AGAIN, PLEASE, STOP: Phillip Parker, 14, Has Killed Himself!

Another one. From WSMV.com: A Gordonsville boy's parents say bullying caused their son to take his own life.  Phillip Parker, 14, died this week. His parents said he was constantly bullied for being gay.

STOP: Gay California Teen Kills Himself After Years of Bullying!

The Sacramento Bee has yet another awful story of a gay teen whose suicide on New Year's Day appears to have years of homophobic bullying as its root cause.

The paper reports:In the early hours of New Year's Day, Jeffrey hanged himself in the front entrance to his family's home in a tony Granite Bay neighborhood. He was 18 years old.

Since that day, his parents have searched their hearts and minds for answers. Though Jeffrey, who was gay, had recently ended a relationship and had been treated for depression, they believe something more insidious put him on the path toward suicide. They are convinced that a lifetime of taunts and bullying contributed to his decision to take his own life.

MARKED: Gay Teen Filmmaker and Trevor Project Intern Takes His Own Life!

Eric James Borges, a gay teen filmmaker from Visalia, California and intern with the Trevor Project, took his own life this week just a month after posting an 'It Gets Better' video chronicling some of the personal troubles he had been through in his past, which included both bullying and an exorcism which his own parents had performed on him in an attempt to turn him straight.

Blogger Jim Reeves writes about Borges' death in a recollection on his blog, Queer Landia. An event page for Borges' memorial has also been set up on Facebook.
Says Borges in the video: I was raised in an extremist Christian household. My earliest recollections of my experience with the relentless and ongoing bullying was in kindergarten, but of course to a lesser degree....Throughout elementary, junior high and high school it got progressively worse. I was physically, mentally, emotionally and verbally assaulted on a day-to-day basis for my perceived sexual orientation...'My name was not Eric but 'Faggot'...I reached my limit when I was assaulted in a full classroom with a teacher present. I dropped out, went on independent studies, graduated early and started college...My mother knew I was gay and performed an exorcism on me in an attempt to cure me....My anxiety, depression, self-loathing and suicidal thoughts spiked...I had nowhere safe to go, either at home or school... My parents told me that, among other things, I was disgusting, perverted, unnatural and damned to Hell. About two months ago they officially kicked me out of my house.

TRANS-LATE: Girl Scout Calls for Boycott of Cookies Because Organization Welcomes Transgender Kids!

A 14-year-old Girl Scout named Taylor is calling for a boycott of Girl Scout Cookies because the organization welcomes transgender children, World Net Daily reports.

Says Taylor, in a YouTube video: “The real question is, why is GSUSA willing to break their own safety rules and go against its own research institute findings to accommodate transgender boys? Unfortunately, I think it is because GSUSA cares more about promoting the desires of a small handful of people than it does for my safety and the safety of my friends and sister Girl Scouts, and they are doing it with money we earned for them from Girl Scout cookies.”

The Girl Scouts of America's inclusive policy made headlines last fall when a Colorado troop refused (and later reversed) admittance to Bobby Montoya, a transgender 7-year-old.

ASSIGNMENT: Gay Teacher Joseph Skillings Discovers New Vocation After Tragedy!

Joseph Skillings was an elementary school teacher near Seattle, WA, until one day he tried to help a woman being harassed at a bus stop. He was attacked, knocked unconscious, and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Upon waking, he'd lost his ability to spell and complete math problems, and he could no longer run a classroom. But through his husband, who is a teacher for the visually impaired, Joseph found a new calling.

AGAIN: New York Bullying Victim Kills Herself!

A Staten Island 15-year-old whose family said she got bullied at school has died after walking in front of a bus holding a suicide note, reports the Daily News. Classmates had taken the belongings of Amanda Cummings and even made mean comments on her Facebook page after the incident, her uncle said. "I’m not going to tolerate this. I’m gonna go full force," said Keith Cummings. "Kids can't do this to each other." Amanda was a "beautiful, healthy, happy, normal young girl," said a cousin, but when it came to troubles at school, "she was pretty quiet about it." She was friends with an 18-year-old boy, which apparently made girls in her grade jealous. "She didn’t phrase it so much to the family but made little comments here and there ... in journals, online or through her Facebook page," said Brandy Henderson, adding that the family had been "trying to deal with" the issue. “I don’t feel anything towards (the bullies) except sadness that it had to lead to something like this."

SHORT AND SWEET: Equality and Love!

A short, sweet, simple mini-doc made by students in a course at California State University Long Beach.

PROPOSAL: 16-Year-Old Boy Asks Justin Bieber To Prom!

This is adorable. The above high school sophomore really, really wants Justin Bieber to go to prom with him, and last June he posted an impassioned invitation on YouTube.

The Belieber wants to make it clear that he's just inviting Biebs as a friend. "No," he explains, "I'm not gay." Hell, Bieber's not even the kid's first choice of prom date. There is, apparently, some girl at his school that he'd rather take, but he's pretty sure she'll turn him down. Biebs, therefore, is his back-up date. "Plan Bieb," if you like.

AGAIN: Tennessee Teen Takes His Own Life After Years of Anti-Gay Bullying!

A Tennessee student has taken his own life following four years of bullying that classmates say the school didn't do enough about, WSMV reports: Friends say that kids bullied Jacob Rogers at Cheatham County Central High School for the past four years, but in the past few months it had become so bad he dropped out of school. And Wednesday, he ended his life.

"He started coming home his senior year saying 'I don't want to go back. Everyone is so mean. They call me a f****, they call me gay, a queer,'" friend Kaelynn Mooningham said.

Kaelynn said her friend Jacob felt ignored.

VICTORY: ACLU Settles Case of Female Student Excluded from Yearbook for Wearing Tuxedo!

The ACLU has reached an agreement with the Copiah County School District in the case of Ceara Sturgis, who was left out of her school yearbook because she wore a tuxedo in her senior photo, the ACLU of Mississippi reports: The district has agreed to adopt a policy that will require all students to wear a cap and gown, rather than require boys to wear tuxedos and girls to wear drapes. As part of the agreement the school will include Sturgis’ photo featuring the tuxedo in her class’s composite picture hanging in the school library.

“I am thrilled that my photo will join my classmates on the wall of our school library,” said Sturgis. “It’s important that nobody else will be forced to wear something that doesn’t reflect who they are.”

The school will also amend its anti-discrimination policy to add language affirming its commitment to following the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

TRANS-FERED: Colorado Transgender suspended for Using Girl's Bathroom!

Dionne Malikowski, a transgender student at Fort Collins High School in Colorado who was suspended for three days about a month ago because she used the girl's bathroom (Dionne identifies as female), is leaving the school, 7News reports: "The day that I used the girls' bathroom, I was in a hurry because I really had to go," Dionne explained.

"All the students at Fort Collins High School have access to restrooms," said Danielle Clark, spokeswoman for the Poudre School District. But there are rules about which restrooms Dionne can use -- and she can only use the staff restrooms.

"When those disruptions happen, it can cause safety issues to come into play," Clark said.

"I don't think I'm going to get harassed in the female bathroom. I think it would be more of a safety issue if I was using the male's bathroom," Dionne argued.

PRETTY: Tennessee Principal Suspends Gay Teen for Wearing Make-Up!

Lexington High School Principal Steve Lindsey suspended gay student Kasey Landrum for wearing make-up, and now Landrum and his mother are speaking out, WBBJ reports:
"I'm very upset about it because he can't be who he wants to be," said Shelly Maness, Kasey Landrum's mother. "When I went to register him, about the make-up, he (Lindsey) reminded us Kasey was not to be wearing any," she adds.

The suspension form obtained by Maness cited her son was suspended on the basis he violated the school's dress code which states: "When a student is attired in a manner, which is likely to cause disruption or interference with normal operation of the school, the administration will take the appropriate action. In matters of opinion, the judgment of the teachers and administrators will prevail." 

STAY IN: Houston Chronicle Columnist Instructs Parents to Tell Their Gay Kids to Stay in the Closet for Their Own Safety!

Houston Chronicle columnist Kathleen McKinley has penned an incredibly homophobic and irresponsible column suggesting that LGBTQ teens should be told by their parents to stay in the closet for their own safety.

McKinley says she came up with her brilliant idea after reading a People magazine about gay teen suicides due to bullying. Am I mad at the hateful mean kids who bully and tease these teens? You bet I am. But I am just as mad at the idiotic adults who force our adult views on kids, and pull them into our adult world long before they are mature enough to handle it. The 13 year old that killed himself told his Mom he was gay. She said she already knew and hugged him. She said she just assumed that everyone else would be as accepting as she was.

Really? Have you been around teenagers? They are cruel and mean. They constantly tear each other down. It was bad when I was a teenager, I can only imagine what it’s like now. No, I don’t have to imagine how it is now. This is how it is now. Why in the world would you give teenagers a REASON to tease you? Oh, yes, because the adults tell you to embrace who you are, the only problem? Kids that age are just discovering who they are. They really have no idea yet.  The adults tell you to “come out,” when what we should be telling them is that sex is for adults, and there is plenty of time for figuring out that later.

ROYALTY: The Lesbian Homecoming King Of Patrick Henry High!

Patrick Henry High, in San Diego, has always "been a little bit ahead of the curve" on social issues, according to gay alum Ben Cartwright. Now, lesbian Rebecca Arellano has been named Patrick Henry's Homecoming King, according to San Diego's Channel 10News.

Perhaps Rebecca would have preferred to be a co-queen, along with girlfriend Haileigh Adams, but that's not how homecoming works. "If there was any other way to do it and have two lesbians who are a couple win, I would," she says. Haileigh Adams was nominated for homecoming queen; she'll learn whether she's won at the homecoming dance this evening.

Members of the Patrick Henry High community have so far been supportive of their lesbian prom king. During their inteview with Rebecca, according to 10News:... cars full of people drove by shouting out things like, "You guys are an amazing couple!"

See the station's interview with Ms. Arellano here.

RAD: Nine-Year-Old Dresses as Deadmau5 for School Halloween Dance!

Says the coolest parent ever: "I asked the DJ if he had any Deadmau5 and he said he planned on playing some after he saw my son walk in."
(clip via reddit, photo via imgur)

XPOSED: Arizona Streaker Charged with Felony!

Jake Lancow, the Arizona streaker who posed as a referee is being made an example: Jace Lankow, an undergraduate at the University of Arizona could face up to one and half years in jail after being charged with a class six felony for criminal impersonation.

“The Conference is extremely disappointed in the actions of the student-athletes involved in this incident,” Commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement. “It is unacceptable behavior and violated Conference rules, as well as NCAA fighting rules.

“I have taken these actions today because it is imperative that we hold our student-athletes and coaches to the highest standards of sportsmanship.”

Lancow's underwear-clad dash across the field inspired a brawl between players which resutlred in 10 suspensions.

GO GAY: These Two Kids Should Be Dating, Instead They're in a Horrifying 'Pray Away the Gay' Video!

I came across a new web video from 'White Throne Films' which stars Bobby Blakey, "a High School Pastor with a passion to help young people follow Christ with a love for God and his word" and two kids who reveal they thought they were gay but then found God, and apparently Blakey.

Blakey's now using them to spread his damaging message that kids can "pray away the gay".

Asserts Blakey: "If you don't accept homosexuality, you're not in with what's happening today....In high school classrooms homosexuality is being aggressively promoted."

DISGUSTED: NJ Governor Chris Christie Calls Teacher Viki Knox's Anti-Gay Facebook Remarks 'Disturbing'!

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was asked about  the furor set off by Union High School teacher Viki Knox and her remarks on Facebook calling homosexuality a "perverted" sin that "breeds like cancer", the Star-Ledger reports: "I think that kind of example is not a positive one at all to be setting for folks who have such an important and influential position in our society," Christie said this morning on 770 WABC Radio. "I'm really concerned about those kinds of statements being made."

Christie said he finds the comments "disturbing."

Hundreds protested yesterday outside a school district board meeting.

Added Christie: "I would like to see an examination of how that teacher conducts herself in the classroom."

HAPPY SPIRIT DAY: Go PURPLE!

Show Your Spirit on October 20, 2011! How you can participate in #SpiritDay:

KISS OFF: Gay Kiss Prompts Football Players to Walk Out of High School Musical!

A group of students, mostly male athletes, walked out of a Hartford High School production of Zanna Don't after a gay kiss made them uncomfortable, CBS Connecticut reports:

 

Zanna Don’t!” depicts life at the fictitious Heartsville High, where students with academically-charged interests sit atop the popularity echelon while football players are the outcasts, and heterosexuals must conceal their sexual preference to avoid public scrutiny.

During the show, two men in the cast share a brief kiss — a lip lock that became a great point of contention.

“There was a public walkout by a bunch of students (when the kiss happened) … mostly male,” [Adam Johnson, principal of the Government and Law Academy] said. “It was visually evident (due to the jerseys the team was wearing) that a lot of football players got up and walked out. It was almost a symbolic kind of thing.”