Within a few minutes, several people on Facebook had responded with words of encouragement — with very positive reactions from the depressed young man.

Groups like PACER and crisis response avenues and hotlines like the Trevor Project can provide immediate help for kids who are overwhelmed and considering the worst.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has joined the sustained national chorus against antigay bullying.

In a new YoutTube video, Clinton says, “Children are particularly vulnerable to the hurt caused by discrimination and prejudice, and we’ve lost many young people over the years to suicide. These most recent deaths are a reminder that all Americans have to work harder to overcome bigotry and hatred.”

Watch the full video

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/10/19/Secy_of_State_Clinton_on_Bullying/

________

Another 19 year old took his life, this time following city council meetings in Norman, Oklahoma.

Harrington’s family, who described him as a private young man who internalized his feelings and emotions, said it was this “toxic” environment at the Sept. 28 council meeting that may have pushed their gay son and brother over the edge.

.

Nikki Harrington, Zach’s older sister, said her brother likely took all of the negative things said about members of the GLBT community straight to heart. “When he was sitting there, I’m sure he was internalizing everything and analyzing everything … that’s the kind of person he was,” she said. “I’m sure he took it personally. Everything that was said.”

.

Harrington’s father, Van, said he wasn’t sure why his son went to the meeting, especially after his experiences in Norman once he revealed that he was gay as a teenager. He said he feels his son may have glimpsed a hard reality at the Sept. 28 council meeting, a place where the same sentiments that quietly tormented him in high school were being shouted out and applauded by adults the same age as his own parents. “I don’t think it was a place where he would hear something to make him feel more accepted by the community,” he said. “For somebody like Zach, it (the meeting) was probably very hard to sit through.”

.

Zach Harrington, who graduated from Norman North High School in 2009, had been struggling with acceptance for years. Despite being a talented musician “who could play any instrument he picked up,” Van Harrington said his son asked to leave school early during his senior year and finish his diploma in a separate program. “He feared for his safety on many occasions at (Norman North), and other people like him,” Van said. “Even though he was 6-4, he was passive and I’m sure being gay in that environment didn’t help.”

.

Nikki Harrington, who is eight years older than her brother and also attended Norman North, said she recalls the way members of the GLBT community were treated during her time there. “There was one gay guy in my high school at the time, and he was made fun of all the time,” she said. “It was a pretty much non-stop thing at school.” …

.

Both Nikki and Van said they hope people will think about the things they say in public. Both feel that words can do more than hurt feelings, especially when they come from our friends and neighbors. “When we talk about our feelings in a hypothetical way and we send our toxic thoughts out in a public setting that way, they will affect people in a negative way,” Nikki said. “People need to think about the things they are saying and ask themselves, ‘Is this right?'”

.

Harrington’s parents don’t seem to hold any resentment toward the community that spoke out against Zach and others like him, even with the loss of their son not yet a week old. “I don’t have any anger … I just hope those people look inside themselves and put themselves in somebody else’s shoes before saying things like that,” Van Harrington said. “Maybe if more of us did that, well, maybe things would’ve turned out different.”

.

Harrington’s mother, Nancy, said she hopes that other parents can learn a lesson her family is now paying for in sorrow and loss. “This can happen to anybody,” she said. “No matter how diligent we are.”

Having come from a small town and lived in Oklahoma City, I understand a bit of what he went through. Norman, although a college town (Oklahoma University), is in some ways even worse in that respect that its larger neighbor to the north.

…

The Bullying Years: A Survival Guide for Gay Kids — Gary R. Cohen, MD

God made you special — that’s why you’re not like 90% of the human population. And no amount of ignorant Bible thumping, political hypocrisy or cowardly bullying can change that fact.

Your right to exist, just as you are, is absolute — it’s not up for anyone’s approval or for a vote. I’ve learned that the bullies who tell you otherwise are either immature morons or bald-faced liars. Tune them out. As former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wisely observed, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”…

So, when I look back, I’m glad that I didn’t become someone else and that I did summon the courage to wake up every single day. My life is precious — both to me and to the world — and so is yours.

A wise philosopher once wrote, “Youth is the one period in which a man can be hopeless. Every difficult episode seems like the end of the world. But the power of hoping — through everything — the knowledge that the soul survives its pain; that great inspiration comes with age.”

So, take my advice. Stay tough, stay hopeful, stay healthy and stay alive because, I promise you — as a gay man, a medical doctor and, most importantly, as a survivor — it absolutely does get better.

With love and respect,

Gary R. Cohan, M.D., F.A.C.P.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-cohan/how-to-survive-a-bully-an_b_763664.html

?”Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” — Oscar Wilde

Seflishness. Is this not the very essence of bullying — whether the bullies and victims are kids or adults?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeKI8biAglU&feature=player_embedded#!

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has joined the sustained national chorus against antigay bullying.

In a new YoutTube video, Clinton says, “Children are particularly vulnerable to the hurt caused by discrimination and prejudice, and we’ve lost many young people over the years to suicide. These most recent deaths are a reminder that all Americans have to work harder to overcome bigotry and hatred.”

Watch the full video

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/10/19/Secy_of_State_Clinton_on_Bullying/