Didn't see this posted yet, so here is another heartbreaking story about how far we have to go in this society when it comes to acceptance of our brothers and sisters who are gay, and how far we need to go in providing support to young men and women to prevent this sort of thing in the future.
A student at Rutgers University, Tyler Clementi, killed himself after others illegally recorded him having sex with a man and then posted the tape on the internet. As a result the young man committed suicide.
Student in Tape Kills Himself
According to the story from the link above he wrote a suicide note on his Facebook page saying that he intended to jump off of the George Washington bridge, and then did so.
I don't really have much to say about this. It's heartbreaking that this kind of intimidation still has the power to induce humiliation sufficient to motivate suicide instead of righteous anger. The two who did it are being investigated and at least potentially face prison time. It may be defined as a hate crime, and if so penalties increase. Mr. Clementi's fellow students had choice words for the perpetrators:
On the Rutgers campus in New Brunswick, there was dismay over Clementi's death and the circumstances that led to it.
"As a dorm we're really angry," said student Jordan Gochman, 19, of Jackson, N.J., who didn't know Clementi. "The notion that video of Tyler doing what he was doing can be considered a spectacle is just heinous. It's intolerant, it's upsetting, it makes it seem that being gay is something that is wrong and can be considered laughable."
Mr. Clementi's high school music teacher said this:
Ed Schmiedecke, the recently retired music director at Ridgewood High School, where Clementi graduated earlier this year, said Clementi was a violinist whose life revolved around music.
"He was a terrific musician, and a very promising, hardworking young man."
So a new student to college, a promising and talented young man who felt his life was ruined by public humiliation on the internet, is now dead.
All I can say is that it is heartbreaking, and that we must do better than this.