Gay teen dies after 10 days on life support, following suicide attempt over anti-gay bullying – LGBTQ Nation

This September, not one, not two, but three (3!) gay teenagers have committed suicide after being viciously bullied over their sexual orientation in their schools and communities. Seth Walsh, 13 years old, spent 10 days on life support in California after he apparently tried to hang himself from a tree branch. He had faced years of bullying at Jacobsen Middle School, despite claims by school officials at Tehachapi Union School District that there was no such bullying. Officials also say they can't prosecute Seth's classmates because the teasing was not criminal.

On September 9th, Billy Lucas, 15, hanged himself at his grandmother's house in Greensburg, Indiana, after facing years of torment from classmates who threatened to beat him up every day. And on September 23, 13-year-old Asher Brown came home from school early and shot himself in the head while his parents were at work. Asher had also faced constant harassment and bullying at school.

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Update: The bad news: there were actually 5 gay teen suicides this month, not 3. Cody Barker, aged 17, also committed suicide in Washington State. And just today, 18-year-old Tyler Clementi is presumed dead after jumping off the George Washington Bridge one day after he was outed by his college roommate. Thanks to Sinclair Sexsmith for the heads up. The good news: Sinclair has also blogged about some resources to help combat anti-gay bullying, including Dan Savage’s latest project, It Gets Better.

That’s Not What We Do | CarnalNation

In a remarkably well thought out and thorough response to the conversation around whether there are similarities between this story of kidnapping and sexual abuse and the actions of the BDSM community, Thomas MacAulay Millar speaks out clearly to remind every one that, no – it is not. BDSM is not unethical behavior, and unethical behavior is not BDSM. Millar sets out a 4 point code of Ethical BDSM, reminding us that: it is unethical (and unconstitutional) to ever have an irrevocable master/slave relationship; it's unethical to leverage existing vulnerability or power imbalance into a BDSM relationship; it is unethical to do things beyond your ability as a Top; it is unethical to do things to people that they don't have enough information to make an informed decision about. He continues by calling the BDSM community to action to be more responsible for speaking up about abuse, within and outside of the community.

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CarnalNation suffered from link rot, so brief source now links to Feministe; content is unchanged.