Spirit Day: purple To honor gay teen suicides
Spirit Day
Last Wednesday was dedicated to Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transsexual (LGBT) youth in honor of the recent teen suicides due to homophobic abuse in the home and schools Oct. 20.
Wednesday was a day dedicated to the eight teens that committed suicide in the recent months who were abused and harassed for being homosexual. According to gayrights.change.org, LGBTQ Spirit Day was started by Canadian teenager Brittany McMillan, who used her Tumblr account to spread the message to support the teens.
Many Facebook groups were also created to support the “Spirit Day,” which was to show the hundreds of thousands of LGBT youth who face the same pressures and bullying, and that there is a vast community of people who support them.
One of the Facebook groups posted a message on the group page, “Purple represents Spirit on the LGBTQ flag and that’s exactly what we’d like all of you to have with you: spirit. Please know that times will get better and that you will meet people who will love you and respect you for who you are, no matter your sexuality.”
Laura McGinnis, a spokeswoman for the Trevor Project, a national organization focused on suicide prevention for LGBT youth, told USA Today that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender teenagers are four times as likely to commit suicide than straight teenagers.
Some schools have been taking part in the fight against the bullying, with programs and clubs to support LGBT youth, for high school and college students.
Students have spoken out about the suicides.
“I think it’s a good thing that people are taking notice of this gay-bashing leading to emotional instability,” said Mikel Mitchell, 20, business. “But I don’t like that it took such extreme matters to get here.”
The Human Rights Campaign has many ways a student can get involved, such as The Youth & Campus Outreach Program, which provides tools, facilitates connections, and empowers Generation Equality to fight for LGBT equality on campus and beyond.
A message on their official website said, “Generation Equality, the current group of high school and college-aged young people, is more supportive of LGBT equality than any other generation in our country’s history. As young people work to attain the goals of the queer community on their campuses, it is our hope that we can help by providing tools and facilitating connections with other LGBT student activists across the country.”
For more ways to help go to www.hrc.org.