Openly Gay Johnson & Wales Student Raymond Chase Commits Suicide; Campus Pride Demands National Action to address LGBT Youth Bullying, Harassment & Suicide

Tonight: Moment of Silence for 5 Youth Who've Died By Suicide
Editor's Note: Charles Robbins is the Executive Director of The Trevor Project , the Non-profit organization that operates the only nationwide, around-the-clock crisis and Suicide prevention helpline for Lesbian, gay, Bisexual, Transgender and questioning youth . Late last night, The Trevor Project learned of yet another young LGBTQ person who died by Suicide. Raymond Chase was a sophomore at Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island when he took his own life on Wednesday. Words do not...

Johnson and Wales University student Raymond Chase hangs himself in dorm room
How can we make these tragedies stop? It's heartbreaking. Notice no commentary from this White House about a national call to action regarding this relentless string of youth Suicides, particularly those tied to Bullying. For an administration that puts out Press Releases for planting a tree or some minor event, the silence is deafening. (via Perez Hilton ): It is just devastating for us to report that we have learned that Raymond Chase, an Openly Gay sophomore at Johnson and Wales...

US gay community reeling from 'epidemic' of suicides among teenagers
Tragedy: TV host Ellen DeGeneres (left) drew attention to the recent death of Tyler Clementi (right) and said the recent spate of Gay teenagers committing Suicide should act a a 'wake up call' to the dangers of Bullying DeGeneres said the recent tragedies should act as a 'wake up' call to the dangers of teenage Bullying. Commenting on Mr Clementi, who was a Student at Rutgers University, the Openly Gay Talk Show host said: 'He was outed as being Gay on the Internet and he killed himself... One...

TWO Deeply Saddened By Three Gay Teen September Suicides Resulting From School Bullying
NEW YORK Truth Wins Out expressed a sense of deep sorrow and loss as news of three Gay teen Suicides in September rocked the LGBT movement. In each case, the Victim was a target of relentless harassment and Bullying by school peers. Truth Wins Out blames the Anti-gay industry and negligent school officials for creating a hostile climate that places Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students at risk for psychological abuse, violence and Suicide. Our hearts go out to the families of...

Bullying has no bounds on the Internet, as suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi shows
He lay in a black body bag at the end of the dock at the Columbia University boathouse. The cops began the task of determining if he was the Rutgers Student who jumped off the George Washington Bridge last week after two tormentors used a Hidden Camera to live-stream his Sex Life. The body looked about the right age and had clearly been in the water for a number of days. The hair was the right sandy color though a little longer than in a photograph the police had on hand. A check of the...

BRITISH GAY MARRIAGE MOVEMENT IN A TIFF WITH ITSELF
Stonewall, which has 20,000 supporters and has been at the forefront of Britain’s Gay-rights movement for more than 20 years, has publicly stated it has no formal position on Gay-marriage equality because it is consulting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender (LGBT) people on how to approach the issue. The charity’s chief executive, Ben Summerskill, raised eyebrows when he told a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat conference that a policy allowing all couples the right to a...

Rutgers Had Just Started "Project Civility" Before Cyber Bullying Resulted In Student Suicide
Just before Tyler Clementi ‘s Suicide, Rutgers University launched “ Project Civility ” “to create campus-wide culture of compassion, courtesy.” Meanwhile, the Star-Leger writes how “technology magnifies the consequences of bad actions: Nothing is local when the Internet is your playground, as the horrific tragedy unfolding at Rutgers seems to attest.” “The tools today are so much more powerful,” said Francis Jensen, a pediatric...

University of Michigan's first openly gay student body president ready to get to work
The rising senior, a native of Ridgefield, Conn., got involved in the campus Gay and Lesbian community after arriving in Ann Arbor three years ago. He was a two-year chair of the Student government's LGBT Commission before running for the presidency of the Michigan Student Assembly. Gabe Javier , head of the Spectrum Center at the U-M, became a mentor to Armstrong after the two met at a Spectrum icebreaker when Armstrong was a freshman. Javier said he's expecting big things from Armstrong as...

Rutgers student Tyler Clementi's final days before suicide emerge in online posts
The body of a Rutgers University freshman who committed Suicide after a Webcam caught him in a sexual encounter with another man was identified by police today, as prosecutors considered upgrading the charges against the two classmates accused of spying on him. Tyler Clementi, 18, died of drowning and blunt impact injuries after jumping off the George Washington Bridge, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the New York City Medical Examiner’s office. His body was found two miles north of...

DQ: Rutgers student's suicide, prosecutable hate crime or not?
Cyberbullying seems to reverberate so strongly, yet incidents seemingly continue to escalate. This young man’s Suicide is one tragic, tragic story. Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman, jumped from the George Washington Bridge a few days after he had been secretly filmed during an intimate encounter — with another young man — which was then streamed live on the on the Internet. The Students that cached the Webcam (one of whom was Clementi’s...

Posts indicate student turned to staff before suicide
PISCATAWAY, N.J. — The college freshman who jumped to his death after two other teens allegedly streamed online video of his sexual encounter with another man had turned to University staff to help deal with the situation before his Suicide, according to messages he is believed to have posted online. After 18-year-old Rutgers University Student Tyler Clementi became aware of the alleged broadcast from posts on roommate Dharun Ravi's Social Networking sites, he told a resident...

Cyberbullying and a Student's Suicide
Last week, Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University, jumped off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate had surreptitiously streamed a video feed of him in an intimate encounter live on the Internet. The roommate and another Student have been charged with invasion of Privacy. Last spring, six High School Students in Massachusetts were charged with Bullying-related Crimes , including violation of Civil Rights, after the target of the taunting, Phoebe Prince, a 15-year-old...

Where We Are On TV Report 2010-2011 Season
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) representations have increased for the third year in a row to a record percentage according to an analysis of the 2010-2011 scripted Primetime broadcast television season conducted by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD).  The Where We Are on TV report forecasts the expected presence of LGBT characters in the upcoming 2010-2011 television schedule. The study shows that LGBT representations will account for 3.9% of all...

NJ student's suicide resonates on campus, beyond
"To this poor kid, it's better to be dead than to have people know he's gay," said Jean-Marie Navetta, a spokeswoman for Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. "Therein lies the real tragedy here." Clementi's death was part of a string of Suicides last month involving youngsters who were believed to have been Victims of Anti-gay Bullying. Fifteen-year-old Billy Lucas hanged himself in a barn in Greensburg, Ind. Asher Brown, 13, shot himself in the head in Houston. And 13-year-old Seth Walsh...

In wake of anti-lgbt youth climate, Focus on the Family attacks GLSEN
crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters Candi Cushman of Focus on the Family just released a critique of GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network)'s recent School climate report. GLSEN's report found that in 2009:  . . . 7,261 middle and High School Students found that at School nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT Students experienced harassment at School in the past year and nearly two-thirds felt unsafe because of their Sexual Orientation. Nearly a third of LGBT...

US death puts focus on cyberbullies
The Suicide of a US Student, who killed himself after footage of him kissing a man was broadcast on the Internet using a Hidden Camera, has raised major concerns over the cyber-bullying amongst America's youth. Tyler Clementi, 18, a first year Student at Rutgers University, jumped from a New York bridge after his University room-mates set up a Camera and streamed footage of him engaged in a Homosexual act over the Internet. Three days later, Clementi, a talented violinist, threw himself off the...

It's Time to End Teenage Bullying
I am devastated by the death of 18-year-old Tyler Clementi. If you don't know, Tyler was a bright Student at Rutgers University whose life was senselessly cut short. He was outed as being gay on the Internet and he killed himself. Something must be done. This month alone, there has been a shocking number of news stories about teens who have been teased and bullied and then committed Suicide; like 13-year-old Seth Walsh in Tehachapi, California. Asher Brown, 13, of Cypress, Texas and 15-year-old...

Rutgers Campus Remembers Bullied Student
Rutgers University Students wore Black on Friday to remember a classmate who committed Suicide as a lawmaker proposed stiffer penalties for invasion of Privacy - the charge against the roommate accused of secretly streaming video of the Victim's sexual tryst with a man. Calling it "Black Friday," Students at New Jersey's largest University were encouraged to leave flowers or mementoes at a makeshift memorial for 18-year-old Tyler Clementi, a freshman and promising violinist who jumped off the...

2009 National School Climate Survey: Nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT Students Experience Harassment in School
hearing homophobic remarks; however, LGBT Students' experiences with more severe forms of Bullying and harassment have remained relatively constant. "In 1999, GLSEN began data collection on the school experiences of LGBT Students in order to fill a critical void in our knowledge and understanding of the ways LGBT issues play out in schools. It could not be clearer that there is an urgent need for action to create safe and affirming schools for LGBT Students," GLSEN Executive Director Eliza Byard...

Pause Now and Remember LGBT Youth Who Commit Suicide
On Friday, Oct. 1, the U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan released the following statement: “This week, we sadly lost two Young men who took their own lives for one unacceptable reason: they were being bullied and harassed because they were Openly Gay or believed to be Gay. These unnecessary tragedies come on the heels of at least three other Young People taking their own lives because the trauma of being bullied and harassed for their actual or perceived Sexual Orientation was too...

The Fire Inside: Linda Evans at San Francisco Dyke March
This is the first Lesbian/Gay/ Bisexual/Transgender Pride weekend I will celebrate in freedom!... I am especially honored to be part of the first Dyke March dedicated to women in Prison - to remember all the dykes and women Prisoners who are locked up and cannot be with us in the streets... I think that there is nothing more powerful than looking out and seeing all of you. It is mind boggling for me and overwhelming after being in Prison for all those years to feel our power. And we've got a...

School Bullying: A National Pandemic Disease
But LGBT Bullying won't end if we separate it from Bullying suffered by other Students. With Gay History Month starting, it's a good moment to put our demographic Suicide problem into a bigger perspective. School Bullying is a contagious social Cancer that is invading America's whole body. Now that we know Cancer can be caused by viruses, we can say that Bullying is a national pandemic, no less lethal than AIDS or a fulminating flu. The Suicides it causes are threatening the lives of thousands...

Rutgers Student Commits Suicide After Two Other Students Secretly Film Sexual Encounter
New Jersey officials are dealing with a tragic Suicide of a freshman from Rutgers University after Tyler Clementi was allegedly filmed illegally in a sexual encounter by fellow freshman Students Dharun Ravi, 18, and Molly Wei, 18. In an example of the merging of tort and Criminal law, the two Students have been criminally charged with invasion of Privacy. Ravi and Wei are accused of placing a Camera in the Clemenit’s dorm room during a sexual encounter with another male. If true, it was...

Rutgers Student Commits Suicide After Secret Sex Tape
A body found in the Hudson River has been identified as Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers University freshman who committed Suicide after his roommate allegedly secretly filmed him having Sex. Tyler, 18, who jumped off the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 22, died from drowning and blunt force trauma, according to the New York Medical Examiner's office. The body was recovered Wednesday. "Tyler was a fine young man, and a distinguished musician," says the Clementi family's attorney, Paul Mainardi....

College Campus Not Always Safe For Gay Students
Although Rutgers Student Tyler Clementi was not Openly Gay, the broadcast of his romantic encounter with a man on the Internet is being linked to his apparent Suicide. New research shows campuses have not become significantly safer for Students and faculty who are not straight. Sue Rankin, a Penn State Professor, talks to Ari Shapiro about her research into Gay, Lesbian and Transgender issues on college campuses. Copyright © 2010 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use...