Trevor Project Intern Takes His Own Life

Yet another LGBTQ teen has turned to suicide, this time hitting close to home for the very people who try so hard to help teens in their times of crisis. Details on the sad news of Eric Borges' passing after the jump.
San Joaquin Valley resident Eric Borges reportedly took his own life Wednesday, despite time spent working as an intern with the Trevor Project. The 19-year-old, known as EricJames by friends and family, was a vocal supporter of LGBT youth, even making an “It Get’s Better” video last year.

Laura McGinnis, communications director at the Trevor Project, sent a statement to LGBTQ Nation upon their coverage of the suicide, saying, “We are deeply saddened to hear about the tragic death of EricJames Borges, and our hearts go out to his family and friends, and his community. EricJames was a dedicated, trained volunteer. Our main concern right now is that those affected by his death feel supported and can get the care they need. If you or someone you know needs support, please don’t hesitate to call the Trevor Lifeline at 866-488-7386.”

LGBTQ Nation also notes that EricJames, who was turned away by his birth family, had been attempting to make a life for himself on his own.

Further details surrounding the incident are not known, and we certainly don’t want to speculate as to reasoning. More importantly, our thoughts are with his friends and family at this time, and we also echo Laura McGinnis in urging anyone struggling or feeling in need of some support to please reach out for help.

The number again for the Trevor Lifeline is 866-488-7386.

Cheatham County Central Highschool Gay Teen Suicide

This is from the Cheatham County Central Highschool website about the very recent suicide of another gay teen who had been bullied.  My heart goes out to the family and friends Jacob Rogers

Our hearts go out to the family, friends, classmates and teachers of Jacob Rogers, a student at Cheatham County Central High School in Ashland City, TN who completed suicide yesterday. A news report alleges that Jacob Rogers complained of frequent bullying at school based on sexual orientation. A friend reported that Jacob dropped out of school before Thanksgiving after feeling ignored by school officials.
 
This terrible event serves as a reminder to all parents, teachers and school administrators that they share a responsibility for supporting the well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Individuals, families, communities and the whole of society have a responsibility to promote a culture that welcomes, accepts and supports LGBT students for who they are.
 
During this difficult time, we encourage students to take advantage of grief counseling offered by Cheatham County Central High School or other mental health resources in the community. Discussions that follow youth suicide deaths present an important opportunity to remind people - and families of LGBT youth in particular - of how important it is to love, embrace and accept their entire child for all of who they are.

Following this terrible event, Tennessee Equality Project calls upon the Cheatham County School Board to fully investigate the school's response to the bullying of Jacob Rogers. We also call upon the School Board to implement the following recommendations from GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) for addressing anti-LGBT harassment and bullying:

1. Revise district policy to explicitly prohibit student discrimination, harassment, bullying, and intimidation based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. The school district must establish an enumerated policy for unwelcomed conduct that focuses on sex, race, ethnicity, religious belief, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. An enumerated policy is crucial to ensure that anti-bullying policies are effective for all students.
2. Require staff trainings to enable school staff to identify and address anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying, and harassment effectively and in a timely manner.
3. Support student efforts to address anti-LGBT bullying and harassment on campus, such as the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance or participation in events such as the National Day of Silence and Ally Week.
4. Institute age-appropriate, inclusive curricula to help students understand and respect difference within the school community and society as a whole.

Click HERE to share this call to action with members of the Cheatham County School Board.
 

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cole
TEP President and Chair

15yo CA teen Larry King Provoked His Killer?!

Larry King, who was 15 when he was shot to death by Brandon McInerney, harassed and provoked his killer, according to Save California’s Randy Thomasson. Thomasson appeared on the Janet Mefferd Show yesterday, and denigrated not only King, but his teachers and parents.
Thomasson, the creator of “Protect Your Children From Harvey Milk Gay Day In Schools” — a lie– and hate-​filled campaign against the LGBT icon and his memory – also said that anti-​bullying campaigns are “indoctrination,” and warned parents to get their kids into good “godly schools,” or their children were — get this — “going to become liberal adults and call you bigots.”
In other words, indoctrinate your children now, or they will learn the truth about you.
Could he be any more transparent?
Transcript and audio via Brian Tashman at Right Wing Watch:

The homosexual activists are saying, ‘well we have to do this so that we won’t have another Larry King,’ now we’re not talking about the old former talk show host from CNN, we’re talking about a kid in Oxnard, California, who was about fourteen years-​old and he was shot dead by a classmate. Now Larry King was saying he was homosexual but he also was a cross-​dresser and he had a bad teacher who actually got him a girl’s dress and taught him how to put makeup on. And it came out in court that this boy was parading around in makeup and high heels in front of a classmate outside on a bench and the fifteen year-​old Larry King was walking back and forth and saying, ‘you know you want me, you know you want me.’ And there was a lot of anger that another teacher saw on the boy’s face who was being tautened, I mean who’s harassing whom?
This was a very disturbed boy who was being harassed, who was sitting on the bench, so when he was being harassed by King he went home and he got his dad’s gun and he came back the next day and he killed Larry King. But the whole point is, why in the world would you let two wrongs to be done? Murder is wrong, but allowing reverse harassment to be done and allowing teachers to actually dress up boys as girls, this is causing tension, it’s causing sexual tension, it’s causing emotional tension and this is not anything that goes along with the purpose of academics. This is social engineering. So whenever you hear ‘bullying’ from the homosexual activists, think indoctrination. And it’s coming to all fifty states, I’m sorry but it is one way or the other, get your kids into godly schools and do the sacrifice of time or money and realize that you only have a few years with your children, otherwise they’re going to become liberal adults and call you bigots.

Thomasson is also hard at work campaigning to repeal California’s FAIR Education Law, which he calls, “the most in-​your-​face sexual brainwashing yet.”

Jamey Rodemeyer Tormentors Under Criminal Investigation

Police have begun a criminal investigation into the suicide death of Jamey Rodemeyer, the 14-​year old Buffalo-​area teen who was tormented by anti-​gay bullies for years. Local authorities say that while New York does not have anti-​bullying laws, there are other avenues, such as harassment, aggravated harassment, cyber-harassment or hate crimes laws that may apply. Reports state there are several individuals in particular that authorities are investigating.

WATCH: Anderson Cooper: 14-​Year Old Bullied To Death “Even In Sadness, Reaching Out To Help Others”

The Buffalo News today reports, “We’re going to look into whether he was the victim of any crimes leading up to his suicide,” Police Chief John C. Askey said.

“We’re not indicating, not speculating at this point, that that is the cause of his death, … but independently, there may have been crimes that have been committed against him.”
Askey said he spoke Wednesday with Williamsville School Superintendent Scott G. Martzloff, who has pledged the district’s cooperation.
Members of the public, including those from the school community, have reached out to police in recent days with information suggesting that Jamey had been subjected to what would amount to criminal harassment, Askey said.
“We’ve heard that there were some specific students, an identifiable group of students, that had specifically targeted Jamey, or had been picking on him for a period of time,” Askey said.
While investigators are focusing on what may have transpired in the recent past, he said, police are under the impression that one to three students may have been bothering Jamey since he was a student at Heim Middle School.
“We’re looking into it to see if he was the victim of any crimes, and that’s the bottom line,” the chief said. “We’re going to be speaking to school officials and students and anyone with direct information about crimes that may have been committed against this individual.”
Jamey’s mother had previously told The Buffalo News that she believed that a core group of middle school students bullied her son and that the situation worsened for him about a year ago, when many anonymous posts began showing up on Jamey’s Formspring blog stating that he would be better off dead.
…
In a short YouTube video Jamey did in May, he expressed regret for creating the Formspring account “because people would just constantly send me hate.”
The anonymous posts included:
* “Kill your self!!!! You have nothing left!”
* “Listen to us, you’re a bad person, you don’t belong here, jump off a bridge or something!”
* “Go kill yourself, you’re worthless, ugly and dont have a point to live.”
* “You werent born this way. You shouldnt have ever been born.”
Seven months ago, in response to the Formspring question: What’s one thing people don’t know about you? Jamey answered, “How much I hate my life. Maybe it’s cause I’m bullied. a lot.”
His parents and friends said that it took a lot of work and encouragement to get Jamey through that dark period. Eventually, toward the end of last school year, Jamey stopped using Formspring altogether.

The Buffalo News also had published these comments from Jamey Rodemeyer’s FormSpring account:

“JAMIE IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND UGLY. HE MUST DIE!” read one post.
Another read: “I wouldn’t care if you died. No one would. So just do it  It would make everyone WAY more happier!”

“The Amherst Police Department’s Special Victims Unit has said it will determine whether to charge some students with harassment, cyber-​harassment or hate crimes,” reports ABC News. “Police said three students in particular might have been involved. Jamey was a student at Heim Middle School.”

Jamey had just started his freshman year at Williamsville North High School. (Both Amherst and Williamsville are just outside Buffalo.) But the bullying had begun during middle school, according to his parents. He had told family and friends that he had endured hateful comments in school and online, mostly related to his sexual orientation.
…
“Justin was a smiley, happy boy who loved to play his cello,” said his parents. “School systems need to do more to protect LGBT students from bullying, and not turn their back on them because of their sexual orientation.”

14 year old Jamey Rodemeyer kills himself because of Bullies

Heartbroken Buffalo parents Tracy and Tim Rodemeyer say they found their 14 year-old son Jamey dead yesterday morning in a presumed suicide. Jamey had long complained of vicious homophobic bullying at the hands of his classmates.

Jamey Rodemeyer needed help. At 14, he was grappling with adolescent demons that could torment grown men. And when he was online, he wrote about it. "I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens," he wrote Sept. 9. "What do I have to do so people will listen to me?" Just over one week later, Jamey was found dead outside his home of an apparent suicide. In the months prior, he routinely blogged about school bullying and thoughts of suicide in between upbeat posts about his pop star idol Lady Gaga and the ordinary types of teen rants typical for kids his age. On Sept. 8, he wrote: "No one in my school cares about preventing suicide, while you're the ones calling me [gay slur] and tearing me down."

Much of Jamey's tormenting came via cyber-bullying. His parents, who say they discussed and supported Jamey's questioning of his sexuality, intend to carry on his campaign against bullies.

Towleroad notes that yesterday Lady Gaga responded to the suicide of bullied 14 year-old Jamey Rodemeyer by vowing to meet with the president about the issue. Jamey was a huge fan of Gaga and frequently mentioned her in his online postings. His parents say they will bury Jamey in a Born This Way t-shirt.

Teens in Suicide Pact Kill themselves

A pair of Minnesota teens who felt bullied and ostracized by fellow middle school students killed themselves this weekend during what appeared to be an innocent sleepover.
Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravetz were found Saturday in the small town of Lynd. The two 14-year-olds hanged themselves and left notes in an apparent suicide pact.
"I think they've had this for some time," Robin Settle, Fentress' aunt, told ABC News. The two were found by Fentress' mother. Moravetz was sleeping over at her best-friend's home because her parents were on vacation in Hawaii. "She attempted to resuscitate them," Settle said, but it was too late.

Moravetz moved to the small Minnesota town a year ago and had a hard time making friends, her aunt said. She and Fentress' friendship appeared to grow out of the pair's shared feeling of being excluded. Settle said her niece told her she was "made fun of for being overweight ... and she didn't fit in."

Fentress didn't want "anybody to be sad for her," according to Settle, and dictated in her suicide note that her funeral have lots of pink, princesses and butterflies.  Marshall Middle School, where the two girls attended, held a gathering Tuesday to reach out to parents and provide information on how to discuss the incident with their children.

"You don't get over it," Marshall Superintendent Klint Willert said, according to the Marshall Independent newspaper. "But by working together, we can get through it."

New Jersey: Roommate Charged with Hate Crime In Suicide of Rutgers Student

The roommate of Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi (left) was today indicted on hate crime charges stemming from the secret webcasting of Clementi having sex with another man. Clementi leaped from the George Washington Bridge last year after learning about the broadcast.


Dharun Ravi, a former Rutgers University student, was indicted on 15 counts including charges of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation and tampering with evidence by a grand jury in Middlesex County, N.J. Prosecutors allege that not only did Ravi invade Clementi's privacy, but he tried to cover it up. Both Ravi and his alleged accomplice, former Rutgers student Molly Wei, are accused of filming Clementi during a "sexual encounter" in his dorm room with a man and then streaming it live on the Internet. Evidence against Wei has not yet been presented to a grand jury. Prosecutors allege that on Sept. 19 of last year, Ravi filmed Clementi with the purpose of intimidating him because of his sexual orientation. Ravi "disclosed a photograph, film, videotape, recording or other reproduction of the image of [Clementi]...whose intimate parts were exposed," the indictment reads. When Ravi became worried about being charged with a crime, he sent false tweets in an attempt "to mislead a public servant who was engaged in such proceeding or investigation," the indictment reads.



Clementi's parents have released a statement applauding today's charges.

Anti-gay bullying leads to another tragic teen suicide

RITTMAN, Ohio — Another young life lost to anti-gay bullying.


     Nicholas Kelo Jr. knew what it was like to be relentlessly bullied, his family said, and it may have been what persuaded him to pry open a safe inside his home on Feb. 23, and remove the gun that killed him, reports the Akron Beacon Journal.  He was 13 years old. It is unknown as to whether or not Nick was gay, but that did not stop his bullies or their attacks.

”It had been going on for years,” Jacqueline Kelo [Nick's mother] said. ”We would talk and he would say [of the bullies] that they were not worth his time.”  Nick played football in middle school but gave up the sport this year to participate in high school band.

The switch, Jacqueline Kelo reasoned, resulted in swelling rumors. Some, she said, wrongly assumed that a kid who would prefer to play the tenor sax rather than tossing a pigskin must be gay.  “After that, it [the bullying] spiraled out of control,” she said.

One such incident allegedly happened on a school bus following a football game, explained the mother of another Rittman teenager who said her son is also a victim of bullying. During the incident, Nick allegedly became the victim of an older student who was “glicking” — forcibly spitting on him. Jacqueline Kelo knew something was bothering her son when he came home, but the eighth-grader refused to share the details — telling her that he would handle it himself. The parents became aware of it only after their son’s death.  Jacqueline Kelo said it didn’t surprise her that her son kept his pain to himself. Nick viewed himself as his mother’s protector.

“He was the man of the house,” the single mother said.   Nick’s death is being investigated as a likely suicide, according to Rittman police.  Nick recently scored 152 on an IQ test, which is classified as superior intelligence. He had a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and was an avid inventor, creating both a waffle fork to remove hot food from a toaster and an incinerator trash can. Nine of Nick’s organs were collected and donated.
News of Nick’s death comes just days after the White House held a high-visibility conference on bullying prevention, with the President and First Lady calling on parents, teachers, students, and communities to address the problem together.

For those who read this blog this story , which i just read about, Rittman is about 20 miles from my home.  I was beside myself, scik to my stomach with the last of the anti'gay teen bullying but with it in my backyard, if you will,makesme madder than hell.  My heart goes out to this singlemother, and it is just breaking for her.  We as the gya and gay supportive community need to do something for this woman immediately as well as for our gay, questioning or just plain bullied for being gay even if they are not.

Teenager Death; Friends Say Bullying May be to Blame

MILTONA, Minn. - The news of a high school student's death and rumored suicide began circling social networking sites Monday morning, after the news began spreading that 18-year-old Jefferson High School student Lance Lundsten had died over the weekend.

Around 10 p.m. Saturday the Douglas County Sheriff's Office responded to an emergency call at the Lundsten's residence in Miltona.

When officers arrived, they discovered 18-year-old Lance Lundsten needing emergency medical care. Lundsten was transported to the Douglas County Hospital where he later died.

The Sheriff's Office said Tuesday that the cause of Lundsten's death was yet to be determined. Authorities had been working with the Douglas County Medical Examiner's Office to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death.

In an interview Wednesday morning, Douglas County Medical Examiner Dr. Mark Spanbauer said the preliminary autopsy report showed the teen did not die from an enlarged heart.

The teen's heart was slightly enlarged, but that finding was a secondary finding to an undetermined cause, according to Spanbauer.

Spanbauer said what actually caused Lundsten's heart to slightly swell was not yet known, as the final autopsy report was still in progress.

"He was a small young man. His heart showed slight swelling," Spanbauer said. "It was slightly enlarged. This was a secondary finding."

Spanbauer was waiting for the results of Lundsten's toxicology report before stating an official cause of death.

According to his Facebook page, Lundsten was openly gay. On a Facebook memorial page in Lundsten's honor, friends said that Lundsten had been bullied at school for his sexual orientation. Some students who knew Lundsten believed the bullying may have led to his death.

Another Jefferson High School student started a Facebook group in direct response to Lundsten's death called the Jefferson Anti-Bully Coalition.  Its founder, Morgan Hauer posted on the Jefferson Anti-Bully Coalition page Sunday night:

"So everyone, i may have started this group, but it really means nothing unless we take action. words, speeches and petitions can get us far, but the only real way to stand up to bullying is to stop bullying other people, stand up for those being bullied and let authoritative figures know whats going on. without you, this whole idea is pointless and a very beloved schoolmate will have died in vain.  Don't let that happen, we owe at least that much to Lance and everyone else who is, was, or will ever be bullied.  Thank you, Group Founder, Morgan Hauer."
 
Since this story's initial report, a gay recent graduate of Jefferson High School student told KSAX-TV about his experiences, and how he was bullied at the school and no one listened.


"Bullying is a huge issue, particularly with the youth in our country now," Facilitator of the Diversity Resource Action Alliance Shari Maloney said. "I think because we're in central Minnesota, and we aren't as diverse as some of the larger Metropolitan areas are, someone who is different maybe draws more attention and it's not always positive."

Maloney said she works everyday to make Alexandria a more accepting place for community members and visitors. She said she has seen improvement, but there is still a long way to go.

"I think we are a welcoming community, but I think we are also a very traditional community as well," Maloney said. "As the world changes, I'm not sure if we're changing."

In a letter to staff and media, District 206 Superintendent Terry Quist responded to the teen's death, and the  accusations of alleged bullying at the school. Senator Al Franken discusses legislation to protect students from being bullied in the classroom because of their sexual orientation.

Parents of Student Who Committed Suicide Tell Rutgers University They May Sue

The parents of a Rutgers University freshman who committed suicide after his intimate encounter with another man was secretly captured and streamed live on the Internet have filed notices that they may sue the university.

The freshman, Tyler Clementi, jumped off the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 22. His roommate and another student have been charged with criminal counts of invading his privacy, and the case has become a national flash point in the debates over gay rights, bullying and personal privacy in the Internet age.
The parents, Joseph and Jane Clementi of Ridgewood, N.J., filed legal notices with the university on Friday, said Paul Mainardi, a lawyer for the family. By law, they must wait six months to file a lawsuit, but they had to give notice within 90 days after the death to preserve their right to sue.
The filings were reported on Wednesday by The Home News Tribune of East Brunswick, N.J.

Mr. Mainardi said that the notices did not necessarily signal an intention to sue. “A decision as to whether to file suit against Rutgers University in the future has not been made,” he said.
Tyler Clementi, 18, an accomplished violin player, had been on the Rutgers campus in Piscataway, N.J., for less than a month, prosecutors say, when his roommate, Dharun Ravi, 18, of Plainsboro, N.J., used a camera in his computer to live-stream the dormitory-room encounter between Mr. Clementi and another man. Prosecutors say Mr. Ravi sent a Twitter message urging followers to watch.
Mr. Ravi and another Rutgers freshman, Molly Wei, 18, of West Windsor, N.J., were both charged with using “the camera to view and transmit a live image” of Mr. Clementi. The two students have since withdrawn from the university; their lawyers have said that they denied the accusations.
Prosecutors have said they may press for additional counts that would make the invasion of privacy a hate crime. But on Wednesday, Jim O’Neil, a spokesman for the Middlesex County prosecutor’s office, said only that the investigation was continuing.
One of the legal notices filed last week, a notice of tort claim, contends that Rutgers “failed to put in place and/or implement, and enforce, policies and practices that would have prevented or deterred such acts.” Another notice claims the university broke its agreement with Mr. Clementi to protect him.
E. J. Miranda, a spokesman for Rutgers, said the university shared the family’s sense of loss and understood that they would question whether an institution or other people were to blame. “While the university understands the reaction,” he said, “the university is not responsible for Tyler Clementi’s suicide.”

A day before his death, Mr. Clementi apparently discovered the surveillance and wrote in a blog post that he had complained to a resident adviser.
The tort claim lists as damages his pain and suffering, as well as his family’s loss of his company and support. No dollar amount is given.