I am getting REALLY SICK of hearing about gay teenagers killing themselves because of either bullying from their peers or from being marginalized by their classmates and friends or family.
It makes me briefly sad, but ultimately very angry that we live in a country that allows this to happen because we allow homophobia to be tolerated. It should be a total fucking embarrassment, yest sadly is just another sad allegory for the total (lack of) moral backbone in our nation.
The suicidal death of Tyler Clementi last week (an 18-year-old student at Rutgers) was the last straw.
This young man, who was apparently very timid and struggling to come to grasp with his own sexuality was betrayed and outed by his own dorm-mate Dharun Ravi, who took it upon himself to record Tyler having sex with another male classmate in their room (without Tyler's consent or knowledge), and then betray him even further by posting it on Twitter for the whole world to see. Dharun though it was all fair game...good fun and folly for their peers.
Obviously, it was a crime and should be treated as such. What is more disturbing though is that it's also a complete breach of human decency. It is completely inexcusable.
This poor young man, who may have been uncomfortable accepting himself or allowing himself to come out of his shell, sadly ended his own life out of embarrassment. He probably felt like he was backed into a corner by such a careless betrayal of trust and humanity.
Dharun Ravi (and his accomplice Molly Wei) hijacked this young man's identity. By posting this video, they "outed" him to all of their peers without his consent. No matter how you look at it, it is more than bullying, it is akin to identity theft. By spilling someone's secrets to the world, aren't we stealing their identity? Aren't we deciding for them who they are by our standards? Aren't we making them vulnerable to predators of this world?
Charging these two simply with invasion of privacy charges is more than adding insult to injury...it's an outrage. Trading one life for a slap on the wrist and probably 1-2 years of jail time (if even convicted) for these two is just outrageous.
They are almost certainly responsible for the death of this young man. The only thing they could have done to make it quicker would have been to push him off the bridge.
I can't imagine what the defense team will come up with as their excuse for such behavior. I certainly know that it will only make me MORE angry. I hope it makes LOTS of people angry, because the people in this country need to know that this is intolerable.
I sincerely hope that what comes out of this crime is a renewed understanding of civil rights for EVERYONE. We all deserve exactly the same rights under the law. We all deserve the right to be who we are, in an environment that protects and celebrates our diversity.
America can no longer be the "home of the free" unless ruthless homophobia is wiped out of our society. This story proves that it is one of the most pressing social issues of time, and it's time has come.
