Billy Lucas was only 15 years old, a freshman at Greensburg High School in Indiana, United States. Like any normal high school students, he goes to school, attends classes, gets assigned with homework and projects, and then he goes home. Sounds like any ordinary high shcool kid, doesn’t it?
But more often than not, he went home unhappy.
Just a few weeks into the school year, Billy Lucas hung himself after having enduring too much bullying from his peers. Yes, his horrific high school experience killed him. His mother found her dear, innocent son, hanging, in their barn. It was said that on that unfaithful day, some bullies in his school had actually told him to kill himself.
In a separate incident, Jamey Rodemeyer committed suicide on the 18th of September at the age of 14 after having succumbed to all the anti-gay bullying that was directed towards him. He had told family and friends that he had endured hateful comments in school and online, mostly related to his sexual orientation. He once cited Lady Gaga as a source of support in looking past the torment that he has had to face day in, day out, at school:
Just four months after Jamey Rodemeyer’s YouTube video was posted, he took his life. Jamey sent out many signals on social networking sites that he was struggling with his sexuality, even though he encouraged others via his “It Gets Better” YouTube video to fight off the bullies.
He killed himself this weekend after posting an online farewell. Tracy Rodemeyer, mother of Jamey Rodemeyer, said that she will bury her son in a t-shirt with a message of acceptance and defiance. It reads simply: “Born this way.”
When these news came to light on Wednesday last week, Lady Gaga express her sadness over twitter:
She has also pledged to meet with President Obama to enact laws to make bullying a hate crime, to make it illegal. Clearly shaken with the news about these deaths, Gaga wants to make the world a better place for the children who try so hard to dare to, like her, be different. But instead get shunned by friends and society alike.
The incidents that were caused by the years of bullying because these boys’ sexuality had saddened and outraged many people, especially Lady Gaga. The “You And I” singer was so deeply affected and is still struggling with the news of by recent death of one of her “little monsters”.
We truly hope that Lady Gaga, the artist that attributes much of her early success as a mainstream artist to her gay fans and is considered to be a gay icon, can guide us all into making a difference and stop bullying once and for all.
