Town Hall “Bullying: It Stops Here” airs Oct. 9

CNN, Facebook, Cartoon Network and Time Inc. have teamed up for a special multi-platform effort aimed at taking a stand to help stop the bullying crisis.  Anderson Cooper 360° will air a week-long series focused on bullying in addition to a town hall hosted at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, marking the one year anniversary of Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi.’s death.

Anderson Cooper will reveal the results of a six-month long pilot study that provide new insight about why kids bully each other and how parents and educators can more effectively stop the problem. In partnership with University of California sociologist Dr. Robert Faris, this groundbreaking investigation involving over 700 junior and high school students will explore the complex social dynamic of bullying, and how certain students hold the key to stopping the problem.

The Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation

http://www.standupfoundation.com/

Reflections of A Black Queer Suicide Survivor: Part 2

Don’t miss the second part of Darnell Moore’s power reflection on being a black queer suicide survivor.

I wanted to be free from the painful situations that eroded the peace in my life. I was born into a world that was not ready for the arrival of a black, male/female loving, gender-maneuvering, book/dance/music-adoring, economically challenged, urban boy. Indeed, the world is not and has not ever been ready for me and other brown/black/queer men…

…We have what is needed within us individually and among us communally to push through such desires in the same way we lived (and are living) in spite of the auction block, chains, whips, nooses, firing squads, laws, prisons, street corners, public health office examination rooms, strangers’ fists, lovers’ arms, and our own hands. It is easy to live when we can put to death others’ thoughts of us. So live, brothers.

Read the rest and share it with your friends!

Darnell Moore: Reflections of a Black Queer Suicide Survior

They wanted to destroy me because I was, to them, a living sign of difference, subversive rebelliousness, an affront on black masculinity and the sanctity of their presumed heterosexuality (even though a few of the “hard” neighborhood boys tried to cross the boundaries of their heterosexuality with me). In many ways, it was this same force of ideas (i.e. What it means to be a boy/man in the hood? A black boy/man? A black queer boy/man? etc.) that had its hand on my back, pushing me, a few years before as I readied myself to leap from my window.

Darrel Moore has written a powerful post about his experiences as a suicide survivor.  Check it out and pass it around.  Let’s get this story to the people who need to read it the most.

Archie’s Kevin Keller #1-2 Review

Check out Neo-Prodigy’s review of the first two issues  Kevin Keller, Archie’s first gay comic character!

I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that somehow when no one was looking, Archie became the coolest kid in the room. Forget 90 percent of the titles being churned out by the big two. If you’re looking for quality and progressive comics, Archie is where it’s at…For those of you who haven’t been keeping up with Archie, there is a reason for the major progressive shift. Since new editorial management has taken over, there has been an emphasis on diversity: characters of various ethnicities as well as queer characters. The powers that be at Archie have been working to make it clear that Riverdale is that ideal town that EVERYONE can be a part of.

RIP Jamey Rodemeyer

thedailywhat:

RIP: 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, a victim of relentless anti-gay bullying, was found dead earlier this week of an apparent suicide.

“I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens,” Jamey wrote on his Tumblr blog in a post dated September 9th. “What do I have to do so people will listen to me?”

The bullying got particularly intense about twelve months ago, when classmates started leaving homophobic remarks on Jamey’s Formspring page. “JAMIE [sic] IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND UGLY. HE MUST DIE!,” read one of the many vicious comments.

Friends were always there to defend him, however, and Jamey himself even appeared to be taking the abuse in stride, contributing a video to Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” project, in which he echos the words of Lady Gaga, telling other bullying victims to “hold [their] head up.”

Sadly, despite assuring his parents multiple times that everything was fine, all was not as it seemed. On Sunday, Jamey posted one final note on his Tumblr: “Thank you Lady Gaga.”

“He touched so many hearts, so many people,” Jamey mom Tracy’s told The Buffalo News. “I didn’t realize how many people he touched. He was the sweetest, kindest kid you’d ever know. He would give all his heart to you before he gave any to himself.”

As American servicemen and women across the globe celebrate the long-overdue demise of the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, Jamey’s untimely death offers a stark reminder that the struggle for tolerance is far from over.

Y-CARE: How to help Prevent Sucide from the Trevor Project