There has been quite a big hubbub over gay rights in the past month or so in America, particularly in the army. The question of whether or not gay men can serve in the military has brought about much commotion and ended when the Pentagon declared that the recruiters must accept homosexual applicants. The general concern is that gay men may have lowered performances than straight men, or that they give off an atmosphere that is of hindrance to the army. Of course, being denied the right to serve in the nation’s army is as if one was denied citizenship.
Whether it is a coincidence or not, there has also been a lot of commotion over the recent trail of deaths of many homosexual teenagers in schools. I don’t consider this an issue over gay rights because I don’t think this should even be an issue. All men should have the right to life and equal opportunities to be successful in society. But quite obviously as multiple examples show, this is a problem in our society, especially when it involves youth.
Bullying isn’t anything new. Ever since we figured out that we could educate children en masse in a facility, it has existed. And ever since we found out there were people with different sexual orientations than us, we have had anti-homosexuality schools of thoughts. Both of these form together to create one social problem, as if they were not severe enough by themselves.
To bring to attention this issue, one can look upon the case of Tyler Clementi, who jumped off the George Washington Bridge. Tyler Clementi was a masterful violinist and a freshman at Rutger University. Clementi had suspicions of his dorm mates, Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, who he believe were secretly videotaping his activities. He was scheduled to perform with the local symphony orchestra when Ravi and Wei uploaded illegally-filmed footage of Clementi onto the internet, which people believe is the catalyst for his suicide. Clementi is one of six suicides that have recently occurred in adolescents on the basis of anti-gay notions, some of which were due to verbal abuse like “You’re so gay.”
Unless suicides are a-ok with you, this sort of thing needs to stop happening and we need to prevent it, but the question is how. Many people have accused the school of not having enough protection and teachings against bullying, thus these events transpired. However, I do not believe this to be the true source of these suicides. If we are to prevent this in the future then we cannot simply focus on one sector of society, but rather the whole. It is not far removed to say that in our world today it is acceptable, especially amongst teenagers, to discriminate and prejudice against homosexual adolescents. There needs to be more support in schools for gay teenagers, but furthermore we need to perhaps change some aspects of our entertainment industry, where homosexuals are endlessly ridiculed.
Perez Hilton, Ellen DeGeneres and Chris Colfer from “Glee” have all made a stance against these atrocities, and so can you. Whether you agree with homosexuality or not, you should recognize that gay people have the same right to life as anyone else. And this extends further than just homosexuality, but you should recognize any sense of racism, sexism or discrimination and prejudice based on any arbitrary reason and stop them. If you know someone who has been subjected to taunts and bullying, support them and help them survive through these years of intolerance. It would also be better if we watched our diction once in a while as homophobic statements may really hurt some people around you, even driving them to suicide.
Realistically I don’t think prejudice and persecution of those different from us will ever be eliminated, so for now we should try to make the best of a bad situation. I will be wearing purple on Oct. 20 to show remembrance to these boys who should be still alive today.
For more information, follow any major news media. Of course, hopefully there won’t be any more news regarding suicides.
I totally agree, even if some people don't support the idea of homosexuality, its just simply cruel to do things that are against their basic human rights. The case with Tyler Clementi was just too tragic =(
I agree, that people all deserve the right to live without fear of bulling/ridicule… But I think it's unfair to even imply that that because someone is gay, and they committ suicide, then their issue is more important that that of the 89 other people who killed themselves thay day (USA), which is exactly what the media did with Tyler Clementi. When we heard of the tragic fate of Mr. Clementi, where did we hear about how a mother in California killed herself via overdose, or the teenager who jumped off a cliff ocean in Washington? I am not endorsing suicide, or discrimination, but I must say that it's unfair to pick and choose someone's suicide issue and inflate to such a degree. On October 20th, why didn't we all wear white, to raise awareness of suicide in general?
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