Despite the fact that I have the M*A*S*H theme song stuck in my head, I think we're all aware that suicide is not painless.
So, considering the flash flood of news surrounding Tyler Clementi's suicide after his roomates posted a video of him having sex with another man on the internet, let's take up some space and talk about it.
I don't think I have to sit here and tell anyone how difficult it is being a teenager, with their underdeveloped brains and lack of frontal lobe risk assessment. Suicide already feels like the only way out for some who don't have to deal with the added social stigma of sexual orientation.
Honestly, I've been puttering around on the internet for most of the morning, and I don't think I can say anything that hasn't already been said.
A wonderful initiative was started called the It Gets Better Project, which includes a youtube channel where people can post their encouraging words. Ellen DeGeneres, Neil Patrick Harris and Dan Savage have already taken advantage and posted their own messages.
PostScript:I wasn't aware until I got home and managed to dig some more, that Dan Savage actually begun the It Gets Better Project.
Actually I have to take a moment and go back to Dan Savage. I love Dan Savage, I truly do, I think his advice and columns and opinions are informed, and succinct, and intelligent. And the message he and his boyfriend Terry posted on It Gets Better is beautiful. It's a celebration of life, of the life you can have, and it gave me goosebumps. I'm watching it at work, and I didn't really think twice about the fact that it was subtitled beyond, "Oh good I don't have to find my headphones" but then it occured to me. If you're a teen, questioning your sexuality, and scared to death that your parents are going to catch you listening and watching support for LGBT teens... Yeah, it makes perfect sense to subtitle it! I think that's a stroke of genius! Bravo, Mr. Savage. Bravo.
I'm going to share what got me through highschool (in addition to an amazing family, and yes my friends are my family too, and an inexhaustible access to books).
“Anyone desperate enough for suicide...should be desperate enough to go to creative extremes to solve problems: elope at midnight, stow away on the boat to New Zealand and start over, do what they always wanted to do but were afraid to try.”
-Richard Bach
Resources:
It Gets Better Project
Washington Post on Suicide
Canadian Children's Rights Council - On Suicide
Suicide Myths and Facts
