Another Tragic Gay Teen Suicide

The death toll of gay teen suicides continues - even as the Christianists, falsely named "family Values" organizations, and of course the Catholic and Mormon Churches continue to denigrate LGBT individuals on virtually a daily basis. This time the victim was 15 year old Canadian Jamie Hubley (pictured with his father at right), the son of a Canadian politician who released a statement today in the wake of his son's death. As a parent, I cannot imagine the pain the father must feel. Especially because bullying seems to have played at least a part in Jamie Hubley's decision to end his life. Andy Towle at Towleroad has some details on the father's statement. Here are some highlights:

Said Hubley in the statement:

There are some reports in the media and on social media that James was bullied. This is true. We were aware of several occasions when he felt he was being bullied. In Grade 7 he was treated very cruelly simple because he liked figure skating over hockey.

Recently, when Jamie tried to start a Rainbow Club at his high school to promote acceptance of others, the posters were torn down and he was called vicious names in the hallways and online. We had meetings with officials at the school and were working with them to bring an end to it but Jamie felt it would never stop.

We will not say that the bullying was the only reason for James’s decision to take his own life but it was definitely a factor. As his family and friends or even if you never met him but want to help, we must do whatever we can to wipe out bullying for any reason in our society and especially in our schools. Young people are very vulnerable and have enough pressures in life to have to deal with aside from the stress of being bullied. My family’s wish is that no more families have to suffer the unbearable pain of losing a child. No child should have to deal with depression or feel hated because of their beliefs – that is not the Canadian way of treating others.

Bullying doesn’t always take the form of physical violence. Especially today with cyber bullying on the Internet, children often feel there is no safe place to go; even when they are at home they can still be victims. Earlier I mentioned his posters being taken down. Many friends have offered to stand by the posters to ensure children that may want to meet and talk about issues that don’t harm others will be given the chance to do so. The school has made a promise to me that they will ensure the posters are protected. We hope from our tragedy others will become more active in stopping this cruelty towards children.

To this end, after my family and I have had some time to come to terms with the loss of our beautiful son James, I will be working hard to use my energy and public position to help bring awareness and resources to those groups working to stop the bullying and find a treatment for depression. Wendy and I have asked that all the people wishing to make a donation in Jamie’s memory.

It's sad that even with Jamie's school administration cooperating - something not seen in far too many school divisions - Jamie still ended up taking his own life. It leaves me feeling physically sick to think about such tragic losses of young lives. Also that the falsely pious and self-congratulatory Christianists and their political whore allies can feel superior and/or receive votes from hate filled monsters.