Korean Job Discussion Forums

[El Exigente]

13-year-olds are shooting and hanging themselves, guys are jumping off of bridges, often related to the treatment from their peers and others. Do you think it is time yet to let go of repressive sexual attitudes involving youth?

Suicides Put Light on Pressures of Gay Teenagers

By JESSE McKINLEY
Published: October 3, 2010

FRESNO, Calif. � When Seth Walsh was in the sixth grade, he turned to his mother one day and told her he had something to say.

�I was folding clothes, and he said, �Mom, I�m gay,� � said Wendy Walsh, a hairstylist and single mother of four. �I said, �O.K., sweetheart, I love you no matter what.� �

But last month, Seth went into the backyard of his home in the desert town of Tehachapi, Calif., and hanged himself, apparently unable to bear a relentless barrage of taunting, bullying and other abuse at the hands of his peers. After a little more than a week on life support, he died last Tuesday. He was 13.

The case of Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers University freshman who jumped off the George Washington Bridge after a sexual encounter with another man was broadcast online, has shocked many. But his death is just one of several suicides in recent weeks by young gay teenagers who had been harassed by classmates, both in person and online.

The list includes Billy Lucas, a 15-year-old from Greensburg, Ind., who hanged himself on Sept. 9 after what classmates reportedly called a constant stream of invective against him at school.

Less than two weeks later, Asher Brown, a 13-year-old from the Houston suburbs, shot himself after coming out. He, too, had reported being taunted at his middle school, according to The Houston Chronicle. His family has blamed school officials as failing to take action after they complained, something the school district has denied.

The deaths have set off an impassioned � and sometimes angry � response from gay activists and caught the attention of federal officials, including Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who on Friday called the suicides �unnecessary tragedies� brought on by �the trauma of being bullied.�

�This is a moment where every one of us � parents, teachers, students, elected officials and all people of conscience � needs to stand up and speak out against intolerance in all its forms,� Mr. Duncan said.

And while suicide by gay teenagers has long been a troubling trend, experts say the stress can be even worse in rural places, where a lack of gay support services � or even openly gay people � can cause a sense of isolation to become unbearable.

more at link

[madoka]

Epidemic? Almost 2000 U.S. teens and adolescents will commit suicide in any given year. If the gay population is 2%-13%, then the fact that four gays committed suicide over the course of a month, while unfortunate, is hardly an epidemic.

[comm]

[riverboy]

You know it's sad that these kids commit suicide --gay, or not gay-- and Bullying is a very real and cruel fact of life, regardless of sexual orientation, race, looks religion ect. I'm probabaly going to take a lot of heat for this.... but here goes.

As usual, I question Bacaspers real motive when posint anything of a sexual nature, but I do think there are ways to prevent bullying of gay and straight kids.

I have a gay friend who waa telling me several years ago about gay bashing in Halifax. The gay community banded together, dissapeared from thier respective hangouts for about six months and took Taekwondo.

They resurfaced with a vengence, laid some good ol fashioned beating on the gaybashers and the gay bashing stopped. I even know a couple of guys who got beat up by the gays and told me it was the most humiliating experience they ever experienced.

I always found the thought of highly trained gay martial artists very amusing. Still do.

I also found it to be a great solution.

From a personal standpoint, I really see one good, practical time honoured solution to being bullied.(I am sure there are others) I was bullied a fair bit as a kid and it wasn't untill I learned to punch the guys in the face really hard that it stopped.

If a kid gets bullied, they have to find the best solution. The parents would do well to enroll them in a self defense class. While I am sure that kids will find all kind of solutions --some may be better-- I can think of none that are as practical.

[Captain Corea]

[riverboy]

[El Exigente]

So many seriously believe there is no difference in suicide between gay and straight adolescents??? There is enormous documentation of this, e.g.:

Adolescent Sexual Orientation and Suicide Risk: Evidence From a National Study

[riverboy]

[quote]So many seriously believe there is no difference in suicide between gay and straight adolescents??? There is enormous documentation of this, e.g.:
[quote]


No more than I feel there is a direct link between suicide and men, with men being 3 times more likely to kill themselves than women. (with the one exception going tto China of course.)

Perhaps men should start getting treated for being bullied because of their "Manness"

[Captain Corea]

[Space Bar]

[SinclairLondon]

[conrad2]

[superNET]

[Steelrails]

[riverboy]