'It Gets Better Project' – Jamey Rodemeyer – a valuable life, a sad lesson

 

 

 

Digital Life – Teen contributor to 'It Gets Better Project' takes his own life.

NOOOO!  I can't say it loud enough. This kind of stuff has to stop. We have to end it now.  My husband showed me the clip, and once again, I felt the despair. The lost hope. The feeling like the only light at the end of the train is a locomotive hauling ass directly towards your heart and brains.

Tyler Clementi's suicide impacted me in a big way. Because of him, I decided to "come out" and share my life story, in honor of the It Get's Better Project.  You can see my interview with Sylvia Massara on the Lit Chic Show. In it, I share that I consider myself intersexed (emotionally) and I am also a bi-sexual.

Unfortunately, during suicide prevention week, the same week I did the radio show, another suicide happened.

This time it was Jamey Rodemeyer.

"Last May, Jamey Rodemeyer added his video to the It Gets Better Project, the Internet video site where adults share hope with LGBT teens, a minority likely to be bullied by even the adults in their lives and suffer a disproportionately high suicide rate. On Monday, the 14-year-old teen from Buffalo, N.Y., was found dead outside his home, having apparently taken his own life." (Digital Life)

Digital Life also reports these warning signs:

Warning signs of suicide:

Talking about feeling trapped or in unbearable pain

Talking about feeling hopeless or having no purpose

Talking about being a burden to others


Increasing the use of alcohol or drugs


Acting anxious, agitated or reckless


Sleeping too little or too much


Withdrawing or feeling isolated


Showing rage or talking about seeking revenge


Displaying extreme mood swings

Looking for a way to kill oneself

The more of these signs a person shows, the greater the risk. Warning signs are associated with suicide but may not be what causes a suicide.

There are times where I just want to scream, cry and hate people because they are mean. They have no idea – I truly believe most don't – until it is too late, how hateful their comments and actions can be.

Adults can be cruel too. I don't limit this to kids. We are all products of our environment.  And before I go off on a tangent, I'm not politically correct. I make bad and off color jokes but that is what jokes are meant to do – be funny, laugh at our humanness, poke fun at our weaknesses and exaggerate our strengths.

What I am not ok with is when people deliberately set out to make someone else miserable.  Acceptance and tolerance, that's I guess what I am asking for. Thankfully our military has overturned the Don't Ask Don't Tell Policy.  Perhaps the recognition that GLBT's are people too, and that the only way they can be the best that they can be, is to be able to be free to be who and what they are.

Speaking up for those that cannot

I had an awareness of my own inability to speak up for gender bullying and I talk about it in Chapter 79 of Bad Girl Gone Mom.  I'm not happy to admit it, but I couldn't stick up to a bully either. And I tried to ignore my inaction but that turned into rage.

Now I want to find a way to turn my anger from hate to understanding. I want to impact how people feel about gays, lesbians, bi-sexual's and transgender/transvestites.

Why is this so important to me?

I had a close friend commit suicide. One time I had to cut her down from a shower curtain bar. It broke me up to see her in such pain but I didn't know why she hurt so bad. I wanted to help her, but only she could do that for herself.  Secrets can kill. Here is my story about  Diane.

Here's the interview I did with Bax & Obrien: Click the link, then the arrow to hear it free: KC Lauer on WAQY.

Afterwards, Bax thanked me for sharing my story and said he thought it was interesting.  O'Brien's probably visualizing me as a Barbie Doll, and in reality, that I guess is what it was like. Whatever. That's my story, read the book if you want more of that. Anway, the interview was a life changing moment.

I took a chance and put my heart on the line and I made out better than okay. But it doesn't always happen that way.  I have more secrets about all this but I will only share them in my members area. You have to join my membership to get "Under the Covers with Kay" – LOL.

So here is what is interesting to me:

The percentage of men and women who think of themselves as bisexual or homosexual is roughly equal at 4.1%. This represents 2.27 million men and 2.29 million women in the United States.(About: Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCFHS) Prevalence of Bisexuality)

There are help links to the right side of my blog wall for GLBT, Suicide, Gender and Addiction issues. If you or someone you know is struggling with these problems, please know that there really are people who want to legitimately help.

If you suffer with depression, check out my suggestions in a Yahoo article – Women How do you Cope with Depression. Quick answer: Help someone else.

It only takes 1% to flip the balance on a scale.  Sometimes when we are going through things, particularly in our teen and young adult years, it is very difficult to see how we will come through things.  The reality is we don't have to see. We only have to believe that tomorrow can be better than today. We must choose to put that 1% on the scale and take a risk, and tip it towards living rather than dying. Please, if you stopped by and are looking for a reason to live. You have found it. I believe in you and you can do this. Don't give up. Take a chance and reach out to someone on the right side of the screen through my "sensitive" topics links.

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