A day in their shoes

In the article “Suicides Put Light on Pressures of Gay Teenagers” by Jesse McKinley tells the story of many gay teenagers. They have been bullied, tormented, and harassed by family, friends, and schoolmates.

               McKinley goes on to talk about the story of Seth Walsh. He told his mom that he was gay. She said no matter what I will always love you. But last month Seth went out into his back yard and hanged himself, unable to handle anymore taunting, bullying, and other abuse from schoolmates. It also tells the story of Tyler Clementi, who jumped of the George Washington Bridge after a date with another man, was broadcasted over the internet. These are more of the recent deaths of young teenagers; the list includes Billy Lucas, a 15-year-old from Greensburg, Ind., who hanged himself on Sept. 9 after what classmates called a constant stream of harassment against him at school. Less than two weeks later, Asher Brown, a 13-year-old from the Houston suburbs, shot himself after coming out gay. He, too, had reported being taunted at his middle school.

            These stories shock me. Who would want to live with the anchor on your shoulder that you made a person so miserable, that they had to go and kill themselves. They are just normal people; if you think that you are cool because, you made fun of a kid that was different or liked a different gender than you, put on their shoes for a day. You wouldn’t be able to take the harassment you are giving them. They are just normal people. Kids always freak out if they have a lesbian or gay teacher. Oh they’re going to hit on me; seriously it is just the same has having a male or female teacher hit on you. I’m not saying that it is ok to have any teacher hit on you in general, but there is no reason that you should freak out. There are plenty of people in this world that are lesbian or gay. They want to live a normal life. “The problem is that kids are being exposed to this rhetoric, and then they go to the school and there’s this gay kid,” he said. “And how are they going to treat this gay kid who they’ve been told is trying to destroy their family? They’re going to abuse him.” This statement makes me angry because as we all know rumors spread fast and the gay or lesbian kid is not trying to ruin his/her family, they are trying to make themselves happy.

             These problems may never go away completely, but we can stop and realize what we are doing to people in this situation. You don’t have to think being gay is right, but that doesn’t mean you go around making fun of those people. You can just act normal around them. The more you stop harassing the more suicides will go down.