“I just wish we could address a social problem without putting a face on it.”

is spot on. It’s also how I feel about the whole Rihanna situation, since after she was abused by Chris Brown the entertainment (and news) media decided they’d turn her into the poster girl for domestic violence. It was just unfair and stupid, as if she had somehow signed on to be the “new face of battery” or she’d asked for it, when I can only assume she did the complete opposite. It was disgusting. Are we incapable of feeling angry about a nasty concept or way of thinking without it needing a mascot? People live off the shock value of cases like this, it’s like an emotional drug hit. It’s incredibly offensive and a slap in the face to the people actually involved.

Bullying needs to be addressed in the home, at school, in the workplace, and in our legal system. But making a martyr of that college student is still a terrible thing to do to his family.

It does get better. I was bullied relentlessly in junior high. Pushed down a flight of stairs… all kinds of awful shit. The girls who were bitches to me sometimes try to add me on Facebook. None of them are attractive. My ex step cousin was one of those girls, and she got so drunk one night at a frat party, she shit all over herself (ironically, that girl would go on TIRADES about how homosexuality and ‘liberals’ were going to hell).

It’s great when you’re out of the storm and you can look at it and just see a bunch of dipshits. But it’s so unfortunate that some are unable to do that. I wish they were still here with us. And yes, I agree that this person did not want to be made a martyr of, but I can also empathize with why it is happening.

My view on this is that I feel terrible for his family. I can’t even begin to imagine their grief. But as for the boy himself, he’s gone where nothing here can hurt him anymore, and I hope he’s at peace. I think for most journalists and activists, it comes down to a delicate balance between respecting the family’s grief, and trying to make a change so that more kids don’t die and more families don’t have to mourn. In this situation, I feel like his parents’ wishes should be respected. Some parents start foundations when their child is the victim of a hate crime, others mourn in private. I feel both are valid and understandable choices and it bothers me that one is lauded and the other ignored.

Of course, it all goes back to the double-standard: if you’re straight, your personal life is your business. If you’re gay, your personal life is a political statement, and if you don’t want it to be, you get called a “closet case.” Ugh.