Suicide claimed another young life on a recent September Saturday. Jamey Rodemeyer, a 14-year-old from Buffalo, New York, had been tormented for the past 12 months by cyberbullies who made disparaging comments with gay references.
Justin Aaberg, a gay 15-year-old from Champlain, Minnesota, hanged himself after being bullied. These young men join the list of tortured souls singled out because of their sexual orientation.
The U.S. Department of Education held its first ever bullying summit on August 11 and 12, 2011 in Washington, D.C. The goal of the summit was to engage both governmental and non-governmental agencies in the development of a national strategy to reduce and end bullying.
Bullying has existed in neighborhoods and schools for centuries. It is a problem that is not going away. With social networking, cyberbullying is becoming more rampant among children and teenagers.
An estimated one in seven students in kindergarten through Grade 12 is either a bully or has been a victim of bullying. About one quarter of all students in this same age group are the victims of bullying and harassment while on school property because of their race, ethnicity, gender, disability, religion or sexual orientation.
Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among children under the age of 14. Bullycide refers to suicide as the result of bullying.
Gay and lesbian teens are two to three times as more likely to commit suicide than other youths. It is estimated that 30 percent of all completed suicides have been related to sexual identity crisis.
Can understanding our own sexuality help prevent bullying? The World Health Organization defines sex as the biological and physiological characteristics which define men and women. Male and female are biological categories.
Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. Masculine and feminine are gender categories.
Gender identity is the internal sense that a person has of being male, female or a variation of the two.
Sexual orientation describes an individual’s physical and/or romantic attraction to another individual. One’s sexual orientation defines the group of people in which one is likely to find the satisfying and fulfilling romantic relationships that are essential components of personal identity for many of us.
Why are adolescents most often either victims of bullying or the bully? Adolescence is a period for developing autonomy, awareness of sexual feelings and questioning of one’s sexual orientation. Some teens identify as being heterosexual but are attracted to individuals of the opposite sex. Other youths are equally aware of their attraction to someone of the same sex and identify as being homosexual.
Some adolescents have same-sex feelings or experiences that cause questioning and confusion about their sexual orientation. Other individuals are attracted to someone of the same or opposite sex and identify themselves as bigender. Some teens can be transgender and have gender identity which differs from their sex.
Mutual respect, acceptance and support of every human being may end the senseless hate crime of bullycide.
Sources:
abc NEWS/Health: Gay Buffalo Teen Commits Suicide on Eve of National Bullying Summit, September 21, 2011, accessed Sept. 23, 2011
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/gay-buffalo-teen-commits-suicide-eve-national-bullying/story?id=14571861
U.S. Department of Education: U.S. Education Secretary to Keynote Department’s First-Ever Bullying Summit, Sept. 23, 2011
http://www.ed.gov/news/media-advisories/us-education-secretary-keynote-departments-first-ever-bullying-summit
Bullying Statistics; Bullying Statistics 2010, Sept. 23, 2011
http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-statistics-2010.html
World Health Organization: What do we mean by “sex” and “gender”, Sept. 26, 2011
http://www.who.int/gender/whatisgender/en
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States: Questions and Answers: LGBTQ Youth Issues, Sept. 26, 2011
http://www.siecus.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewpage&pageid=605&grandparentID=477&parentID=591
Reviewed September 28, 2011
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Malu Banuelos