NJ student's suicide resonates on campus, beyond

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By GEOFF MULVIHILL and SAMANTHA HENRY

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) - "Things will get easier; people's minds will change," Ellen DeGeneres pleads in an Internet video, staring into the camera, her voice breaking. "And you should be alive to see it."

Just as the murder of Matthew Shepard galvanized the gay community around hate-crime legislation more than a decade ago, the suicide of a Rutgers University student whose sex life was splashed on the Internet has activists rallying around their latest cause: telling tormented gay teens they just need to hang on for a while, that they'll live through it.

Bullying and harassment of young gays and lesbians, and the suicides they have caused, have long been a major topic in gay publications and among activists. But celebrities and others have seized on Tyler Clementi's shocking suicide to call attention to the issue.

Prosecutors say Clementi's roommate and another student used a webcam to broadcast on the Internet live images of the 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman having an intimate encounter with another man. Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge three days later. His body was identified Thursday.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20101001/D9IJ5CB80.html

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Rutgers University students sign condolence cards Friday, Oct. 1, 2010, at Rutgers in New Brunswick, N.J., for the family of fellow student Tyler Clementi. The death of Clementi, 18, is being felt by his Rutgers University classmates who said they wished they could have stopped the teen from jumping off a bridge after secret video of his sexual encounter with a man was streamed online. Clementi's roommate, Dharun Ravi, and fellow Rutgers freshman Molly Wei, both 18, have been charged with invading Clementi's privacy. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

[LisaM]

1. It's had an impact on me

I don't know why it hit me so hard, but I've been grieving over it for several days.

[handmade34]

4. me too

maybe it's because I have 2 (sensitive) sons that age, not gay, that I know of, but just as well could be and my heart breaks...

[TheDebbieDee]

2. I still can't get over the fact that the roommate and his friend

thought it would be okay to broadcast the sexual encounters...........I mean, didn't these two a$$wipes know that nothing good could of this? Did they expect Tyler to just laugh this off when he found out about it?

[felinetta]

3. This seems to be a hate crime. No involuntary manslaughter? Just seems

charged with invading privacy is so lame, so weak. But I guess
these two will have to live with
this the rest of their lives. Maybe they will justify it in
their sick minds, but maybe not.....

[tblue37]

6. I'm thinking that young woman, at least, might be at risk of suicide herself now.

These two little creeps are going to be so thoroughly reviled by the whole nation that they will have to essentially live undercover for the rest of their lives to avoid being discovered, even if they do manage to get off with light punishment. I can't imagine they can go back there to school, and if they go elsewhere, I would hope that gay rights organizations and other caring people would make sure that their crime is publicized wherever they go. They certainly shouldn't get off lightly for this.

[ScarletFyre]

5. A charge of invasion of privacy is too good for them.

Hopefully the law can find something with a bit more meat to charge them with.

[liberalhistorian]

7. I remember way back in the early 70's,

my parents had a very good friend who was gay and living with his partner; at that time, of course, they had to call themselves "roommates." The friend finally couldn't take it anymore and wanted to kill himself. My parents and other friends spent several days with him trying to talk him out of it, to encourage him that things would get better some day, that there would be more acceptance and anti-discrimination laws. They were all able to talk him down from it, but it was still very difficult for everyone, especially for the friend and his partner. My parents said they finally fully realized at least some of what he was dealing with, because, as they said, they couldn't imagine not being able to be open with their own relationship and to have to constantly worry about discrimination and hatred and bigotry if they even talked about it to the wrong person.

It makes me sick that there are still people having to deal with such shit nearly forty freaking years later, and those who still just don't fucking get it, who don't get what their gleeful hatred and bigotry does to gays, what the price is, who refuse to understand or accept that IT IS NOT A CHOICE and that people have the right to love who they want free from societal stigma and crackdowns. I look at my husband and I can't imagine not being able to be fully open with our relationship and having to worry about hatred and discrimination and anger and bigotry simply because pea-brained morons can't handle anything that differs from their programming. I want gays to have the same rights by marriage that we do and that we straights too often take for granted without even realizing it.

[WestSeattle2]

8. While I agree with your sentiments, I have to disagree with your

premise about those "who don't get what their gleeful hatred and bigotry does to gays..."

Unfortunately, most of them know exactly what it does to gays, and that's why they do it. There are simply cruel, evil, soulless individuals who walk the face of this Earth; they are sand in the gears of human evolution.

[COLGATE4]

9. Perhaps something good can come out of this unspeakable

tragedy for the young man and his parents.

[TexasObserver]

10. Good. It should. This kind of abuse of gay students must end.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

11. i dont think its fair to blame the two other kids only for this mess

we should take a good hard look at ourselves and the society we create, where someone thinks they would rather be dead than have people know they are gay.