Rest In Peace Ashlynn Conner (she was 10 YEARS OLD!!!)

I'm reminded of a saying: "if nothing changes, nothing changes".  There is NO WAY a family of a 10 year old should be mourning and planning a funeral for their child BECAUSE OF BULLYING!  NO WAY!!  THIS has got to end!!  Where are such young kids learning to be so extraordinarily cruel?  The answer, far too often, is they learn it from home.  Teach your children well.  Rest in peace, young Ashlynn.

How Some Parents Drive Their Kids to Suicide (Updated)

I've been saying for too many years that there are parents in this country, and probably around the world, who drive their gay or lesbian sons or daughters to suicide.  And, to their defense, I will say that they don't even realize they're doing it until it's too late.  We as adults, young or old, already know how difficult the teen years can be.  The teasing, the bullying, the "trying to fit in", the sheer weight of peer pressure.  Toss into the ring the reality of being a gay or lesbian who is still figuring themselves out - or, for that matter, even the ones who are confident within themselves with their sexuality - which is almost certain to bring added pressure and tension.  Take all of that turmoil that they're already dealing with at school amongst their peers, add to it living in a household where they already know that gays and lesbians are not accepted, looked down upon, or (in some cases) vehemently hated.  That's a recipe for disaster.  It plays out in household across this country, and around the world, every single day.  Remember: every 18 minutes, a kid takes his own life.  That's an epidemic!  It's time we start changing the way we think in order to start saving some lives.  Even the strongest steel breaks under too much pressure.

UPDATE:
I thought it was fitting to add to this entry.  At this very moment, I'm also chatting with a simply delightful, highly intelligent, very handsome and sensitive young man.  Unfortunately, he also fights suicidal tendencies regularly.  And, at the root of that is a home where his family, his parents belittle him (at best) for who his is.  I spend as much time as needed, and as I can, talking to him.  It's paying off.  He IS doing better by the day.  However, this morning, his self-esteem took another punch to the gut as his own mother called him "...a fool" for being in love with someone from his own sex.  If only we could get these parents to understand the devastating affect some of their words have on their children, I'm sure the suicide rate amongst teens, gay and straight alike, would be drastically lower.  Here's the blog entry this young man made (his permission to reblog was granted) after being verbally assaulted by his own mother:

Heartbroken…

I feel like everyone is stalking at me… Pressured just anywhere I go… Finally when I’d try to get closer to someone I love from all my heart… someone will surely be there to break my least effort… and break my heart to tiny pieces…

Even my own family wants to take away from me what matters to me the most… Urging me not to have what my life is just all about… if that’s so then I don’t even need my life either :( 

Sometimes I just wish to run away and get the whole thing over with…

Only then comes school, where I’m, yet again, handled as a darts target, a trash can, a whatever… what does life worth like this? :(

A grateful thanks to the few beautiful people who reassure me from time to time… ily!

Pray for change.  Then work towards making it happen.

Even the strongest steel breaks under too much pressure.