school and out. The heartbreaking pictures and stories of the deaths of the young people in Chris' post, are all included in my "How Many Deaths...?" series of posts, which I began early this month and is already up to five suicides.

Chris says further:

On October 17th, friends and I are participating in Out of the Darkness, a Community Walk to benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. If you are in a position to contribute anything to help this worthy cause, please visit this link. It would be much appreciated. If you would like to know more about anti-bullying, LGBT youth and suicide prevention, please visit the links below:

* www.afsp.org - American Society for Suicide Prevention
* thetrevorproject.org - Hotline and other resources for LGBT Youth
* thinkb4youspeak.org - Discourages use of anti-gay language and verbal bullying
* truthwinsout.org - Fighting anti-gay lies and the ex-gay myth
* matthewshepard.org - Parents of a murdered gay teen founded this rights and education group

Chris supplies a useful list of resources which approach the problem of teen suicide from different angles, to which I would add one more, It Gets Better, which Counterlight suggested. It wouldn't hurt to read Counterlight's post either, which gives an account of how he and his partner made it through the teen years and includes a series of videos which are well worth viewing.

Not all teen suicides are gay, and not all bullying is confined to gay and lesbian teens. Any young person who is different or who doesn't "fit in" is at risk. Perhaps we can begin to turn the tide in how we, as a society, view bullying and anti-gay attitudes and actions, in adults and youth, and begin to address them as the serious problem that they are because of the tragic consequences that all too often follow.

Thanks to Susan S. for the link to Chris' blog.

UPDATE: Bill Ghrist suggests the link to The Southern Poverty Law Center:

In response to mounting reports of vicious anti-gay bullying and student suicides, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance project is making a new documentary film and educational kit available – free of charge – to every school in the country.