Hating Yourself
You may have heard about the recent cluster of suicides among young, gay males. They were bullied and hated so much that they decided to end it all forever.
From the time kids are elementary school aged, a lot of the things that they see every day teach them that things about them that deviate from the norm make them less lovable.
Suicide is what happens when kids learn to hate themselves.
Two kids, 14 and 15, killed themselves in my home state this week. One of them was attending the high school from which I graduated, and one was a member of the publicized cluster mentioned above.
Every time I hear about someone who has taken his or her own life, I wonder who was teaching that kid that one thing, or even several, uncontrollable things, was enough to make him or her unlovable.
Dan Savage, of Savage Love, an advice column, started a project with his husband called the It Gets Better project, designed to help anyone who is dealing with bullies, saying that the bullies can’t hurt you when they aren’t around anymore, and they aren’t worth your time, or your feelings, and especially aren’t worth your life.
Here is the video that Dan made with his husband, Terry:
It’s such a sad thing to think of. Thanks for posting this vid–it’s a nice way of giving hope to people who need it!