Another Gay Teen Suicide,

Hours Before Spirit Day.

Nineteen-year old Oakland University student, Corey Jackson, has succumbed to suicide, just hours before the start of today’s nationally-recognized “Spirit Day,”

Police report the young gay man hung himself.

“Police say there is no indication bullying was a factor in Jackson’s suicide.

But, Melissa Pope, director of the university’s Gender and Sexuality Center brought to attention:

“We must look beyond the term “bullying” to the overall treatment of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community to begin to grasp the long-standing epidemic of suicide among our LGBT youth.

“While the national press has picked up this issue over the last two months, we have been losing high numbers of LGBT youth to suicide for decades. In recent years, we’ve labeled the cause as bullying. But the root cause goes deeper – it goes to the very core of our society that discriminates against the LGBT community on all levels, including the denial of basic human rights that are supposed to belong to every person.”

Which brings us to the larger issue. These suicides will not stop until the gay youth in America is brought to believe that they are equal to their straight peers, and that their lives are worth just as much.

Sarah Silverman said it best here.

October 20, 2010

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