Yet another senseless loss!

I picked up the local LGBT newspaper today as I headed home from work and as I glanced through the headlines one in particular jumped out at me;

"Parents mourn son who killed himself after gay taunts."

What was really upsetting was that this boy was only 11 years old. This makes twice in a barely thirty day period of time that two children killed have themselves because of being bullied. According to the article, the youngster was called 'faggot' and also physically attacked. This tragedy occurred in a suburban Atlanta, Georgia, elementary school. The previous suicide had happened in Springfield, Massachusetts. In both cases, the school officials claimed that the districts had a zero tolerance policy in effect. Obviously, that is not the case. The real horror here is that absolutely no one in a position of authority stepped in to stop this hatred. No one.

Now, two Mother's are grieving an impossible loss, and the bullying is allowed to continue. What's even more onerous is that neither of these children declared their sexuality, at all. Instead, because of the atmosphere that is allowed to permeate the public schools in the United States. The unspoken acknowledgment that it is perfectly acceptable to slander those perceived as different by use of anti-LGBT language as the ultimate weapon to degrade one's peers.

Sirdeaner Walker in Springfield Massachusetts told a local TV station that school officials shouldn't tolerate bullying. Her 11 year old son Carl Joseph Walker died after hanging himself on April 6th with an extension cord.

In Atlanta, 11 year old Jaheem Herrera took his own life with a cloth belt, hanging himself in his closet after enduring months of gay slurs and physical attacks. Now, his mother Masika has lost her only child. She said; " I don't know how to explain, but that was my only little boy, my first born. And now he's gone, and nobody is going to replace him. Nobody."

What does one say to the grieving mothers? More-so, what does one say to the hundreds, indeed thousands of LGBT youth who are forced to endure the pain & punishment of undeserved bullying? I am angry. I am so very angry. I want to shout at the world and make all those who see this as mere child's play & taunting as more than that. Call it for what it truly is; Evil discrimination. Worse, sanctioned by the so called free society of the United States. That, that is a boatload of crap.

Officials in all levels of government, federal, state, local, across the United States and especially in school boards across the country need to be taken to task to ensure that this hatred is stopped and at an early age. Because my friends, if not, then this horrible trend will not only continue, but multiply. These are children driving children to kill themselves! It needs to be stopped.

Brody