Jamey Rodemeyer needed help. At 14, he was grappling with adolescent demons that could torment grown men. And when he was online, he wrote about it.
"I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens," he wrote Sept. 9. "What do I have to do so people will listen to me?"
Just over one week later, Jamey was found dead outside his home of an apparent suicide.In the months prior, he routinely blogged about school bullying and thoughts of suicide in between upbeat posts about his pop star idol Lady Gaga and the ordinary types of teen rants typical for kids his age. On Sept. 8, he wrote: "No one in my school cares about preventing suicide, while you're the ones calling me [gay slur] and tearing me down."
He put up a separate post that day letting everyone know it was National Suicide Prevention Week. On Saturday night, he posted a lyric from Lady Gaga's song "The Queen" on his Facebook page: "Don't forget me when I come crying to heaven's door."
Then around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Jamey posted two final messages to his main public Tumblr blog. One said he really wanted to see his great-grandmother, who had recently died, and one offered thanks to Lady Gaga.
That was his last entry.
Jamey did have bad days. Issues of bullying and even suicide talk were not new to many of Jamey's family or friends. They were common topics for him and seemed to ramp up to an extreme level when other students started making taunts with gay references to Jamey about 12 months ago on his Formspring account, which permits anonymous posts.
"JAMIE IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND UGLY. HE MUST DIE!" read one post.
Another read: "I wouldn't care if you died. No one would. So just do it :) It would make everyone WAY more happier!"
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Earlier this year Jamie had created and posted a video for Dan Savage's "It Gets Better Project"
It's hard to know exactly what to say when something this horrible this preventable happens. What is clear is Jamey's school and teachers failed him. Failed him with fatal consequences. I could write for pages and pages about how so many self-proclaimed "Family Values Conservatives" have Jamey's blood on their hands today.
I could go on and on about how the dehumanizing rhetoric of hate groups like "Focus on the Family" and the "American Family Association" directly contributed to this young man's tragic death. I could write for days on end about how the quest by hate mongers and bigots like Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum to prevent anti bullying programs in our schools is killing our kids....
But no amount of words on a screen or a page will bring this remarkable young man back, it won't bring back any of the lives that have been lost to hate . So I will simply say, those who hounded this young man and others like him to their deaths, are the farthest thing from Christian. They are evil itself, and I have no doubt that they will rot and burn in hell. With all their hate which they are so sure will buy their way into heaven, they will instead, find themselves standing before God, who will look away and say: "I do not know you ..."
The streets of heaven are too crowded with Angels tonight. I am sorry Jamey. America failed you . Rest in peace.
Left Behind - from "Spring Awakening"
You fold his hands and smooth his tie, you gently lift his chin.
Were you really so blind, and unkind to him?
Can't help the itch to touch, to kiss, to hold him once again.
Now to close his eyes--never open them....
A shadow passed, a shadow passed, yearning, yearning
For the fool it called a home.
All things he never did are left behind.
All the things his mama wished he'd bear in mind,
And all his dad had hoped he'd know.
The talks you never had, the saturdays you never spent.
All the 'grown-up' places you never went.
And all of the crying you wouldn't understand.
You just let him cry, 'make a man out of him.'
A shadow passed, a shadow passed, yearning, yearning
For a fool it called a home.
All things he ever wished are left behind.
All the things his mama did to make him mind,
And how his dad had hoped he'd grow.
All things he ever lived are left behind.
All the fears that ever flickered through his mind.
All the sadness that he'd come to own.
A shadow passed, a shadow passed, yearning, yearning
For the fool it called a home.
And it whistles through the ghosts still left behind.
It whistles through the ghosts still left behind.
Whistles through the ghosts still left behind.
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