Soberingly Tragic

Another LGBT Teen Suicide

On Friday, October 14, 2011, we lost another gay youth to bullying & depression. Jamie Hubley was only 15 years old when he took his life last week in Ottawa, Canada.

While showing a small gay pride flag on his blog, much of Jamie’s posts throughout last week were horrific quotes & images about suicide, ending it all, self-mutilation, and giving up. Before taking his life on Friday, he posted:

“I cant stand school, I cant stand earth, I cant stand society, I cant stand the scars on my arms, I cant fucking stand any fucking thing. [...] I hit rock fucking bottom, fell through a crack, now im stuck.”

Jamie posted regularly about his depression, his therapy, his many anti-depressants, and his torment. In his messages he discusses how nothing is helping. Talking about his problems with his therapist never made them go away.

I think, it’s about damn time we made these problems go away. Make them go away for all of our children. This has got to fucking stop. Our children are tortured and tormented, quite literally, to death by the discrimination and hatred towards those that are gay and/or questioning.

Repetition is key to knowledge, learning, & understanding, and I feel obliged to repeat some information from my article about Jamey Rodemeyer (a bisexual youth that recently took his life).

“A study posted in Pediatrics looked at nearly 32,000 teenagers in Oregon and found that LGBT teens were more likely to attempt suicide; while LGBT youths without supportive surroundings were 20% more likely to attempt suicide.

“These are sobering numbers and horrific times for the gay or questioning youth in America[, or Canada]. Having a supportive environment, schools with a gay straight alliance or special protections within schools for LGBTQ students are a requirement if we hope to better the lives of American youth.”

It’s time to get involved to stop this hatred, end these senseless deaths, and make our children’s lives better. I beg you: Just do something.

• The Trevor Project
• Pacer’s National Center for Bullying Prevention
• Stomp out Bullying!
• Matthew’s Place – The Matthew Shepherd Foundation
• GLSEN
• The Human Rights Campaign’s Welcoming Schools Guide
• Claim Your Rights Program – PFLAG, GLSEN & Department of Civil Rights
• GLBTQ Online High School
• Stop Bullying. Speak Up – a Cartoon Network Campaign
• You Can Be Anything Project
• I’m From Driftwood

Read More at The Daily Activist, The Daily Activist, Huffington Post, Tumblr, and NY Times.

The responses to Jamie’s death is already being shown on YouTube.