A 14-year-old boy from Buffalo killed himself on Sunday, likely in response to bullying, just five months after he made a video contribution to the It Gets Better anti-bullying campaign. “People would just keep sending me hate, telling me that gay people go to hell,” Jamey Rodemeyer said in his YouTube clip, which has now been viewed over 100,000 times. “Just love yourself and you’re set. And I promise you, it’ll get better.” His parents said Jamey was constantly taunted at school about his perceived sexuality.
“People would say, you’re like a girl or whatever and then even some of them would say, ‘What are you, gay?’” his mother Tracy explained. “And he did not like when he was being called those things.”
The Rodemeyers said that Jamey’s first three weeks of high school seemed to be going better and that there was “no indication that he was in pain.” But upon finding him dead, they admitted that he likely just got better at hiding the abuse he faced. “He fooled everybody,” said Jamey’s father. “He put on a brave face and I wish he wouldn’t have.”
Here’s Jamey’s hopeful message from May:
Buffalo Teen Commits Suicide, Parents Say He was Bullied [NBC2 via HuffPo]
