A bullied gay teen kills self. Again.

It has happened again.

His name was Jamie Hubley and he was another bullied teenager, taunted and made fun of because he was openly gay. And this past weekend he finally decided he had enough of the abuse and the fear that despite the messages of hope that the “It’s Get Better” project gave, he felt he could not wait another three years. So on Saturday, after posting his final, heartbreaking message online, took his life. He was only 15 years old.

Like Jamey Rodemeyer, who took his life last month at the age of 14 due to the bullying of being openly gay is school as well, Jamie Hubley documented his life via a blog he kept. On it, he poured his grief, his fears, his depression and his heartbreaking life of being bullied in school. He also wrote openly about having no friends and no one understanding what he was going through, even posting pictures of him arms that he cut.

His blog is full of startling images of self-harm, interspersed with messages of sadness, what might amount to an almost text book case of what depression, combined with hate and harassment, does to the soul of a person.  Yet, on the flipside of that coin, his outward personality spoke differently. His love a music was obvious, as well as his ability to sing, as he posted many video covers to Youtube from his favorite artists like Lady Gaga, Adele and Katy Perry. 

On Friday in his blog, he posted his final message where he called himself a “causality of love.” Like any person, gay or straight, he was looking for love and acceptance.  “I just remember him wanting a boyfriend so bad, he’d always ask me to find a boy for him. I think he wanted someone to love him for who he was,” long-time friend Steph Wheeler told the newspaper, The Ottawa Citizen.

But unlike Glee –his favorite show- he discovered being an out gay teen in High School was never going to mirror Kurt’s life. Some three weeks ago, he vented on his blog about how he hates “being the only open gay guy in my school…” He also spoke about the “It’s Get Better” project, and felt that it was “not getting better theres 3 more years of highschool left, Iv been on 4 different anti -depressants, none of them worked. I’v been depressed since january, How fucking long is this going to last. People said “It gets better”. Its fucking bullshit.”

And he was bullied, as he posted just before the school year started: "Being open does not help at all. Yeah, someone will call me a fag. But one after the other, after the other ... I can tell on them ... Yeah. But they don't give a shit. They’ll come back after their suspension (fun day at home, free day at school) and continue calling me a faggot. I'm not ready."

Last month, Dan Savage, the man who started the  “It Gets Better” project, noted on the web site Slog about the death of Rodemeyer that “The point of the "It Gets Better" project is to give kids like Jamey Rodemeyer hope for their futures. But sometimes hope isn't enough. Sometimes the damage done by hate and by haters is simply too great. Sometimes the future seems too remote. And those are the times our hearts break.”

We’ve reached a point, I think, where we need to publically addresses this as human beings. This is not a political issue, nor is it a religion issue (though, sadly, it does factor in at times). It’s about doing what right for today’s gay youth, and not what’s best. Too many people, adults mostly, are afraid to help these kids because of another sort fear, mostly from people who are considered conservative. They’re afraid to speak out because they might lose their job or face opposition in their community due to the support of kids who are accepting their sexuality at much younger age and being open about it. 

We stand now at the crossroad of history, as more and more of today’s youth accept that their fellow students, friends, relatives are gay and that there is no shame in being that way. And more importantly, that being gay can’t be changed like a pair of shoes or shirt. 

And while “The Trevor Project” and the “It Gets Better” mission statements are the most well-known groups designed to help these youths navigate their teen years, but there are times when it is not enough. Maybe some will say that there was no way in helping either of the two young men, but I cannot accept or believe that. 

Both needed to tell them again and again that hope is there, that the life line to survival will always be there to help them. We must start in the home and then the schools. Prejudice is something that is taught, we are not born with it. It’s a learned activity, like talking.

We must give them hope and we must make sure that intolerance and bullying will no longer be acceptable. All of us, as human beings, must share the responsibility of making sure that when we send our children off to school, it will be a place of safety, of learning values that all of us are people of great feelings. Hurting and ganging up on someone, verbally abusing them because they are different is not a value anyone should be able to throw around without consequences. Cause and effect, folks, it’s a simple equation. 

We all, in the end, must take responsibility for our words and action. It’s the human thing to do.