However, the other issue at hand is that aside from bullying, what drove Tyler to end his life? Why was he concerned with people finding out if he was gay? Coincidentally, the small town where he grew up is where I was raised and spent my formative years. Homosexuality was a no-no. (My friend dropped out of high school because she was harassed for being bisexual.) This young man believed that it was better to end his life than confront his parents and conservative community with the news that he was gay! Rutgers offers excellent LGBT support but at a mere 3 weeks of being there, he wasn’t ready to seek help. :-/
I don’t blame Rutgers at all. I partially blame the public school system that failed him growing up. I partially blame the community’s values of where he grew up. Why wasn’t Tyler allowed to be himself? It wouldn’t surprise me if Tyler was bullied growing up. Maybe kids were very cruel to him and already called him names like “fag” or “gay”. I also blame the bullies’ lack of judgment and the media for glorifying negative behaviors (“90210″, “The Jersey Shore”, “One Tree Hill”, “Melrose Place” and all of those stupid shows are full of people scheming against each other, bullying each other, and belittling one another for pure amusement and entertainment.) What these bullies did was for pure entertainment. They get their entertainment at the expense of someone else. They were fully aware of this at the time they chose to video record Tyler. It will take a lot of working together and awakening for things to change.
]]>