The LGBT community of Miami- Dade and South Florida has an important resource to help others become more aware and perhaps prevent LGBT suicides like the recent ones the nation has seen. The LGBT Helpline and Suicide Awareness Program at Switchboard of Miami is available 24 hours, 7 days a week to help.

Unfortunately, it’s not just teenagers who are at risk at times approximately 50% of their callers have been between 35 and 59 years old — sadly forgotten, literally and figuratively, are the midaged and older adults, especially men,who, for reasons of loneliness, health or financial problems turn to suicide as a solution.

Each member of the LGBT community has a special responsibility to one another. Since many in the community are separated from their biological family, either geographically or emotionally, their de facto family becomes their friends, co-workers, neighbors or even acquaintances.

The Helpline can be reached at (305) 646-3600 anytime to speak to a counselor. At the other end of the line will be a member of The LGBT Helpline and Suicide Awareness Program to listen, to help in a crisis, to discuss the warning signs of suicide and depression or to design an action plan with information and referrals for you, a friend or family member. It’s free and completely confidential.

The LGBT Helpline and Suicide Awareness Program has been serving the Miami region for 5 years via the Switchboard of Miami, Inc. The organization’s staff and volunteers have played an important role in over 260 crisis situations with members of our LGBT community in their hour of need and have provided information and referrals to more than 400 additional more individuals, their friends and families.

The recent tragic death of Tyler Clementi, an 18 year-old Rutgers University Freshman whose sexual tryst was broadcast across the Internet leading to his subsequent suicidal jump off the George Washington Bridge, has gay activists and advocates screaming for a call to action.

This story is not that of one, but of many. Hazing mainly happens in school, especially in college, when many LGBT individuals are discovering their sexual orientation. In the case of Clementi, his unspoken sexuality was exposed twice across the Internet, which begs the question: would this have happened if he were straight?

As someone who has been personally persecuted by people of the likes of Clementi’s accused roommate, Dharun Ravi, I tend to think not. Straight people have sex on TV, in magazines and in movies every day; gay sexuality is still not mainstream. Whether the actions of the college students were out of curiosity, or just a sophomoric prank or bigotry, remains to be answered.

In high schools and colleges across the nation, kids and young adults are forced into silence for fear of retaliation. Unless a person of authority personally intercepts malicious behavior unto another student, silence follows. It takes the death of someone to instill change in schools or a community, but these changes are often short-lived and wildly ineffective, since teachers and others are often too passive to defend the meek.

Now, another person is dead. A talented and gifted musician died because of torment inflicted over his sexual orientation. If being gay had to be personified from a state of being into an emotional context, it would be love. So, in essence these people were tortured, and in some cases killed, because they found the ability to love. This isn’t a legislative problem; it is one of society as a whole – blind-eye syndrome.

How many more people need to die before something is done? The Matthew Shepard Law helps, but it doesn’t do enough as a preventative measure.

At my high school in Massachusetts, our Gay-Straight Alliance wrote and enacted an anti-harassment policy to reduce the level of violence and hate speech at the school. This policy was left practically unenforced until the death of Phoebe Prince, which lead to an anti-bullying state law enacted in her honor. This law was written in blood, just like the Shepard law.

Politicians, such as Tom Emmer, the current Republican candidate for governor in Minnesota, a candidate financially supported by major corporations such as Target, Best Buy and 3M, feels that our society does not need bullying laws. In fact, during one of his campaign speeches, he said that if he were elected governor, he would veto the “Safe Schools for All” bill, a bill that includes protection for students bullied because of sexual orientation, gender, race, religion and disability.

The Facts:

• 45% of gay males and 20% of lesbians report having experienced verbal harassment and/or physical violence as a result of their sexual orientation during high school.

• 42% of adolescent lesbians and 34% of adolescent gay males who have suffered physical attack also attempt suicide.

• 20% of LGBT youth report skipping school at least once a month because of feeling unsafe while there. •19% of gay/lesbian youth report suffering physical attacks based on their sexual orientation.

(Source: Lambda.org)

If LGBT Americans had equal rights and were not treated as a minority, heterosexual kids would grow up thinking of them as their fellow humans and not a subhuman class that should be persecuted, ridiculed, and tortured because they love someone of the same sex. This problem will persist, more people will die, and more laws will be written in their blood until we start changing on a societal level. Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world,” start practicing compassion and let’s stop the deaths now!H

New York blogger, Joshua Plant is the owner of Plant Public Relations and Social Media Marketing. His blog can be found at www.PlantPR.com

By DMITRY RASHNITSOV,

In the wake of five suicides by gay teenagers in September, celebrities and politicians are participating in a YouTube video campaign launched by Seattlebased sex columnist, Dan Savage to help kids understand that they are not the only ones who had to endure bullying and harassment growing up.

“There were no gay people in my family and no openly gay people at my school, but I was picked on because I liked musicals and I was obviously gay and some kids didn’t like that and I did get harassed,” Savage said in the candid, 8- minute video.

Since Sept. 21, the YouTube channel, which can be found at http://www.you tube.com/user/itgetsbetterproject, has had more than 1.4 million visitors viewing the more than 1,000 videos that people have submitted.

The project was sparked by the recent suicides of Raymond Chase, 19; Tyler Clementi, 18; Billy Lucas, 15; Asher Brown, 13 and Seth Walsh, 13.

Some of the celebrities participating include: Ellen DeGeneres, Neil Patrick Harris, Tim Gunn from “Project Runway,” Chris Colfer from “Glee” and blogger Perez Hilton.

Photos Courtesy YouTube, Lifetime Chris Colfer(L) Tim Gunn(C) Perez Hilton(R)

“Nine out of 10 gay teenagers experience bullying and harassment at school and gay teens are four times likelier to attempt suicide,” Savage said. “Many LGBT kids who do kill themselves live in rural areas, exurbs and suburban areas, places with no gay organizations or services for queer kids.”

Some within the GLBT community are criticizing the project.

“However, if we keep telling suicidal people that their situation will ‘get better’ without actually taking any steps to improve it — if we don’t provide support and medical care for people with depression; if we don’t help people who are being abused to find a safe place; if we don’t make sure that the systematic, community- wide abuse of GLBT youth is eliminated — then belief alone can wear thin,” writes Sady Doyle, a freelance writer and blogger.

Zoe Melisa, another gay blogger lists her top 13 reasons why she doesn’t like the project at Queer Watch.

“The rhetoric about being accepted by family encourages folks to come out — even when coming out isn’t a safe idea,” Melisa writes. “There is no infrastructure to catch you when your family reacts poorly. There is no truly benevolent queer family, waiting to catch you, ready to sacrifice so you can thrive. For a lot of folks, coming out doesn’t only mean that your parents will promise to hate your lovers — it means violence, homelessness, abuse.”

Even in the wake of criticism, President Barack Obama’s administration is getting behind the project and pushing the message that bullying in high schools, middle schools and colleges needs to stop.

“No young person should have to endure a life of relentless taunts and harassment just because they’re gay,” said Obama Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett during the Human Rights Campaign’s annual national dinner. “On behalf of President Obama, I want to make clear that this administration is firmly committed to working with you and other advocates. For we all have to ensure that we are creating an environment in our schools, our communities, and our country, that is safe for every person, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

The Safe Schools Improvement Act and the Student Non- Discrimination Act were introduced in Congress in 2009, but lawmakers have not been in a rush to tackle the issue.

“The Department of Health and Human Services has announced an unprecedented National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention,” Jarrett said. “This alliance brings together a wide range of public and private partners. And it’s going to make sure people have access to help, and to resources when they are in crisis. One of its specific goals is preventing suicide in at-risk groups, including LGBT youth.

Several Young men across the United States killed themselves due to anti-gay bullying.

For years, Nadine Smith and Equality Florida fought bigoted legislators to prove that laws needed to be passed to curb schoolyard bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. The recent high-profile stories of gay teen suicides across the country proved that Smith’s efforts were important in securing the passage of Florida’s Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up for All Students Act in 2008. More teenagers may be afraid to reveal themselves for fear of harassment from their peers. The incidents of gay teenagers taking their own lives that grabbed national headlines in September were:

• On September 29, 19-year-old Raymond Chase, a sophomore at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island committed suicide by hanging himself in his dorm room. Friends and family said that Raymond seemed happy and they did not know he was suicidal.

• On September 23, 13-year-old Asher Brown of Houston shot himself in the head in his step-father’s closet. The middle- schooler was constantly picked on by four students at his school and endured being called gay and had mock gay acts performed on him during physical education class.

• On September 22, 18-year-old Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University in New Jersey, jumped off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River after his roommate secretly videotaped Clementi engaging in sexual activity with another man. Clementi was not out to his family and officials believe he was so distraught over the video’s release online that that is what caused him to take his own life. Clementi’s former roommate, 18-year-old Dharun Ravi, is being charged with invasion of privacy.

• On September 19, 13-year-old Seth Walsh of Fresno, California hung himself on a tree in his family’s backyard after getting bullied by a group of local teenagers in a park. Seth had been openly gay but not sexually active according to his family. No criminal charges will be filed in the case.

• On September 9, 15-year-old Billy Lucas of Greensburg, Indiana saw no end to the constant stream of teasing and harassment for his openly bisexual orientation and hanged himself from the rafters of his family’s barn. A day before the suicide Billy had a chair pulled out from underneath him in the school cafeteria and his classmates had taunted him by saying he should just go hang himself. “The recent pattern of LGBT youth suicides is cause for grave concern,” said Shane Windmeyer, founder of Campus Pride, a national resource group founded in 2001. “Campus Pride demands national action be taken to address youth bullying, harassment and the need for safety and inclusion for LGBT youth at colleges and universities. We must not let these tragic deaths go unnoticed. Together we must act decisively to curb anti- LGBT bias incidents, harassment and acts of violence.”

According to a 2009 survey of 7,261 middle and high school students by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT students experienced harassment at school and nearly two-thirds felt unsafe because of their sexual orientation. Nearly a third of LGBT students skipped at least one day of school in the past month because of safety concerns.

The Safe Schools Improvement Act and the Student Non- Discrimination Act were introduced in Congress in 2009, but lawmakers have not been in a rush to tackle the issue.

United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan urged Congress to devote the time to this important piece of legislation after the recent tragedies.

“This is a moment where every one of us — parents, teachers, students, elected officials, and all people of conscience — needs to stand up and speak out against intolerance in all its forms,” Duncan said. “Whether it’s students harassing other students because of ethnicity, disability or religion; or an adult, public official harassing the President of the University of Michigan student body because he is gay, it is time we as a country said enough. No more. This must stop.”

National Coming Out Day, an internationally observed civil awareness day is October 11 and could be a good day for many students to take an anti-GLBT bullying stand and support their peers if they choose to express their orientation.

“The end to bullying and creating a culture of respect for all isn’t a onestep or one-sided effort,” said a joint statement by GLSEN, The Trevor Project and PFLAG. “It is critical that concerned friends, family and community members know they have the power to take action to help at-risk youth right now.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis and has mentioned or is considering suicide take it seriously and get help.

Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273- TALK (8255) or the Trevor Lifeline at 1-866-488-7386.