To his many friends, Phillip was known as the boy who told everyone they’re beautiful. “He was fun, he was energetic, he was happy”, his mother said. Yet he saw no other option than committing suicide because he couldn’t take the anti-gay bullying anymore he had to deal with for years even though he was just 14. Bullying that was reported to his school by his parents but, as so often, nothing happened to make his situation better. Read on…
Tennessee, the state Phillip lived in, is even considering making the situation of kids like him worse by passing a law that would keep teachers from just mentioning the word gay, suffocating any attempt to counter the rampant anti-queer bullying in schools or teaching kids like Phillip they’re just fine. Or teaching straight kids that being queer doesn’t make you a lesser person. Because telling them that hating people for who they love would hurt their religious feelings. Great priorities.