Bullying to the Point of No Return

Kenia Cruz

            PBS Kids online describes bullying as, “no matter what situation or form it comes in, bullying can make you feel depressed, hurt, and alone. It can keep you from enjoying the activities and places that are part of your life.” If you’re gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, questioning, transgender, transsexual, asexual or anything that is not necessarily heterosexual this could mean not being able to be who you are completely.  When does bullying begin for non-heterosexual people and when does it stop? Does it ever stop? Why does it happen? It begins with society; society makes it okay to bash on gays. We live in a world where the norm is to be heterosexual. On any given day that you walk down the street and see someone, you don’t automatically think, “oh this person is gay.” No, that thought never surfaces one’s mind, even for me who I identify myself to be apart if the gay community. Heterosexuality is normal and homosexuality is abnormal, that is how society has allowed it to be. And everyday there is a gay teen who is being bullied continuously by another one of his or her peers.

            In the month of April 2011, Jamey Rodemeyer got on his webcam and urged every gay teen across America, to not cut their life short. He assured them that “it gets better”. Jamey was one of the few millions of LGBTQ teens who have suffered from bullying. In April he made a video that went out to all the LGBTQ community urging them not to give up because one day “It Gets Better.” His attempt at making an “It Gets Better” video showed his hope that things would surely get better and he was assuring others that it definitely will. But shockingly, unfairly and tragically five months after making his “It Gets Better” video, Jamey Rodemeyer cut his own life short because of bullying. The bullying was so immense that it led him to the point of no return, and that point was suicide, along with the rest of LGBTQ teens who have committed suicide. What makes bullying right I ask myself? Have we as a world society allowed it to be right? What is so right about bullying?

            In a study conducted by Theo Van Der Meer about gay bashers, he reveals that many of the Gay Bashers legitimately find it okay to bully homosexuals, predominantly homosexual men. Van Der Meer points out that the “respondents considered themselves to have acted on behalf of, or with the approval of, society.” Such study reveals the state of mind many gay bashers are in when they are bullying and the zero remorse they have about their actions. Of course there is so much fear instilled within many people of LGBTQ community, they feel alone in this grand scheme of things, they can’t turn to society when they are being bullied, because society does not accept them.

            So what then must be done in order to stop Gay Bullying and to stop all the attempted suicides that many LGBTQ youth must battle with? In his article, “Bullying, Harassment and Violence Among Students,” Nan Stein reveals several ways to stop anti-gay bullying. Stein states, “I suggest that we call this “zero indifference,” rather than “zero-tolerance,” which would mean that we plan to notice the behaviors, comment on them, intervene, and make corrections accordingly.” By addressing the problem from the beginning and correcting so much can be prevented. Bullying has a ripple effect, it has long lasting consequences that only time and counseling can help people getting bullied. Gay bashing and bullying can get so bad that it will cause some people to commit suicide. How far are we as a society going to allow gay bashing and bullying to continue and escalate, because according to many gay bashers, they bash and bully because society tells them. It is up to us as a society to put a stop to this injustice.  

Works Cited

O’Connor, Anahad. “Suicide Draws Attention to Gay Bullying.” Health. The New York

Times. September 21, 2011. February 3, 2012. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/21/suicide-of-gay-teenager-who-urged-hope/

PBS Kids. Bullies: What is Bullying? It’s My Life. PBS Kids. February 3, 2012.

            <http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/friends/bullies/>

Stein, Nan. Bullying, Harrassment and Violence Among Students. In Radical Teacher,

No. 80 “Teaching Beyond Tolerance” Winter 2007 pages 30-35

Van Der Meer, Theo. “Bashing a Rite of Passage?” in Culture, Health and Sexuality,

Vol. 5 No. 2 pages 153-165