Just last week we lost 11 year old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover who took his own life because of the constant name calling and harassment he received at school. He was regularly teased and called gay. Now less ten days later we've lost someone else. In Atlanta, Jaheim Herrara took his life the very same way (by hanging himself) for the very same reason (he could no longer take the taunting, the harassment or the name calling).Last Friday was the National Day of Silence which is a day set aside where students bring awareness to anti-gay bulling and harassment. It coincidentally would have also have been the birthday of Carl Walker-Hoover. And now here we go again. We've lost another life to this idiotic behavior that many teachers and school administrators usually ignore. School bullying is never okay and for people to ignore this is an endorsement of the action.
Last night at my men's group UGIMA our topic was taboos. Having just celebrated gay pride here in Phoenix last weekend we talked about how just being gay was taboo not that long ago. It seems we've come so far. We're no longer considered to have a psychological disorder for being gay. We have the right to get married in four states (and more states have pending legislation). Gay themed movies, shows and LGBT characters are now mainstream. So sometimes I'm fooled into feeling that we've made it over. Then something like this happens and I'm reminded that this issue is still taboo. People are still uncomfortable with being labeled homosexual. And we still have young people dying because of this label.
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