26-Year-Old Joseph Jefferson Didn’t Kill Himself Because of Gay Bullying. Neither Did Raymond Chase.

[fabnana]

The New York Times has an insightful piece today about Joseph Jefferson, the 26-year-old gay Brooklyn community activist who committed suicide in October. Before hanging himself, Jefferson left a message on his Facebook wall which read: “I could not bear the burden of living as a gay man of color in a world grown cold and hateful towards those of

Comments

[technocratic]

Exactly.

[lisaquestions]

Thank you for saying this.

[salienne]

Seconding the thank you.

I see most everyone ignoring this, especially around the It Gets Better campaign and its efficacy, and it really bothers me.

[keeni84]

The United States of America as a whole is the biggest homophobe out there. DUH.

[redstar826]

Well, I do think the media discussions around the issue of gay people committing/attempting suicide have been rather over simplistic, and that bullying may not always be a factor. I tried to kill myself 8 years ago because I didn't want to be gay, bullying was not an issue at all for me at that time. Rather, I was dealing with stuff related to my religious upbringing and fears about how my family would react. Internalized homophobia is about a lot more than just being bullied at school

[andnightsgrow]

THIS, ty. i'm out of high school so i don't really experience bullying and never did, but finding a therapist after i moved that wouldn't condemn or dismiss my pansexuality took weeks and hundreds of calls, and i'm sure there are tons of other people, depending on geographic area, who could say the same (i'm in arkansas, which might be a factor)

[doitninetimes]

I guess the point of this article is, can you still call it bullying when it is an entire society and culture telling someone they are worthless by reason of their sexual orientation?

Seems to me it is just a matter of scale.

[pythia]

Agreed.