Brody's Scribbles... It's Ok, He Was Probably Queer Anyway!

By Tim Trent (Dartmouth, England) SEPT 18 | I've been following the deeply difficult circumstances surrounding the death by suicide of Billy Lucas, a 15 year old boy teased and bullied unmercifully by fellow students at Greensburg Community High School in the USA. Billy is not the first to die because of being bullied and not being protected by his school and he won't be the last. The school principal is not the first to fail to provide a safe environment and he will not be the last.

There are many news pages, not just in the USA, but worldwide, covering the circumstances of Billy's death. One such is on the Care2 site. The unpleasant irony is that Billy killed himself during a week dedicated globally to suicide prevention and awareness. The recurring theme is that Billy was presumed by his school colleagues to be gay. Because of this he was taunted, received physical violence, and was even told to kill himself.

Looking at the barrage of reported abuse it's not hard to see how Billy may have felt that the only thing he could control was whether he lived or died. Its not hard to see how, in a moment of supreme weakness and immense bravery, he hanged himself. All he could see coming in his life was more of the same, and no protection from the bullies. And he had to attend school. It's the law.

That's a prison sentence harsher than any prison I know.

I never knew Billy. I never knew of his existence until the news broke. But I cried for him; I cried real tears, tears of hot anger, tears of sadness for the life he would never know, tears for the young man or woman who would love him and now never would have the joy of waking up next to him. I cried because I, too had been a bully until a victim snapped and beat me to a pulp and I realised how selfish, how stupid, and how small I had been. Bullies are little people in every sense of the word.

Not that it's at all relevant, but the news doesn't report that Billy was or was not gay. He may have been, he may not have been. But the pack scented blood, used it as their word of hate, and went after this animal loving youngster, and tortured him until he chose to die. While I hate his choice, by making it he was more of a man than any of those who persecuted him.

After his death his friend Jade Sansing created a page in his honour on Facebook, the Billy Lucas Memorial. Like so many who also never knew Billy, I have joined it to express my own feelings for his family and against those who bullied him.

And the bullies have carried bullying on the memorial. One defaced a picture of Billy with words saying he was no loss. One created a poem praising the chain he is said to have used to hang himself in that lonely barn. Billy was mixed race, having a father from Eastern India, and others have taken the opportunity to call him a nigger.

Billy, the boy I never knew, was simply a 15 year old boy who became a target for bloodlust crazed bullying and taunting. He was a human being. He may have been a delight to know or may have been awkward, prickly or unpleasant. He may have been gay or straight. He may have been a misfit. He may have had things that people were jealous of, or his hobbies may have been unusual. But all he was, all, was a Human Being.

Billy had the right to a decent experience at school. He had the right to be protected. He had the right to a future.

But it's ok, he was probably queer anyway.

We have the right to beat the crap out of people, physically or intellectually, who are different from us.

It's ok, he was probably queer anyway!

And we have the right to beat queers up, don't we? Or anyone we think is queer?

Yeah, it's ok, he was probably queer anyway!

And we have the right to deface memorials to them, don't we?

It's ok, he was probably queer anyway!