I
just recently read an article about a 19-year-old kid who killed himself
because he was gay. At first I read it as just another article and then I
stopped to think about it, and every other article I have ever read about
someone being bullied for being gay. Those are PEOPLE. Human beings. How in the
HELL can you make of fun of someone (for something they can’t control
especially) until they want to end their own life because they feel that escape
is never going to come to them? It kills me. It literally breaks my heart. It
hits me so hard because I think “what if that had been me?”
What
if I had come out in high school? Would I be the person I am today? Would I be
going to OSU? Maybe a school farther to get away from the bullies? Or maybe
dead in a box, 6 feet underground. What if I had been bullied like those other
kids? What if I had been beaten to death for my sexual orientation? People make
me absolutely sick.
I
mean… Don’t get me wrong; I was bullied in high school but nothing like what
these kids got. People in high school normally just called me a homo or gay because
of things I did and said but it was never too malicious. I feel like I am
one of the lucky ones. All of my friends say now, that they wouldn’t have cared
but how could I have know? It’s so easy to say that, now that it’s impossible
to find out. How would my friends really have reacted to my big secret, back in
the day?
I
have lost connections with a few good friends and family members after I came
out. And for what? Because I’m gay? Because I like other men? Who gives a shit?
Ask yourself… Does it affect you? No. Do you have to be around it? No. Does me
kissing another dude change your life in the slightest?
NO. Get over it.
If
you have ever met me, you know that you can sort of tell. My voice has certain
inflections and I do girly things; it’s fact. However, I am nowhere near a
stereotypical gay guy, and maybe that’s why my life has turned out as it has.
What if it had been different? What if I had a high pitch voice and a smaller
frame? What if joining the football team and gaining my friends wasn’t an
option? So many questions run through my head as I read this article and it
just breaks my heart.
That
could have been ME. The thought of that literally makes me want to cry. Sure, I
had a hard time but suicide never came to my mind. Ever. I can’t imagine the
dark place I would have to be in, to think of taking my own life. So think
about what you say to someone. Think before you judge someone based on how they
look. I’m sure that every life that has been taken has been one of the best
people that no one will ever have the pleasure of getting to know, ever again.
That is someone’s son or daughter and people need to think twice about being
nasty to someone, because their life is hard enough as it is. The kids,
especially, in the LGBT community need love and support.
Think
about what you say before you say it, because you don’t know if what you say
will be the last straw. Be the bigger person. Step up and take a stand against
this hate, so our future generation will have more hope for these kids. Someday
everyone will look at this as we do black people now. A racist is judged so
harshly now days… and a homophobe is no better. It’s pathetic and unnecessary
to hate someone because of things they have no control over.
